KiKi Pitch Deck: Slide-by-Slide Breakdown

Introduction: The Social Network that Pays

KiKi entered the crowded social and dating app market in 2018 with a unique premise: instead of keeping users glued to their screens to maximize ad revenue, the app would pay users to meet in real life. This 10-slide deck was used during their time at 500 Startups in 2019 to secure $250,000 in seed funding. The presentation is a classic example of a 'traction-first' deck, where the business model and growth numbers do the heavy lifting to overcome the inherent skepticism surrounding new social networks.

Slide 1: Title and Hook

The cover slide features high-energy imagery of a party, immediately signaling the 'social' and 'fun' nature of the product. The tagline, "THE FIRST APP THAT PAYS YOU FOR HAVING FUN," is a bold hook. It also includes a smartphone mockup showing the UI, which features icons for coffee, drinks, and dining, grounding the abstract concept of 'fun' into specific, transactable real-world activities.

Slide 2: The Problem

KiKi identifies a massive market of "500M of Millennial and Z generation" who supposedly "hate traditional social apps." The slide breaks the problem down into three pillars: Bored , Time , and Money . While the slide is light on text, the implication is that current apps are time-wasters that offer no financial return to the user, leading to platform fatigue.

Slide 3: The Solution

The solution slide defines KiKi as "the first social app that shares the revenue with users." It lists two primary benefits: "Save money" and "Share experiences." By framing the app as a way to monetize one's social life, KiKi attempts to differentiate itself from Tinder or Bumble, which are often viewed as purely transactional or gamified time-sinks.

Slide 4: Business Model - User Side

This slide is critical for understanding how the 'paying users' mechanic actually works. It shows a UI where users can select activities with associated costs: Café ($5), Cine ($10), Copa ($15), Cena ($20), and Viaje ($100) . The flow indicates that when a transaction occurs, the "User [receives] 70%" and "KiKi keeps 30% of all transactions." This clarifies that KiKi isn't just giving money away; it is acting as a marketplace for social experiences where the 'host' or 'inviter' is compensated.

Slide 5: Business Model - Merchant Side

KiKi introduces a second revenue stream targeting local businesses. By partnering with Restaurants, Music Festivals, Coffee Shops, and Cinemas , KiKi charges a "$30 monthly fee per merchant + 10% of sales." This positioning turns the app into a lead-generation tool for the hospitality and entertainment industries, diversifying its income beyond user-to-user fees.

Slide 6: Traction

This is the 'money slide.' It displays a bar chart of quarterly revenue growth from 2018 to 2019. The figures are:

Q2 2018: $1.6K · Q3 2018: $9K · Q4 2018: $30K · Q1 2019: $97.5K · Q2 2019: $205K

The slide also highlights "25% Growth MoM." For a seed-stage startup, showing a jump from $1.6k to over $200k in annual run-rate within a year is a powerful indicator of product-market fit.

Slide 7: Market Disruption

To help investors categorize the company, KiKi uses a 'Comparison' framework. It aligns itself with famous disruptors: Hotels vs. Airbnb , Retailers vs. Amazon , and Taxi vs. Uber . It then places Dating vs. KiKi at the bottom. This suggests that KiKi is doing to the dating/social industry what Uber did to transportation—introducing a gig-economy element to personal interactions.

Slide 8: Market Size

Using an iceberg graphic, KiKi visualizes its opportunity. Above the water are competitors like Tinder, Happn, CoffeeMeetsBagel, Airbnb, and Groupon . KiKi is represented as the massive bulk of the iceberg below the surface. The slide claims a "$20 BILLION MARKET," though it does not provide a source or a breakdown of how that figure was calculated (TAM/SAM/SOM).

Slide 9: Team & Advisors

The team slide is heavy on social proof. It features Chris (CEO) , described as a serial entrepreneur, and Manuel (COO) , with a background at KPMG. The middle row is dedicated to their heavy-hitting investors: 500 Startups and Tim Draper . The bottom row lists advisors from Adobe, the White House, and Nokia/Beats . For a $250k round, this level of advisory and institutional backing is exceptionally strong.

Slide 10: Contact and Call to Action

The final slide uses the hashtag #LetsKiKi and provides the CEO's direct email and phone number. It is a standard closing slide that maintains the brand's pink-and-white visual identity.

What Works in This Deck

The strongest element of this deck is the Traction Slide (Slide 6) . In the social media space, where many startups fail to monetize for years, KiKi showed immediate and scaling revenue. By proving that users were willing to pay for these experiences early on, they de-risked the investment significantly. Additionally, the Business Model (Slides 4 & 5) is remarkably clear. Many founders struggle to explain complex revenue-sharing mechanics, but KiKi used simple icons and percentages to make it instantly understandable.

The inclusion of Tim Draper and 500 Startups (Slide 9) acts as a powerful 'trust signal.' For a small $250k seed round, having one of the world's most famous venture capitalists (Draper) associated with the project suggests that the due diligence has already been done by experts.

What Is Missing

The most glaring omission is the Ask Slide . There is no mention of how much money they are looking for, what the valuation is, or what the 'milestones' for the next 18 months look like. While this information is often discussed in person, including it in the deck helps set the stage for the negotiation.

Furthermore, the deck lacks Unit Economics . While we see total revenue, we don't see the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). In social apps, growth is often expensive. Investors would want to know if that $205K in revenue cost $300K in marketing to acquire. There is also no Product Roadmap or Technology slide. It’s unclear if there is any proprietary matching algorithm or if the app is purely a manual marketplace.

What a Founder Should Copy

Founders should emulate the visual simplicity of this deck. There are no walls of text. Each slide has one job and one clear takeaway. The use of the 'Iceberg' and 'Disruption' analogies (Slides 7 & 8) are excellent ways to communicate a complex vision using familiar mental models. If you are building a marketplace, the Revenue Split slide (Slide 4) is a perfect template for showing how money flows through your ecosystem without over-complicating the visual design.