pitch unfairly

Arcade · Fundraising

LinkedIn, 2004. Pitched unfairly, 2026.

Promised. Delivered. Repeat. Same story, same numbers. Rebuilt the way we'd pitch it today.

  • $10M Series B
  • 38 slides
  • Greylock
Play the 2026 deck Steal the structure
2004 Series B deck

LinkedIn

Promised. Delivered. Repeat.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

38 slides→12

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Play the 2026 deck

Then · 2004 · 38 slides

The original

  1. Cover: "Find and contact the people you need through the people you already trust"
  2. Professional people search 2.0: ads, listings, subscriptions
  3. Problem: yellow pages, resume databases, directories all fail
  4. Internet 2.0: from directories to networks
  5. Analogies: eBay, PayPal, Google, then LinkedIn vs Monster
  6. Network first: PayPal waited for 4M users, now $400MM+
  7. Series A growth commitment vs actual growth
  8. Market leadership: 54% of professional network users
  9. Competition, barriers to entry, partners
  10. Strong results with less than $4M spent
  11. Network enables revenue, market sizes, product mockups
  12. Revenue is near-term: pricing and launch dates
  13. High margins, assumptions, profitable in 2005
  14. Team, board and investors
  15. Thesis wrap-up, then the cover again

Original: Reid Hoffman, annotated

Now · 2026 · 12 slides

What we changed

  • Promised flips to deliveredFour Series A promises sit on cards that turn over to the result with a stamp: about 400K members promised, 930K+ delivered.
  • The tagline becomes a graph"Your network is bigger than you think" grows ring by ring, counting each degree, and a toggle adds Network Plus's fourth.
  • Three revenue streams light upAds, listings, and subscriptions light one by one over the free network. Tap one to isolate its price and launch date.
  • Thesis first, thesis lastReid's own advice, applied: the thesis moves from slide 36 to slide 2, and the close merges the ask with the cover line.

Steal the structure

Pitch your company like LinkedIn did.

  1. 01CoverThe thesis as one sentence a stranger could repeat.
  2. 02Investment thesisWhat investors must believe, in three lines.
  3. 03Steer into the objectionAnswer the scariest question (no revenue) before the product.
  4. 04ProblemName how it is done today and why each way fails.
  5. 05Pitch by analogyLine up winners investors already understand, ending on you.
  6. 06The insightShow the mechanism that makes it big, not a claim.
  7. 07Why now, why firstOne precedent that proves the order of operations.
  8. 08Promised vs deliveredLast round's promises next to the results.
  9. 09Market positionYour share of the category, with the field named.
  10. 10Path to profitProjections conservative enough to pass the blink test.
  11. 11Team and backersWho executes, and who already bet on them.
  12. 12Ask and thesisThe amount, what it unlocks, and the thesis left on screen.

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