pitch unfairly

Cheat Codes · Pitch decks

LinkedIn, 2004. Pitched unfairly, 2026.

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

Template: Series B pitch deck

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

LinkedIn

Promised. Delivered. Repeat.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

38 slides→12

It's a live deck. Press start, then scroll or use the arrow keys, or play it full screen.

Play the 2026 deck

The LinkedIn pitch deck, slide by slide

Every slide opens the live deck right where it is.

  1. LinkedIn deck, slide 1: Find the people you need through the people you already trust. 01Find the people you need through the people you already trust.
  2. LinkedIn deck, slide 2: People search is going 2.0, and we lead it. 02People search is going 2.0, and we lead it.
  3. LinkedIn deck, slide 3: One free network, three ways to get paid. 03One free network, three ways to get paid.
  4. LinkedIn deck, slide 4: There's no trusted way to find a professional online. 04There's no trusted way to find a professional online.
  5. LinkedIn deck, slide 5: Every 2.0 winner reads the network, not the claim. 05Every 2.0 winner reads the network, not the claim.
  6. LinkedIn deck, slide 6: Your network is bigger than you think. 06Your network is bigger than you think.
  7. LinkedIn deck, slide 7: Network first. Then revenue. 07Network first. Then revenue.
  8. LinkedIn deck, slide 8: What we promised, and what we delivered. 08What we promised, and what we delivered.
  9. LinkedIn deck, slide 9: We have more than half the market. 09We have more than half the market.
  10. LinkedIn deck, slide 10: The Series B gets us to profit in 2005. 10The Series B gets us to profit in 2005.
  11. LinkedIn deck, slide 11: People who've scaled networks before, backed by Sequoia. 11People who've scaled networks before, backed by Sequoia.
  12. LinkedIn deck, slide 12: $10M to turn the network into revenue. 12$10M to turn the network into revenue.

Then · 2004 · 38 slides

The original

See the original 2004 deckReid Hoffman, annotated
  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

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. 01 Cover The thesis as one sentence a stranger could repeat.
  2. 02 Investment thesis What investors must believe, in three lines.
  3. 03 Steer into the objection Answer the scariest question (no revenue) before the product.
  4. 04 Problem Name how it is done today and why each way fails.
  5. 05 Pitch by analogy Line up winners investors already understand, ending on you.
  6. 06 The insight Show the mechanism that makes it big, not a claim.
  7. 07 Why now, why first One precedent that proves the order of operations.
  8. 08 Promised vs delivered Last round's promises next to the results.
  9. 09 Market position Your share of the category, with the field named.
  10. 10 Path to profit Projections conservative enough to pass the blink test.
  11. 11 Team and backers Who executes, and who already bet on them.
  12. 12 Ask and thesis The amount, what it unlocks, and the thesis left on screen.

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