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October 10, 2010

Getting Your Elevator Pitch Right

Mashable had a great write up that recapped companies on stage at Web 2.0 Expo in New York earlier this month, including tips on nailing your elevator pitch. Useful insights came from a variety of industry names; the tips are reposted/published below.

Describe the Problem Your Company Solves


  • “Keep it short, and make sure your lead-in deals with the problem you’re trying to solve.” — Jeff Evans, Co-Founder of MindSnacks

    Since Evans’ company makes mobile language learning games, he started his pitch by explaining that current language learning programs can be dull, expensive, and time consuming.

  • “People have to have an idea of what the problem is and what the current solution is and why yours is better.” — Carl Leubsdorf, CTO of hour.ly


Get to Your Point


  • “Know what you have to say and say it fast.” — Ben Hughes, Director of Technology at NabeWise

    In NabeWise’s case, this includes an explanation of why there is a demand for information about neighborhoods and how the company would monetize this site by charging real estate agents to be “neighborhood experts” and selling advertising.

  • “Really brief.” — Patrick Swieskowski, Co-Founder of NiniteNinite

    We guess there’s something to be said for practicing what you preach.


Interact as Much as Possible


  • “It doesn’t work quite as well in an elevator, but the way I describe the problem is to show a picture of my first apartment in New York. It helps people understand why storage in New York is a necessity, not a luxury.”– Daniel Hughes, Founder of StorageByMail.

    StorageByMail offers cheaper storage than is typically found in a big city by allowing customers to mail their storage to a warehouse outside of the city. Showing a crowded New York apartment helps investors visualize why there is a need for the service.


There’s No Replacement for Finesse


  • “Practice, practice, practice on new people every day. You can’t develop an effective pitch by yourself…Everyone in my family has heard my pitch 100 times, and when their eyes glaze over I know that I’m doing something wrong.” — David Bloom, CEO of Naama Networks

    Bloom’s current pitch for his online food ordering site mentions that the first e-commerce transaction was apizza, but that since then restaurants haven’t done a great job selling online. It’s an interesting tidbit that prevents eyes from “glazing over,” as he put it.

  • “Go for it. ‘Pretty good’ won’t hack. Pretend you’ll be rated on a scale of one to 10 after your pitch. Only a 10 matters. One through four is a one; you’re done. Five through nine is a five; they might remember you and say ‘interesting,’ but you’re done. Only a 10 is success, and hopefully opens the door to the 10 or 60 minute pitch. It’s not about batting average, it’s about home-runs.” — Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO ofGlympse.

October 10, 2010 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Events, On Branding, PR & Marketing, Social Media, Web 2.0 | Permalink

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