Mattermark’s 2014 Series A deck is a masterclass in demonstrating product-market fit through granular revenue segmentation. By September 2014, the company had scaled to over $1.5 million in revenue, with 54% coming from venture capital customers (Slide 5). The deck effectively identifies a specific pain point—the lack of structured, searchable business intelligence (Slide 2)—and positions Mattermark as the solution for 'Business People' across consulting, investment, and R&D (Slide 7). With a team boasting deep engineering roots at Microsoft and high-level sales experience at Dow Jones and Bl…
Key takeaways
- The core problem identified is the lack of a reliable way for professionals to ask business questions supported by structured data (Slide 2).
- Mattermark quantifies its market opportunity at $3 billion within existing verticals like VC, private equity, and sales (Slide 4).
- Revenue growth is shown as a steep upward curve, reaching approximately $1.5 million by September 2014 (Slide 5).
- Venture Capital is the dominant customer segment, accounting for 54% of total revenue as of the deck's publication (Slide 5).
- The product roadmap aims to index 3 million companies by September 2015, a significant jump from the sub-500k level in mid-2014 (Slide 8).
- The team slides highlight specific industry pedigree, including a CTO with 10 years at Microsoft and a VP of Sales from Dow Jones (Slides 9-10).
- The deck uses a 'Business People' catch-all to define its broad target audience across M&A, recruiting, and R&D (Slide 7).
- A visual comparison of Google search results vs. structured data needs illustrates the inefficiency of current search tools for business intelligence (Slide 3).
Mattermark Series A Teardown: Scaling the Data Engine
The Mattermark Series A deck, dated September 2014, represents a pivotal moment for a company that sought to become the 'Google for business information.' At this stage, the company was moving beyond its reputation as a tool exclusively for venture capitalists and attempting to prove it could capture a much larger slice of the professional services market. The deck is lean, data-heavy, and focuses heavily on traction and team pedigree.
Slide 1: Title and Vision
The cover slide introduces the Mattermark logo and the tagline: "organizing the world’s business information." This is a direct nod to Google’s mission statement, immediately signaling the scale of the founders' ambitions. The date, September 2014, places this deck in the heart of the mid-2010s SaaS boom.
Slide 2: The Problem
Mattermark defines the problem as a lack of "effective, reliable" ways to ask business questions. The slide lists five specific pain points: empty CRMs, redundant data collection, manual spreadsheet creation, the high cost of consultants, and the unstructured nature of PDFs and reports. By highlighting that "99% of knowledge workers can’t afford consultants," they position their software as a democratizing force for high-end business intelligence.
Slide 3: The Search Gap
This slide uses a screenshot of a Google search for "startups growing headcount 20% month over month." The results shown are articles and Wikipedia entries—useful for reading, but useless for data analysis. This visual effectively demonstrates that general-purpose search engines cannot answer specific, data-driven business queries, creating the 'why now' for a structured database like Mattermark.
Slide 4: Market Opportunity
The deck identifies a "$3 Billion revenue opp. in existing verticals." It breaks this down into 30,000 VC & Private Equity professionals and 568,000 Sales Managers & Professionals. The focus here is on "Prospecting & Lead Qualification," which suggests that the company saw its most immediate path to revenue in helping sales and investment teams find targets more efficiently.
Slide 5: Revenue by Use Case
This is arguably the most important slide in the deck. It shows a stacked area chart of revenue from July 2013 to September 2014. The growth is exponential, ending at approximately $1.5 million in total revenue. A key callout states that "54% of revenue comes from VC customers." While this shows a concentration risk, the chart also shows the growing slivers of other segments like Business Development and Private Equity, proving that the product is beginning to translate to other markets.
Slide 6: The Decision Cycle
This slide presents a circular flow of business questions: "Who should we do business with?", "What new vertical should we enter?", "How do we optimize our supply chain?", and "Who do we need to hire/acquire?" By placing Mattermark at the center of these questions, the deck argues that their data is foundational to the entire corporate lifecycle, not just the initial investment phase.
Slide 7: Target Audience Expansion
Titled "a.k.a BUSINESS PEOPLE," this slide is a strategic attempt to broaden the brand. It lists Management Consulting, Investment Banking, Business Development, and Research & Development. The background text, though faded, mentions suppliers, manufacturers, and equities, suggesting a long-term play to index the entire global economy.
Slide 8: Data Scale (PACE)
To support the revenue growth, Mattermark needed to show a corresponding growth in their underlying data. This slide shows the number of companies indexed, with a projection to reach 3 million companies by September 2015. The chart shows a massive planned acceleration in data ingestion starting in late 2014, which likely served as the primary justification for the Series A capital infusion.
Slide 9: Team - CTO & Cofounder
The deck highlights Kevin Morrill, the CTO. His slide emphasizes a 10-year career at Microsoft, specifically as a Lead Program Manager in the Developer Division. This establishes technical credibility and the ability to build complex, scalable systems—essential for a company whose product is a massive, automated data crawler.
Slide 10: Team - VP of Sales
The final slide in this set features Daniel Hayter, VP of Sales. His pedigree at Dow Jones (Head of Institutional Sales) and Bloomberg (Managing Director) is meant to reassure investors that Mattermark has the 'adult supervision' and industry connections necessary to sell to high-value financial institutions. Mentioning $60 million in revenue generated at Bloomberg provides a concrete metric for his past performance.
What Works in This Deck
Granular Traction: Slide 5 doesn't just show a line going up; it shows who is paying. This level of transparency builds trust with investors and proves that the company understands its own unit economics and customer segments.
Clear Competitive Moat: By contrasting themselves with Google (Slide 3), they clearly define what they are NOT. They aren't a search engine for articles; they are a query engine for structured data. This distinction is vital for a high-valuation tech play.
Strategic Hiring: The inclusion of a VP of Sales with Bloomberg and Dow Jones experience (Slide 10) directly addresses the market expansion goals mentioned in Slide 7. It shows the company isn't just dreaming of the $3 billion market; they have hired the person who has already conquered it.
What Is Missing from This Deck
The Ask: In the 10 slides provided, there is no mention of how much capital is being raised or the specific terms of the round. While this may have been on a subsequent slide, its absence in the core narrative leaves the 'so what' unanswered.
Unit Economics: While revenue growth is clear, there is no mention of Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) or Lifetime Value (LTV). For a Series A SaaS company, investors typically want to see that the growth is sustainable and profitable at scale.
Product Interface: The deck describes the problem and the data, but it doesn't show the actual product interface. Investors need to see how a user interacts with the data to understand the 'stickiness' of the platform.
What a Founder Should Copy
The 'Problem' Visual: Using a screenshot of a failed search (Slide 3) is a powerful way to illustrate a gap in the market. It’s much more effective than a bulleted list of complaints.
Segmented Revenue Charts: If you have multiple customer types, use a stacked area chart like Slide 5. It allows you to tell two stories at once: total growth and market diversification.
Pedigree Mapping: When presenting your team, don't just list titles. List specific achievements that relate to your current mission, such as the revenue figures and deal sizes mentioned on Slide 10.
Frequently asked questions
- What was Mattermark's primary revenue source at the time of this deck?
- According to Slide 5, 54% of Mattermark's revenue came from Venture Capital customers. The revenue chart also shows contributions from Business Development, Private Equity, Corporate Development, Consulting & Research, Angel Investing, Academia, Merchant Banking, and Investment Banking, though VC is clearly the largest single driver.
- How did Mattermark define the problem they were solving?
- Slide 2 states the problem is that there is no effective, reliable way for professionals to get credible intelligence supported by data. It specifically notes that CRMs come empty, knowledge workers can't afford consultants, and existing reports (PDFs) are not structured or searchable.
- What was the projected scale of Mattermark's database?
- Slide 8 shows a growth chart for 'PACE,' indicating the company intended to reach a database of 3 million companies by September 2015. The chart shows a significant inflection point in data acquisition starting around October 2014.
- Who were the key team members featured in the deck?
- The deck highlights Kevin Morrill, CTO & Cofounder, noting his 10-year tenure at Microsoft and previous startup experience (Slide 9). It also features Daniel Hayter, VP of Sales, emphasizing his background at Dow Jones (overseeing a $270 million business) and Bloomberg (Slide 10).
- What is the 'Business People' slide intended to convey?
- Slide 7 uses the term 'a.k.a BUSINESS PEOPLE' to aggregate various professional roles—Management Consulting, Investment Banking, Business Development, and R&D. This suggests that while they started with VCs, their total addressable market includes anyone making high-stakes business decisions.
