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This presentation startup has a new trick for disrupting PowerPoint
Pitch adds a clever way to embed video recordings into slide decks.
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Presentation apps have tried practically everything to gain an edge over Microsoft PowerPoint. Theyāve given their software away for free (Google Slides, Apple Keynote). Theyāve focused on simple formatting (Ludus,Ā Paste,Ā Beautiful.ai). Theyāve positioned themselves as virtual meeting enhancers (Prezi,Ā Mmhmm).
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Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder [Photo: courtesy of Pitch]
Now, a startup calledĀ Pitch has come up with a more novel idea: Itās letting users embed pre-recorded videos inside of their presentations, with customizable video sizes, shapes, and positioning for each slide. One slide, for instance, might show the presenter as a small chat bubble above a relevant data point, while the next slide might have the presenter occupying half the screen. Users can record separate videos for each slide, and can also assign recordings to other members of their team.Alongside the new recording features, Pitch also recently launched analytics tools for tracking the number of views for each presentation (and, in the future, seeing how much time people spent on each slide). CEO and co-founder Christian Reber hopes these kinds of features will make Pitch more useful for remote work and finally help pull people away from PowerPoint.
āThe reason people are sticking to existing tools for quite a few decades nowāor sticking to PowerPointāis that no one has really entered this market in a way that was compelling to PowerPoint users,ā he says.
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A NEW KIND OF SLIDE
Pitch has been around since 2018, when itĀ launched in a private betaĀ with a small number of businesses and promptly raised $19 million in Series A funding. Reber, who previously had co-founded the popular to-do list app Wunderlist andĀ sold it to Microsoft, billed Pitch as āa presentation tool for the Slack generation.ā
The appās public launch came in October 2020. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Pitch positioned itself as aĀ collaboration tool for teams, pointing to features like the built-in video chat and the ability to pull in live data from Google Sheets. Pitch isĀ free for individual use, and costs $8 per month for extra features such as analytics, granular access controls, unbranded PDF exports, and a stock image library.
Today, Pitchās scope has expanded a bit. Tomaž Å tolfa, the startupās head of presentation experience, still says Pitch is useful for teams that want to present updates asynchronously, but the company is also turning to sales and fundraising as core uses.
The new recording features tie into those focus areas. A sales representative or startup founder, for instance, might use video to create personalized introductions for each recipient, or to make sure everyone who sees the presentation gets the same messaging.
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[Image: courtesy of Pitch]
āAnything you can do to create a personal touchāa deck showing your face, talking through the problem, talking through the solutionsāthatās a good entry point,ā Å tolfa says.Pitch isnāt alone in offering recordable presentation tools. The closest equivalent is Mmhmmās recording feature, which like Pitch allows users to record videos for each slide and to choose between multiple ātakesā for each one. Prezi also offers aĀ recording function, and you can also use screen capture software such asĀ DescriptĀ orĀ LoomĀ to record video on top of other presentation apps.
Pitchās approach is a bit different in that the actual presentations are still front-and-center. The presenterās video can be just a small bubble on part of the screen, and it can switch to different sizes, shapes, and positions for each frame. As a result, creating a presentation with video isnāt much different than creating one with static images and text; the video is just another element to be dragged and dropped onto the screen.
āOne of our real goals here was to just bring this barrier to entry into producing some really high-quality contentāfor whatever type of communication you might want to do with your presentationādown to the bare minimum,ā Å tolfa says.
TAKING ON POWERPOINT
Pitchās recording features alone probably wonāt topple PowerPoint, but Reber says theyāre just the beginning of a broader effort to create more dynamic presentations.
āIf you look at the form of presentationsāand we know itās traditionally unsexyāitās a really meaningful format to deliver information in a fast, efficient and exciting way,ā he says.
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Over the next couple of years, Pitch aims to build a community around its presentation creatorsāan idea that sounds inspired by Notionās success with user-made templatesāand add more advanced charting features. It also wants to launch plug-ins and custom embeds, allowing users to display more kinds of live data directly inside of Pitch, and itās working on a way to turn Pitch presentations into freestanding websites.
Those types of features may end up stretching the definition of what a presentation is, but thatās the point. In the same way that apps like Notion and Coda areĀ upending the concept of a document, Pitch believes it can disrupt the presentation without straying too far from the overall format. That might be what finally gets people to rethink their reliance on PowerPoint in the first place.
āWe know that the format of presentations is actually good,ā Reber says. āThe process behind making and sharing them is whatās broken.ā