LincSphere Pitch Deck Teardown: A Personal CRM Focused

LincSphere Pitch Deck Analysis

LincSphere enters the crowded CRM market with a specific focus on the individual professional rather than the enterprise. The deck emphasizes the 'personal' in personal CRM, focusing on the mechanics of networking that happen outside of a standard sales funnel. By targeting the 'relationship' rather than the 'prospect,' LincSphere attempts to carve out a niche for users who rely on referrals and introductions to drive business.

Slide 1: Title and Value Proposition

The cover slide introduces the company name and a clear, descriptive tagline: "Helping You Build Relationships, Not Prospect Lists." The logo features two stylized figures shaking hands over a horizon line, reinforcing the theme of human connection. This slide establishes the brand identity as a tool for networking rather than cold outreach.

Slide 5: The LinkedIn Context

Slide 5 displays a standard LinkedIn connection request interface. The text overlay states, "Maybe you send out some connection requests on LinkedIn as well." This slide serves to ground the problem in a familiar user behavior, suggesting that while LinkedIn is the starting point for connections, it may not be the optimal place for managing the resulting relationships.

Slide 9: The Networking Problem Space

This slide lists the "KEY ACTIVITIES" involved in building a strong network. These include:

Storing contact info · Learning more about them · Organizing them into groups · Remembering to stay in touch · Recording your activities · Finding ways to help them · Sending referrals · Making good introductions

The slide concludes that a technology solution is needed to accomplish all these actions efficiently, setting the stage for the LincSphere product reveal.

Slide 13: The Dashboard Interface

Slide 13 provides the first look at the mobile application. The "Network Strength" dashboard for a user named Ron Johnson shows a pie chart categorizing contacts by connection level: Friend, Trusted Contact, Acquaintance, and Never Met. Below the chart are six primary action icons: Scan Cards, My Contacts, Add a Contact, Make Intro, Send Referral, and Follow-Up List. The UI is clean and utility-focused.

Slide 17: Follow-Up Customization

This slide shows the "Edit Contact" screen with a "Follow-Up" modal open. Users can select frequencies including:

Weekly · 2X per month · Monthly · Every Other Month · Quarterly · 2x per year · Yearly · One specific date · No Follow-up

This level of granularity supports the company's claim that the tool is designed for long-term relationship maintenance rather than short-term sales cycles.

Slide 22: Interaction Logging

Slide 22 illustrates the "Create New Interaction" screen. It allows users to log specific details such as the date, time, "Who Helped Who?" , and the "Activity Type." A notes section is included for qualitative data. This feature addresses the 'Recording your activities' requirement mentioned on slide 9.

Slide 26: Referral Management

The "Send a Referral" screen shown on slide 26 is a core differentiator. It includes fields for:

Who the referral is being sent to · Who the referral is (the contact being referred) · What this referral is looking for · What I told them about you

This structured approach to referrals suggests a workflow that is more professional and trackable than a standard email introduction.

Slide 31: Competitive Advantage

LincSphere uses a standard feature comparison table to stack itself against Contactually, Refer.com, and Nudge. According to the chart, LincSphere is the only product that offers:

Double-opt-in introductions · Geographical view of your network · Business card scanning via camera

It also claims to be superior to Refer.com and Nudge in providing follow-up ideas and tracking metrics, while matching Contactually in visual analytics and follow-up reminders.

Slide 34: Traction and Interest

The traction slide provides specific dates and figures. The beta ran from April-July 2016 , and as of July 1, 2017 , the app had 260+ users. The slide notes that acquisition has been entirely word-of-mouth. It also lists four points of "Other Interest," including a networking organization in Philly with 300 members and LinkedIn coaches with a list of 6,000 potential users.

Slide 37: Exit Strategy

The deck concludes its narrative with an exit strategy. It identifies LinkedIn/Microsoft and Salesforce as likely acquirers. The argument for Microsoft is that LincSphere fills a gap in business networking and complements their recent productivity app acquisitions. For Salesforce, the deck suggests LincSphere could be a personal networking tool for individual salespeople, expanding Salesforce's reach beyond the corporate CRM level.

What LincSphere Does Well

The deck is highly effective at defining a specific workflow for networking. By breaking down the 'key activities' of networking on slide 9 and then showing the corresponding app features in subsequent slides, the founders demonstrate a deep understanding of their target user's pain points. The inclusion of a double-opt-in introduction feature is a sophisticated touch that resonates with high-level professional networkers who value privacy and etiquette.

The competitive matrix on slide 31 is also well-executed. Rather than just listing generic features, it focuses on specific functional gaps in the market, such as the geographical network view and the 'who helped who' interaction tracking. This makes the 'why now' and 'why us' arguments more compelling for an investor looking for a unique product angle.

What is Missing from the LincSphere Deck

While the product story is strong, the business story is incomplete in this 10-slide selection. The most glaring omissions are:

Team Slide: There is no information about the founders' backgrounds, technical expertise, or previous successes in the networking or CRM space. · Financials and Business Model: The deck mentions 'subscriptions' on slide 34 but does not detail the pricing tiers, projected revenue, or customer acquisition costs (CAC). · The Ask: There is no slide indicating how much capital the company is seeking to raise, the valuation, or how the funds will be allocated. · Market Size (TAM/SAM/SOM): While the deck identifies a problem, it does not quantify the total addressable market of professional networkers or the specific segment they are targeting. · Roadmap: Beyond the mention of Android and Web versions on slide 34, there is no clear timeline for future feature development or market expansion.

Founder Takeaways

Focus on Workflow: Founders building tools for specific professional behaviors should follow LincSphere's lead in mapping features directly to a list of 'key activities.' This proves the product was built with intent rather than just a collection of features.

Quantify Interest: Even if you don't have thousands of users, listing specific organizations or influencers who have expressed interest (as seen on slide 34) provides a form of social proof that is more valuable than generic growth projections.

Be Specific About Competition: Don't just say you are 'better' than the competition. Use a feature matrix to show exactly where the functional gaps lie. LincSphere's focus on 'double-opt-in' as a differentiator is a great example of finding a small but significant feature that competitors have overlooked.

Avoid Speculative Exits: While it is tempting to list Microsoft and Salesforce as acquirers, doing so without a clear path to that acquisition can sometimes appear naive. It is often better to focus on the growth of the business itself rather than who might buy it in five years.