Industry Insights

The global diamond market size was valued at USD 87.31 billion in 2018 and is predicted to
grow at a CAGR of 3.0% from 2019 to 2030. The growth of the industry can be mainly attributed
to the rising demand from jewelry application especially in emerging economies in Asia Pacific
like India and China.
The value chain of the industry involves upstream, midstream, and downstream processes. The
upstream process involves exploration, production, and sorting of rough diamonds. The
midstream process involves cutting and polishing of rough diamonds to produce finished product.
The downstream process involves jewelry designing and setting from the polished diamond and
its consequent retail sales.

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As of 2018, China emerged as the second-largest market after the U.S. The millennials in the
country mainly contribute to the demand for diamond jewelry. This indicates a large potential for
the market to expand further. Considering the growing potential for diamond jewelry in the
country, the existing industry players are making attempts to further invest and expand their
target audience.
In June 2018, De Beers opened its 1,000 th Forevermark jewelry store, Libert’aime, in China,
targeting the millennial population by offering lower prices and new styles and by integrating the
physical store, online platform, and social channels like WeChat and Weibo.
The presence of De Beers has compelled ALROSA to increase its spending in the country. As of
2018, De Beers, with its 1,000 stores that contributed 14% to its sales, was ahead of ALROSA,
which had contracts with 6 jewelry companies including Chow Tai Fook.
China has been a major consumer of mined diamonds over the past several years. However, with
growing technological advancements, the country is expected to become a leading supplier of
synthetic or lab-grown products. Synthetic diamonds produced in the country are majorly used
for industrial applications like abrasives.
However, with increasing competitiveness, technological advancements, and rising demand for
jewelry, companies such as Henan Huanghe Whirlwind and Sino-Crystal, which produce
diamonds for industrial applications, have ventured into the jewelry segment.
Report Coverage & Deliverables
PDF report & online dashboard will help you understand:
  Competitive benchmarking
 Historical data & forecasts
 Company revenue shares
 Regional opportunities
 Latest trends & dynamics
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Click on image to enlarge

Product Insights
Natural product segment dominated the market with a revenue share of 96.2% in 2018. They are
rare and are mainly used for jewelry applications. Finding and processing them involves complex
processes, which makes them expensive in the jewelry industry. Despite the challenges presented
by cheaper lab-grown jewelry counterparts, the inherent allure of natural diamonds continues to
exist, and is predicted to remain resilient over the coming years.
Synthetic diamonds are mainly produced using High-Pressure, High-Temperature (HPHT)
and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes. They are mainly used for industrial
applications such as cutting and drilling. However, since the past five years, the share of synthetic
jewelry has increased owing to massive reduction in its production cost.
In 2008, the cost of lab-grown jewelry created using Chemical Vapor Deposition technology was
USD 4,000 per carat. In 2017, the cost of the same product was between USD 300 and USD 500
per carat.

Application Insights
Jewelry application is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.0% from 2019 to 2030. Growing
middle-class population coupled with increasing spending power of millennials and generation Z
are among the key factors contributing to the growth of jewelry segment. According to De Beers
Group, millennials represent almost 60% of the U.S. jewelry market while millennials in China
drive an outstanding 80% of the total jewelry demand in China.
Millennials tend to spend their extra money on experiences like travel rather than luxury items.
Thus, manufacturers and retailers are now embracing the idea of attaching a story in their
marketing campaigns that includes the journey of a diamond from the mine to the consumers.
To learn more about this report, request a free sample copy
For industrial applications, synthetic or lab-grown products have significantly higher penetration.
Industrial diamond is mainly used as an abrasive and its demand from sectors such as metal
machining, construction, and exploration drilling has been increasing continuously since the past
few decades. In construction, it is particularly used in the applications such as hand sawing, wire
sawing, and core drilling. Growing construction activities in the developing countries is predicted
to benefit the segment growth.

Regional Insights
North America held the highest revenue share of 51.7% in 2018. The strong demand for
engagement rings from the U.S. is a significant factor for its dominant share. There are over
40,000 retail stores present in the country. Leading jewelry sellers including Zales, Signet
Jewelers, and Fred Meyer Jewelers have captured the majority of the market share in the U.S.
Europe is one of the prominent markets in the globe. Fine jewelry, particularly diamond products,
is gaining prominence in the European market. Key consumers of these products are females who
use them on special occasions such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and engagements.
Synthetic product segment is also gaining attention in the European countries on account of
awareness about sustainable lifestyles and the low prices associated with them.
Asia Pacific is predicted to grow with the fastest CAGR of 3.4% from 2019 to 2030. Ascending
demand for jewelry in China and India is driving the market in the region. The millennials in
these countries mainly contribute to the demand for jewelry. This indicates a large potential for
the market to expand further. Considering the growing potential for jewelry in the country, the
existing market players are making attempts to further invest and expand their target audience.
Central & South America market is characterized by the presence of around 11,500 retail jewelry
stores. In 2015, Panama Diamond Exchange (PDE) was inaugurated in Panama as the first
dedicated trading center for jewelry, colored gemstones, and diamonds in Central & South
America. Before the establishment of this center, CSA companies were dependent on Europe and
the U.S. markets.

Diamond Market Share Insights

The global diamond market is characterized by several small to medium-scale players catering to
a particular country or region and a few major players such as De Beers Group, ALROSA and
Rio Tinto catering to the global market. The major players are also involved in upstream
business. It is difficult to enter the upstream sector owing to the presence of established players.
The prices of natural diamonds are volatile owing to the uncertainty in the supply and demand
.However, there are no production constraints associated with lab-grown products. As a result,
major manufacturers are focusing their attention on introducing lab grown counterparts for
jewelry applications. For instance, in May 2018, De Beers announced new laboratory-grown
diamonds brand called Lightbox for jewelry application. 

A Pitch Deck Masterclass

Lessons for founders from reviewing ~1000+ pitch
decks

Samantha Wong

Follow

Jun 30 · 12 min read

Recently the kind folks at AWS and Innovation Bay invited me

to lead a workshop on pitch decks. I have learned a lot since I
was a founder myself writing pitch decks and I really enjoyed
reflecting on the learnings that separate the good from the great.
The feedback from that workshop has been great so I’m sharing
my slides here in case others find it useful.

These are just my opinions. You will find many smart people
who disagree with them. Even within Blackbird, we sometimes
disagree on the merits of a particular slide. Ultimately you’re the
founder, you have to decide what holds true for you.

Full deck is below.

The Basics

Fundraising is a six month, full time job for at least 1 founder.

Most of the effort is spent perfecting your teaser deck, intro
email and getting your first investor meetings.
This presentation assumes that you have a meeting (whether
virtual or in-person) with an investor or are pitching the Partner
Meeting. If you are interested in the stage before this, preparing
the ‘teaser’, ‘intro’ or ‘marketing’ deck that you email out to try
to get the meeting, then check out this Giants webinar led by
Michael Batko, Startmate CEO. My presentation borrows
heavily from his deck, which borrows heavily from Nick
Crocker’s deck, with some significant deviations to reflect the
different context of pitching ‘in person’.

You should start with some initial basic planning questions and
make sure to confirm these with the person who is organising
the meeting.
A lot of this will seem basic, and it is, but in the stress and
general chaos of running a startup it often gets forgotten. Being
prepared will make you calmer resulting in you presenting more
confidently and ultimately make a better impression.

Who are you meeting?

 Are you pitching just one partner, all the partners, the full
investment team? Most people feel more nervous with bigger
audiences of strangers so it helps to psychologically prepare
for this and consider factors like: how much do they know
about me, my company, this industry or this problem? This
helps you calibrate how much background or explanatory
information should you include.

 On your side, only founders should attend investors

pitches. No advisors. No board members. No exceptions.
Grown up startups don’t need chaperones.

What is the format?

 Most typically a pitch will be 1 hour long. You should aim

to speak for no more than 20–30 minutes (ideally with
questions throughout to keep it conversational and
interesting) and the remaining time for questions. A pitch is
going badly if you speak for 90% of the time.

 Be prepared to do a demo and/or show the product.

When is the pitch happening?

 If you’re attending in person, arrive 10 minutes early.
Don’t arrive too much earlier than that as pitches often take
place back to back and the investor may not be ready to host
you yet.

 If you are flying in for a meeting, fly in the night before if

possible.

 Swap phone numbers with your contact in case of last

minute changes.

Where is the pitch happening?

 Is it happening on Zoom/video conferencing software, in a

cafe or in a boardroom? Download any software the day
before, get comfortable with it ahead of time.

 Consider noise levels of public places, ability to focus and

concentrate in public spaces and wifi requirements if you
may be doing a product demo.

How do you do the pitch?

 Most great pitches have a great pitch deck that accompany

them.

 You do not need to print anything out to leave behind. You

do not need to leave your business cards. If you have set up
an in person meeting, they know how to find you.
Why are you pitching?

 In all but the rarest of rare cases will you walk away with a
term sheet from an investor pitch. Most investors will want
time to discuss and do some further research (commonly
known as “due diligence” or “DD” — more on that coming
soon) before issuing term sheets.

 Therefore, your job in a pitch meeting is just to move to the

next step. If you’re pitching the partner meeting, you just
want to generate enough excitement and curiosity to go to
due diligence stage.

 The non-obvious thing to mention is that because pitching

investors is so time-consuming, as a founder you too should
be as concerned to disqualify out low probability prospects
too. You need to focus your time and energy on folks who
seem truly interested.

Start Here

One common mistake I see many founders make is trying to

cram too much into their pitch. It is very difficult to convey all of
the amazingness of your company and answer all the doubts in a
one hour meeting.

The reality of human attention and human memory is that it is

limited. When you try to convey everything, you convey nothing.
“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential.
Eliminate the rest.”

— Leo Babuata

I recommend startups use this framework when planning their

pitch. Get out a blank piece of paper and list out answers to the
following question:
If your audience only retains 3 things from the 1 hour they
spend with you, what are those 3 things? Hint: they should be
your top 3 strongest points.

Structure your entire pitch deck around those 3 things ONLY.

Contrast this to when most founders sit down and begin crafting
their pitch, it starts with a google search for pitch decks and the
find and replace process begins, swapping out X company’s
problem for Y company’s problem. This is rarely a good idea.
For some companies, the deep, painfulness of the problem is the
most compelling thing they have and that’s why it comes first.
For others, it’s maybe not such an obvious problem but wow,
their traction is off the charts! For others they have not yet built
a product and the problem is unvalidated, but this is one hell of
a team and they have some domain expertise that perhaps
uniquely positions them to attack a given market. You get the
idea. No two startups are alike, and so no two pitch decks
should be either.

Having done this exercise many times with Startmate and

Blackbird companies and others, inevitably the entire pitch gets
re-written. It ends up telling more of a narrative, more authentic
and more unique, which our busy distracted brains like and are
more likely to remember days later.

Some other advice

Here are some other bits of advice, in no particular order:

 Your deck is a visual aide, not a script. Do not read from it.
Use it to reinforce your points.

 Make it beautiful. If you are a B2C startup, make

it very beautiful. Investors will question whether you have
true consumer DNA if you present an ugly pitch deck. Plus,
there is simply no excuse for an ugly deck now
that Canva exists in the world.

 One idea per slide. Unlike for a ‘teaser’ deck, your board
deck can have as many slides as you need to make your
points. You can move through simple, well-designed slides
quickly. I haven’t measured this but I suspect Zoom pitches
 do well with more frequent slides as the visual transitions
help keep the viewer focussed and alert.

 Use numbers, not adjectives to make your points.

Adjectives just aren’t very believable whereas numbers can
be benchmarked. When it comes to product and traction, the
metrics you value reveal a lot about the quality of your
thinking. This is another subliminal way that you convey
you’re a high quality founder.

 Infographics. We all love an infographic. But they should

simplify, not confuse. If I need them explained, they aren’t
helpful. Remember: slides should reinforce your points.

 Check spelling.

 Nail your first slide.

 And your last slide! This slide is up on the screen for ~30
minutes! Unlike your marketing deck, the last slide of your
board deck will be up for longer than any other slide during
your pitch (if you’ve planned your pitch right). Do not waste
that real estate. Whatever your strongest point is, have that
slide sitting behind you (or on the screen) sending
subliminal success messages for as long as possible. Amazing
team? End on your team slide. Great traction? End on a
chart up and to the right. Do not waste this space on your
contact details or thank you.

Your Three Most Important Slides

Invariably your 3 most important points boil down to something
to do with the Size of Opportunity, the Team and Traction.

Size of Opportunity

The Opportunity slide/s should try to communicate both your

ambition, the size of the market and the severity of the problem.

Ideally it should also try to convey something about what you

do. It’s not uncommon to get 5–6 slides into a pitch and not
really understand what the company is selling and to whom.

Team

It’s a cliche because it’s true: investors care a lot about the team.
However, the team slide is often the most underwhelming slide
in most pitch decks that I see.

These are the questions in the back of my mind when I meet

founders:

Is this their life’s work?

Your discovery and connection to the problem qualifies you to

solve it and win against other competitors you encounter along
the way.

Are these founders magnets for talent?

Attracting talent to early stage startups is so hard and yet you
cannot build anything truly great alone.

You can’t pay top salaries, you do not yet have an employer
brand to attract people to you, no-one gets prestige points when
telling family and friends where they work, people don’t (yet)
know how to value the equity you give them.

The only competitive edge you have is your mission and vision.
Your ability to convince others of what does not yet exist, and
the chance to be part of a small group of people who bring it to
life, is all you have.

In my experience, it is a leading indicator of success when

founders are greedy for talent they cannot yet afford and find
ingenious ways to convince those people join them. If you have
managed to do that, don’t hide it.

Do I want to go on the journey for the next 7–10 years with

these people?

Remember the funnel narrows from hundreds of pitches to just

2–3 investments per investor per year. Inevitably an investor
will ask themselves if they can see themselves working with
those founders, in that industry, serving those customers every
day for the better part of a decade.

Your Deck is Your Team Slide

Inevitably then your whole pitch deck is your team slide.

Your problem and solution slide explains why this is your life’s
work.

Your product and go-to-market slides contain the kind of rich

detail and insights that prove why your team is uniquely
qualified to win in a sea of competition.

Your traction slides show how you have the hustle to produce
something out of nothing.

Your team slide shows, hopefully, the early indications that you
are a magnet for talent.
Team slide from Front App’s Series A deck

This is the Team slide from Front App’s Series A deck. It is

successful on a number of levels. The co-founders Mathilde and
Lauren validate themselves with university and YC logos: ‘We’re
smart young things’.

Wth the addition of Cailen and Greg who left Box/Dropbox to

join Front, Mathilde has shown she can be a magnet for talent
and that she is ambitious when it comes to hiring.

Lastly, she addresses the remaining doubt left in a Silicon Valley

tech investors’ mind: ‘how will you compete against
Google/Facebook etc to hire engineers’? The answer: ‘We won’t.
We’ll monopolise the best of France’s engineering talent
instead’. I’ve seen this work very successfully for Aussie and
Kiwi startups, too.

Some other common mistakes:

 Adding up the “years of experience” you’ve had.

 Forgetting the logos.

 Underselling yourself.

 Weird titles that don’t mean anything.

 Including adjectives not numbers.

 Too many people on the team slide.

 Too many advisors on the team slide.

 No diversity on your team slide 😞

Traction

Whether it’s dollars or users or engagement, traction should

always be described with numbers.

If you’re post-revenue, investors anchor to $1M of revenue

within 1–2 years (ideally, with no external funding). Then to
stay on the venture track you need to triple it, then triple it
again, then double it, double it and double it again. T2D3.
Use charts or graphics to assist. Tables are very hard to read in a
presentation and usually don’t have the same impact. Here are
some examples.
Coinbase User signups
Coinbase transaction value
MRR growth chart
Churn low and improving
Dropbox S1 Cohort Analysis

Some Common Mistakes

The competition slide

Competitive Landscape Slide 🤕

I know, they’re popular. I may have whipped up one or two in
my time too.

In a pitch setting, however, they don’t work.

If there aren’t many names, you have probably don’t need a

competitive landscape slide.

If there are too many names, this graphic is too busy and hard
to read while listening to someone speak.

Feature Comparison Slides

Like the competitive landscape slide, they are hard to read. They
also speak to the past or present of your product, not its future.

Investors invest in the future.

Features are easy to copy, product vision is not.

Customer testimonials

They are always positive. I have never seen a negative customer

review in a pitch deck testimonial.

More instructive than a testimonial is a customer story. How did

they discover the product, how often do they use it, what impact
does it have for them (in numbers)? How many more customers
like these are there in the world?

The Exit Slide

We don’t want founders to have an exit strategy. The hard thing

is building a great business, not selling a slice of a great
business.

A Pitch Deck Masterclass: Canva’s Seed Round

Deck

We ended the the workshop with a walk through of Canva’s

Seed Round deck. Most decks don’t age that well. Search
forAirbnb’s or Uber’s seed round decks and you’ll see what I
mean.

Canva’s Seed deck sets the bar for pitch decks in my opinion.

The top 3 things you take away from this deck, in my view, are:

1. These are amazing founders. They deeply understand the

problem for users and they have clearly identified an exciting
 product roadmap. They’ve validated the idea and
opportunity in a niche (yearbooks) and run that business to
profitability — no mean feat. They have a clear plan for their
go-to-market — targeting social media and digital marketers
who have a deep need to create great visual content and are
very viral users.

2. The opportunity is HUGE. The current market for the

problem they’re attacking is worth hundreds of billions of
dollars, and that undersizes the opportunity because today’s
market is mostly professionals only. Canva wants to expand
the market to offer great design to anyone.

3. The time is now. No-one is doing this in the cloud, no-one

is leveraging social media to acquire users and no-one is
explicitly targeting the consumer and SME market.

What you barely notice is that they don’t have a product and
they don’t have any traction.

What you instead have is an unbelievably clear articulation of

the product vision and validation that they have built and
shipped a product just like this before (Fusion Books) and run
that business successfully to profitability. And they have key
people around them like Cam Adams and Lars Rasmussen who
can help them build to team to ship world-class technology.
They are magnets for talent.

Conclusion
To wrap it all up…

Start with your top 3 points and craft a narrative around those.

Choose simplicity over complexity.

Use numbers, not adjectives.

Prepare and practice as much as you can to as many people as

you can.

Good luck.

Let me know if you found this helpful in the comments.