280Slides is an online presentation builder that can be used in order to create a powerful deck of slides from within the browser’s window.
With 280 Slides, there’s no software to download and nothing to pay for. When the presentation is done, it can be shared in any way with the world at large. Among the features offered we can mention the ability to download the presentation using Powerpoint as a format, the automatic autosave and recovery option or several quality graphic themes.
The site also distinguishes itself due to the ability of working on a presentation without the need to login or signup for an account. Upon the first save operation, a login is requested or a new account can be created. This allows new users to get familiar with the editing interface and to see the webapp in action before investing time in the sign up process. Partially due to this, the service managed to attract 10’000 monthly unique visitors during the last year.
The company behind the site is called 280 North, Inc. It was formed in 2008 by college friends Tom Robinson, Francisco Tolmasky, and Ross Boucher. Among their released projects is the famous Cappuccino application development framework, which enables web developers to create online interfaces that resemble the native controls offered by the Mac operating system. 280 North was funded by YCombinator and got acquired by Motorola in the summer of 2010 for $20 millions.
