Wayfold Series A
Travel startup pitch deck with take rate and seasonality shown
Every travel investor tests the same thing, which is what happens in February. Wayfold is invented, and its eleven slides put two years of monthly bookings on one axis and then spend a whole slide on how the trough gets paid for.
Every slide, in order
The whole deck as it renders, one slide after another. Read it the way the audience would.
The structure
What each slide is doing, so you can reuse the order even with different content.
- Slide 1cover
- Bookings and take rate on the cover, because a marketplace is judged on both at once.
- Slide 2intro
- Why an operator needs a marketplace at all, argued from how they sell today.
- Slide 3pillars
- The three traveller segments, because they book at different times and at different prices.
- Slide 4metrics
- Bookings, take rate and operator count together, since none of the three means anything alone.
- Slide 5metrics
- Two years of monthly bookings on one axis, so the seasonality cannot be read as growth.
- Slide 6comparison
- What it costs to sign an operator on each channel, because operator supply is the real growth constraint.
- Slide 7process
- How an operator gets from signup to a first departure, with the number that drops at each step.
- Slide 8framework
- How a seasonal marketplace pays for its trough, in four parts, since this is the diligence question.
- Slide 9pricing
- The take rate ladder, so the blended 14 percent on the metrics slide can be checked.
- Slide 10investment
- Eight million in four cards, weighted to the supply funnel step that the process slide named.
- Slide 11closing
- Close on the monthly data, since seasonality is what an investor will want to check themselves.
Slide by slide
Slide one puts bookings and take rate on the cover. Slide two argues why a small operator cannot sell its own seats. Slide three separates three traveller segments by lead time and ticket. Slide four is bookings, take rate and operator count in one row. Slide five is two years of monthly bookings as an area chart. Slide six costs operator acquisition by channel. Slide seven is the operator funnel from signup to a first departure. Slide eight answers seasonality in four parts. Slide nine is the take rate ladder by booking source. Slide ten splits eight million across supply, onboarding, demand and the payments float. Slide eleven offers the monthly file including the two cities that closed.
How to adapt this deck
A business selling its own tours rather than other people is not a marketplace, so the take rate ladder becomes a margin per departure slide and the operator funnel disappears entirely. A platform working with hotels rather than tour operators replaces lead time segments with length of stay, because the seasonality is shaped by school terms rather than by weather. A company raising after a full recovery year can move the seasonality chart to the back and lead with repeat rate, since at that point the question is whether travellers return rather than whether the business survives February.
What this audience asks for
UN Tourism publishes the arrivals and receipts series most travel investors use as a market reference, and the Australian national tourism body publishes visitor research that breaks demand down by month and by segment. Both are worth reading before a seasonality slide is drawn, because both show that the seasonal shape is a property of the destination and the traveller type rather than of the company. A deck that says which of its segments is seasonal and which is not has already said something more useful than a market size.
What makes this deck work
Seasonality is shown rather than smoothed
Slide five plots both years by month on the same axis, so a 2.5 times peak to trough swing is visible and the February to February growth of 1.4 times can be read off it. A travel deck that reports annual totals is hiding the only shape an investor wants to see.
One slide answers the question the chart raises
Slide eight is four things that pay for February: lead time, locals, hemispheres and an almost entirely variable cost base. It follows the chart immediately, which means the objection never has to be raised out loud in the room.
Supply cost is broken out by channel
Slide six shows operator referral at zero cost and 81 percent still active at twelve months against paid search at 640 dollars and 41 percent. Since supply is the growth constraint, the ask on slide ten spends 40 percent on the channels that column proves work.
Questions people ask
What goes in a travel startup pitch deck?
Why the supplier needs you, the traveller segments, bookings and take rate together, the seasonality chart, the cost of acquiring supply, the onboarding funnel, the answer to seasonality, pricing and the ask. This example uses eleven slides and spends two of them on the off season.
How do I present seasonality without scaring investors?
Show both years on one chart and put the mitigation on the next slide. This deck reports a 2.5 times peak to trough swing and then names four structural answers to it. Investors discount a seasonal business they discover; they price one that explains itself.
Should a marketplace deck show gross bookings or revenue?
Both, in the same sentence. This example says 11 million dollars of bookings at a 14 percent take rate and puts net revenue of 1.54 million in the slide description. Gross bookings alone reads as inflation, and net revenue alone hides the size of the market being served.
What is a normal take rate for a travel marketplace?
It varies with who brings the traveller. This deck charges 11 percent when the operator brings their own customer and 18 when the platform does, blending to 14. A single flat take rate usually means either the operators are unhappy or the platform is not earning it.
How many slides for a travel Series A?
Ten to twelve. This one is eleven. Destination photography is the usual filler in this category and the space is better spent on the onboarding funnel, since supply is what limits growth in nearly every travel marketplace at this stage.
What do investors ask about operator supply?
How many signed operators ever take a booking. This deck answers with a five step funnel where 51 in a hundred reach a first booking and 44 are still active at 90 days, and then sizes a quarter of the round at lifting that first number to 65.
Build your own in about a minute
The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.
Make one like thisOther presentation examples
Consumer app pitch deck example with retention cohorts in full
A consumer investor assumes a retention chart has been curated until the bad cohort is on it. Wakelorn is invented, and its ten slides show every monthly cohort including the paid install month that went backwards, because leaving it out would flatter the average.
Fitness app pitch deck example with a churn curve
Every fitness app deck claims engagement, and every fitness investor has learned to ask for churn by cohort month instead. Liftwright is invented, and it puts 6 percent on the cover and then plots three cohorts so the effect of each retention feature can be seen separately.
Beauty brand pitch deck example for a skincare line
A beauty investor has seen a hundred serums in a nice bottle and is looking for the one thing that is expensive to copy. Selvane is invented, and its ten slides put a registered clinical trial at the centre and cost it at 90 cents a bottle so the claim can be checked.
Want the steps in the builder? Read Make a pitch presentation with AI, then Add charts, maps and diagrams to slides. For everything this generator can do, see the presentation maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .