Case Study Investor deck Messaging Cinematic design

HALEO Sleep Clinic the Pre-Series A pitch, from a corporate deck to a cinematic investor story.

Client

HALEO Sleep Clinic

Sector

Behavioural sleep health

Engagement

Pre-Series A investor deck

The project

HALEO Sleep Clinic is a behavioural sleep health company, clinically-proven digital therapeutics for insomnia and the people whose work depends on rest. The traction was real and the science was rigorous, but the Pre-Series A deck landed like a corporate, text-heavy "1990s PowerPoint": investors followed it, yet none got excited. We sharpened the messaging and rebuilt it as a dark, cinematic, visual story, so the human stakes and the opportunity land, and the room leans in.

ClientHALEO Sleep Clinic

SectorBehavioural sleep health

StagePre-Series A raise

AudienceAngels, VCs & strategics

DeliverablesMessaging, Deck, Animation

RoleStrategy, Design, Motion

The starting point

A strong story, dressed as a corporate deck.

Real traction, rigorous clinical science, a genuine market, and slides that read like a 1990s corporate PowerPoint. Wall-to-wall text, flat charts, statistics floating everywhere, no human pull. Investors could follow the argument. They just never got excited.

Original HALEO slide: the scale of poor sleep, as dense bubbles and numbers

Original market slide built from pie charts and text

Original traction slide, a flat corporate bar chart

Original investment slide, a full page of small text

Real slides from the original Pre-Series A deck.

How we worked

We fix the thinking before the slides.

No template, no quick reskin. The same partnership we bring to every founder: strategy first, then design, then motion. The rest of this page is those three moves, in order.

01

Sharpen the message

We started with a Clarity Immersion session, not a design tool. We found the single punch in each slide, moved "what HALEO does" to the very front, and made the three employer segments impossible to miss. The script stayed; the story got sharper.

02

Design the story

A dark, cinematic system, real photography of the people who can't sleep, so every slide carries one idea and an emotional pull. The corporate, text-heavy look became a premium investor narrative.

03

Bring it to life

Strategic animation so each point builds on cue in the room, the founder pauses, clicks, and the next idea lands. A master deck with hideable slides and a teaser cut, delivered in PowerPoint and PDF.

Step 01 / Sharpen the message

Same story. Said so it lands.

The script was good; the slides just did not punch. We led with what HALEO does instead of burying it four minutes in, turned floating statistics into single human points, and made the three employer segments impossible to miss. Same pitch, sharper edges.

Before · numbers everywhere

"100M+ adults affected by poor sleep. $150B+ in lost productivity. $25B+ in accidents and errors. Insomnia: 90M."

After · one point, then the proof

100 million adults can't sleep. The cost lands one number at a time, not all at once.

Why it works Investors do not remember six statistics on one slide. They remember one. Lead with the human scale, then let each supporting number arrive on its own beat.

Before · target buried in prose

"We will reach $100M ARR within five years across our target verticals." (The three segments were in the script, but investors missed them.)

After · three clear segments

Three people who can't afford a bad night: first responders, shift workers, high-performers.

Why it works Brad kept being asked "who is your target?" even though he had said it. Naming the three segments as a visual triple makes them stick in one glance.

Step 02 / Design the story

The same slide, rebuilt to make you feel it.

Here are the real slides, before and after. The light, corporate look becomes a dark, cinematic frame: one idea, room to breathe, and real people instead of clip-art and floating numbers.

Original slide on the scale of poor sleep, light corporate bubbles and numbers

Redesigned scale slide, dark and cinematic with one clear focus

The scale of the problem. Same numbers, now a single point you feel in three seconds.

Original solution slide, a light corporate layout

Redesigned solution slide, dark and focused on the proof

The proof: safest and most effective. The stats stay; the slide finally lets them land.

Original target-market slide, segments described in small text

Redesigned segments slide, three clear employer segments with real faces

The three segments investors kept missing, now front and centre, with the people behind them.

The brand system

One night-sky language, slide to slide.

A single dark palette and grid, so every slide feels like HALEO and like rest itself. Midnight navy for the night, a sky-blue signal for the science, real photography for the human stakes.

Step 03 / Bring it to life

Built to be presented, not just read.

An investor pitch is a show-and-tell. We choreographed the builds so each point lands on cue: the founder pauses, clicks, and the next idea arrives, so fifteen minutes keeps the room leaning in. Below, the redesigned deck moving through its key moments.

100% Made in PowerPoint

What changed

From a deck they sat through to one that gets the room.

Corporate → cinematic

a 1990s-PowerPoint look rebuilt as a dark, premium investor story

Numbers → one point a slide

floating statistics replaced by a single message that lands in three seconds

Informed → excited

strategic animation and a show-and-tell flow built to win the next meeting

The result

The round closed at $5 million.

They distilled complex ideas into a clear, compelling narrative that resonated with investors and played an important role in successfully raising a $5M round.

Bradley SmithFounder & CEO, HALEO Sleep Clinic

Your raise

Is your raise getting the room excited, or just informed?

If investors follow your deck but never lean in, that is the gap we close. Messaging, cinematic design and strategic animation, so the story lands the moment you present.

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