Show HN: Snapdeck – Build slides with open-source LLMs and agent routing

https://www.snapdeck.site/

6•unsexyproblem•1h ago

I’m a student founder, and Snapdeck has been a 6-month sprint from idea to product. In March I hacked together a minimal version and launched it on Product Hunt just to see if anyone else had the same frustration with slides — and people did. A couple of months later I tried a Figma plugin version, which brought in more feedback but still felt limited.

Yesterday we launched the first full standalone version on Product Hunt and reached #2 of the day. About 1,000 people have signed up so far, with ~30% retention among the main target users.

Under the hood, Snapdeck runs on an orchestration layer we built that routes tasks across multiple open-source language models and commercial APIs, acting as an “agent” to generate structured slides and editable charts. Unlike most AI slide tools, everything stays fully editable — layouts, visuals, and content can be dragged, modified, or updated via natural-language commands. Current output is PDF, with PPTX coming soon. Demo screenshots: https://youtu.be/fmlQ6cccj1w .

We’re considering open-sourcing parts of the orchestration layer, and I’d love feedback from HN: is this genuinely useful for real workflows, and what’s still missing?

https://snapdeck.site

Comments

swimmingwave•1h ago

Congrats on the launch! But why did you decide to start with a Figma plugin instead of going straight to a standalone version, which could have helped you reach more users faster? After all, Figma plugins are only used by a relatively small group of people.

unsexyproblem•1h ago

Good question. At the time I was building alone as a student, and starting with a Figma plugin was simply the fastest way to test the core idea: can AI actually generate slides people want to use?

The plugin gave us quick feedback from a smaller but design-savvy community, which helped validate the concept before investing in a full standalone app. We learned where it fell short (limited reach, constrained workflows), and that feedback directly pushed us to build the standalone version you see now.

In hindsight, going standalone earlier might have reached more users, but starting small made it possible to iterate quickly and not overbuild.

9ri9gu•1h ago

Okay, that's cool, but what's the difference between that and gamma?

unsexyproblem•1h ago

Gamma focuses on generating polished, mostly read-only decks. Snapdeck’s main difference is that everything stays fully editable — layouts, visuals, and charts can be dragged, restyled, or updated with natural-language commands. We also built an orchestration layer on top of open-source and commercial models to handle structured inputs like Notion pages or websites.