PechaKucha
PechaKucha operates a global social storytelling platform built around the 20x20 presentation format, serving individual creators, community organizers, schools, and businesses through its website, live PechaKucha Night events, subscription tiers, and NFT minting tools.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2003
- HeadquartersChicago, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What PechaKucha does
PechaKucha is a social storytelling platform built around a signature 20x20 presentation format, in which presenters share exactly 20 slides at 20 seconds per slide. The company operates a global ecosystem that combines a digital presentation creation and sharing platform with a distributed network of in-person PechaKucha Night events organized by local volunteers across cities worldwide. Its product portfolio includes the core PechaKucha 20x20 platform, PechaKucha Night events, a "PechaKucha of the Day" curated feature, presentation and event creation tools, community management tools, NFT minting for presentations, school programs, a business partnership program, and an Annual Membership offering. A premium PK Pro subscription tier, billed monthly, represents the company's primary formalized recurring revenue stream alongside annual membership support, while the broader business remains heavily community-led with no disclosed enterprise contract revenue. The company was founded in Tokyo in 2003 (with a separate firmographic record indicating 2018 for the current operating entity) and now operates with a dual headquarters in Chicago and Tokyo, led by co-founder and CEO Sean Smyth alongside founders Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, with a reported headcount of 1-10 employees.
PechaKucha firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- PechaKucha
- Legal name
- PechaKucha
- Website
- https://pechakucha.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2003
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- PechaKucha operates a global social storytelling platform built around the 20x20 presentation format, serving individual creators, community organizers, schools, and businesses through its website, live PechaKucha Night events, subscription tiers, and NFT minting tools.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
PechaKucha industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Presentation Software
- NAICS
- Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (516210), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (51621), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (5162)
- SIC
- Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Social Q&A & Knowledge Communities (BPAMABAI)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- K–12 Instructional Video & Multimedia (EDAGALAA), Short-Form Video for Education & Microlearning Platforms (MPACAHAK)
Keywords
Where PechaKucha is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Chicago
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
PechaKucha business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Seed Funding: PechaKucha raised $2.7 million in seed funding to expand product features, social connectivity, and community growth.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | PK Pro subscription tier available |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels4 records
PechaKucha product offering
Product offeringCore offering
PechaKucha operates a social storytelling platform built around its proprietary 20x20 presentation format (20 slides, 20 seconds each). Users create and share presentations through the website and mobile apps, host and join PechaKucha Night community events worldwide, manage local creative communities, and mint presentations as NFTs. The company monetizes via premium subscriptions (PK Pro) and annual memberships.
Product overview
PechaKucha is a social storytelling platform built around its signature 20x20 presentation format (20 slides, 20 seconds each). The platform operates as a unified ecosystem comprising the core PechaKucha 20x20 presentation platform, PechaKucha Night Events for in-person community gatherings, and various supporting tools including Create Presentation, Create Event, Create Community, and Create NFT. The product portfolio includes PK Pro as a premium subscription tier, School Programs for educational use, Business Partnership Program for corporate applications, and Annual Membership for community support. The platform facilitates both digital content sharing and in-person community events, connecting storytellers and audiences globally.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- PechaKucha Night: Regular community event format where presenters share 20x20 presentations in cities worldwide
- PechaKucha of the Day
- PK Pro
Products and services
- PechaKucha 20x20 Platform The core presentation format and platform allowing users to discover, create, and share 20x20 slide presentations (20 slides, 20 seconds each) for storytelling and idea sharing. Targeted at individual creators, professionals, educators, and community organizers worldwide.
- PechaKucha Night Events In-person community events where presenters share their stories and ideas using the PechaKucha 20x20 format in local venues worldwide. Organized by local volunteer city leads and the central PechaKucha team.
- PK Pro Premium monthly subscription tier offering advanced features and capabilities for creators and power users of the PechaKucha platform.
- Annual Membership Annual subscription membership providing ongoing support and enhanced features for dedicated PechaKucha users and community organizers.
- Create NFT NFT creation tool allowing users to mint their PechaKucha presentations as non-fungible tokens for digital ownership and monetization of creative work.
- School Programs Educational initiative enabling schools to use PechaKucha as a teaching and presentation tool for student presentations, storytelling projects, and faculty showcases.
- Business Partnership Program Program enabling businesses to leverage PechaKucha for internal presentations, team building, training, and corporate events.
Companies that use PechaKucha
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
PechaKucha technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
PechaKucha partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
PechaKucha competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Behance: Behance (owned by Adobe) is an online community for showcasing and discovering creative work, with overlap to PechaKucha's individual-creator and creative-community use cases. It is comparable on the social/community side of storytelling but is broader in creative disciplines.
- Gamma: Gamma is an AI-assisted presentation and content creation platform that turns prompts into slide-based stories. It is an emerging player in the same creation-and-sharing category as PechaKucha, with a comparable positioning around faster, more engaging alternatives to traditional slide decks.
Direct peers
- Issuu: Issuu is a digital publishing platform that turns documents and presentations into discoverable, shareable flipbooks. It is comparable to PechaKucha as a self-serve platform that helps creators publish and distribute visual content to global audiences.
- SlideShare: SlideShare (owned by Scribd/formerly LinkedIn) is a web-based platform for uploading, sharing, and discovering presentations. It overlaps with PechaKucha on the "host a presentation, build an audience" workflow and represents the same upload-and-browse content discovery use case.
- Prezi: Prezi is a presentation software platform focused on non-linear, visually-driven storytelling. It competes most directly with PechaKucha on the core creation-and-sharing workflow and on a positioning built around more engaging alternatives to PowerPoint-style slides.
Others
- Hopin: Hopin is an events platform supporting virtual and hybrid community events. It is adjacent to PechaKucha on the events-and-community layer and is relevant to PechaKucha's business and partnership program use cases for corporate events.
- Meetup: Meetup is a platform for finding and building local community groups and in-person events. It is comparable to PechaKucha on the local-community, organizer-led, in-person-events model that underpins the PechaKucha Night network.
- Eventbrite: Eventbrite is a self-service ticketing and event management platform widely used by community organizers. It is adjacent to PechaKucha because both depend on organizer-led community events, though Eventbrite focuses on ticketing infrastructure rather than presentation content.
Broad incumbents
- TED: TED operates a global, community-driven talks platform with a constrained presentation format (typically under 18 minutes). It is a broader incumbent that overlaps with PechaKucha on the idea-sharing, community-events, and short-format storytelling proposition, but at a much larger scale.
- Canva: Canva is a mass-market design and presentation platform used by individuals, schools, and businesses worldwide. It overlaps with PechaKucha on presentation creation and on the schools/business segments, but as a broad incumbent with vastly more capital and a much wider product surface.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
PechaKucha social profiles
Digital presencePechaKucha financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
PechaKucha leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
PechaKucha funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
PechaKucha M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about PechaKucha
What does PechaKucha do?
PechaKucha operates a social storytelling platform built around its proprietary 20x20 presentation format (20 slides, 20 seconds each). Users create and share presentations through the website and mobile apps, host and join PechaKucha Night community events worldwide, manage local creative communities, and mint presentations as NFTs. The company monetizes via premium subscriptions (PK Pro) and annual memberships.
Is PechaKucha a public or private company?
PechaKucha is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was PechaKucha founded?
PechaKucha was founded in 2003. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is PechaKucha based?
PechaKucha is headquartered in Chicago, United States, in the North America region.
How does PechaKucha make money?
One revenue line is on record: seed Funding.
Who are PechaKucha's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Behance and Gamma. Direct peers are Issuu, SlideShare and Prezi. Others are Hopin, Meetup and Eventbrite. Broad incumbents are TED and Canva.
Does PechaKucha have an API?
No public API is recorded for PechaKucha.
What industry is PechaKucha in?
PechaKucha's product category is Presentation Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMABAI, Social Q&A & Knowledge Communities, with a secondary code of EDAGALAA, K–12 Instructional Video & Multimedia. Its NAICS code is 516210 and its SIC code is 2721.