Pitch Deck Analysis of Manpacks

Though no longer in existence, Manpacks was a subscription service for male essentials such as underwear, razors, condoms, and grooming products founded in 2009. Their fun and lively pitch deck helped them to raise $500,000 in funding in 2011 [1].

           Manpacks title slide was simple and straightforward with a picture of a pair of men's underwear briefs and the tagline "Fixing Guy Problems." They included an email at the bottom that was wisely called [email protected]. Immediately, the message was they made life easier for men and they had something to do with underwear [2].

           The typical male uses a single underwear for about seven years before replacing, though experts recommend replacing underwear every 6-12 months [3]. Studies have shown that men only buy underwear for 17 years of their lives, during times most often associated with dating, while the rest of their lives, underwear is bought by mothers, girlfriends, partners, or wives [4].  Manpacks catered to the underwear buying market which they addressed in their deck with a stick figure in "tightie whities" as a "girl repellant." The following image demonstrated the stick figure in a colorful pair of underwear surrounded by beautiful women and a pop-up that said: "now with condoms." Manpacks addressed why a man would want to buy from them with three reasons "limited time offers, the discovery of new products, and women." Their slides demonstrated a compelling story of taking the pain points of getting out of the rut of wearing the same type of underwear, trying new products, and having nice new underwear to attract women

Manpacks effectively demonstrated a screenshot of their website where you could customize your subscription pack to contain other products such as socks and condoms.  However, they did not clearly show that the subscription boxes were an every three-month delivery, the subscription price, or the revenue model.   Additionally, their slides did not address the size of the market and the market need. They lacked other areas, such as their go to market strategy, competitive analysis, or three-year projections. Part of their go-to-market strategy was to send free condoms to fellow startup companies to attract support. They hypothesize that startup team members are too busy to shop for essentials, so that startups would be a great target market of Manpacks [5].

Manpacks effectively provided a social proof slide with copies of funny social media testimonials and a list of their media mentions. Their team slide demonstrated who the founders and key players were, along with relevant work history. Their ask slide was clear and concise, showing their request of $500,000 and that 70% had already been raised. The humorous addition of investors gets a free year of underwear made Manpacks stand out.

         Manpacks was successful with this pitch deck in their simple, humorous message that caught the investors' attention. If they had not executed such an entertaining pitch deck, I am certain their funding would have fallen flat based on a lack of details.

Works Cited.

1.           Crunchbase. Manpacks. [cited 2021 April 10]; Available from: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/manpacks/company_financials.

2.           Lee, A. 30 Legendary Startup Pitch Decks And What You Can Learn From Them (+10 Free Templates). 2021 [cited 2021 April 10]; Available from: https://piktochart.com/blog/startup-pitch-decks-what-you-can-learn/#Manpacks.

3.           Osborn, J. How Often Should You Buy New Underwear? 2020 [cited 2021 April 10]; Available from: https://manofmany.com/fashion/mens-fashion-advice/how-often-should-you-buy-new-underwear#:~:text=It's%20been%20said%20that%20the,once%20every%206%2D12%20months.

4.           Lapowsky, I. Average man buys his own underwear for just 17 years of his life - and only if he's got a hot date. 2009 [cited 2021 April 10]; https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/average-man-buys-underwear-17-years-life-hot-date-article-1.417299

5.           Ha, A. Manpacks Launches Its Startup Perks Program with Free Condoms. 2021 [cited 2021 April 10]; Available from: https://techcrunch.com/2012/05/24/manpacks-startup-perks-condoms/.