SlideRocket
Online presentation platform that allows users to create, manage, share and measure presentations.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
SlideRocket emerged in 2006, founded by Mitch Grasso and Mike Lingle, as a direct challenger to the static, PC-bound presentation software of the era. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company launched publicly in October 2008 after a beta period, aiming to redefine how businesses communicate by moving presentations to the cloud.
The firm operated on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, providing a platform for users to create, manage, share, and crucially, measure the effectiveness of their presentations. This web-based service allowed for a level of collaboration and data analysis previously unavailable with desktop tools. Clients ranged from individual users to large enterprise sales and marketing teams, who utilized a special edition with enhanced sharing, permissions, and analytics to improve team collaboration. The platform generated revenue through tiered subscriptions, which included a free entry-level option.
SlideRocket's core product was a robust online presentation tool that offered features beyond traditional software. Users could import existing presentations or build new ones using professional design tools. A key differentiator was the ability to embed live, dynamic data from external sources like Google Spreadsheets and Twitter feeds directly into slides. The platform also provided detailed analytics, giving presenters insights into viewer engagement. To enrich presentations, it featured a marketplace for purchasing assets such as themes, stock photos, and video.
The company's trajectory included two significant acquisitions. In April 2011, virtualization giant VMware acquired SlideRocket, seeing it as a key component in its vision for modern, cloud-based end-user computing. At the time of this sale, SlideRocket had attracted over 20,000 customers and 300,000 users. However, VMware later shifted its strategic focus, and in March 2013, sold SlideRocket to ClearSlide, a sales engagement platform. SlideRocket's technology was integrated into ClearSlide's offerings, but the standalone service was eventually discontinued on July 1, 2018.
Keywords: presentation software, SaaS, cloud-based presentations, sales enablement, marketing technology, presentation analytics, online collaboration, VMware, ClearSlide, Mitch Grasso, Mike Lingle, interactive presentations, web-based productivity, content sharing, viewer tracking, enterprise software, rich media presentations, slide management, digital communication, sales engagement platform