Check out the pitch deck that landed the 24-year-old founder of gaming startup Backbone $40 million from celebs like Kevin Hart and The Weeknd


Maneet Khaira Backbone

  • Maneet Khaira was a college intern at Google when he founded his gaming streaming startup Backbone. 
  • He’s now raised a $40 million Series A from celebrity investors like Kevin Hart and The Weeknd. 
  • Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Backbone used to bring investors in. 

Working at Google was going well for Maneet Khaira, who landed a coveted internship there while he was a junior in college. But in between his daily tasks on the cloud gaming team, what he really wanted to focus on was his startup idea for a device that could turn an iPhone into effectively a portable Xbox.

Khaira knew that mobile gaming was the future of his division, so he put together a simple, yet straightforward presentation on the future of mobile streaming games (which borrowed heavily from his idea for Backbone) to show his coworkers. The presentation ended up going viral within the company and made its way to top executives who were impressed with his pitch. 

After the incredible reception, Khaira found the confidence to leave Google and focus full time on his mobile game streaming startup.

“The average American household has a gaming console but only has a single TV. With our device, you could stream your platform games while your partner watches Netflix,” he said.  

As the device started gaining traction with gamers, it also caught the attention of the investing team at Index Ventures. The team had extensive experience working with gaming startups, having been early investors in Discord and Roblox.

Now, Index Ventures is leading Backbone’s $40 million Series A round along with celebrity investors like Kevin Hart, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Richard “Post Malone” Post, Amy Schumer, and music producer Christopher Comstock, known professionally as “Marshmello,” who had previously invested in Backbone’s earlier round. 

Khaira credits his successful raise on his experience having his first pitch deck go viral: “It gave me a formula on how to make a good presentation,” he said. 

Check out the 19-slide pitch deck that Backbone used to raise $40 million:

At this point in the presentation, Khaira gives brings out a Backbone One that he can physically show investors. 

A still from Backbone One gameplay. 

A still of Backbone One gameplay. 

After this final slide, Khaira then leads an interactive session in which he plays games using the Backbone One. 

“I would show a demo of me playing a game on Xbox cloud gaming with a Go Pro set up, and then I’d stream to Twitch while playing the game” while a general partner would watch, he said.  

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