Making the Pitch
Posted by wrightd on July 11, 2009
Shotput Venture's summer program is halfway complete and teams are starting to think about launching on demo day in a few weeks. I sent out some tips to help the teams as they create their pitches and would like to share them here as well.
Some of the key aspects of a good pitch:
- Communicates WHAT you are building. This is THE most important part. You don't know how many pitches I've heard where I walk away asking what in the world they are doing. You do not need to explain everything you are doing - most products are far too nuanced to explain in 30 seconds. You simply need to explain the key aspect of what your product does in a way they will understand.
- Communicates WHY someone would use your product. You need to connect with your audience in a way that allows them to understand why your product is going to be a huge hit. Sometimes this can be tough if your audience isn't the target customer - but in some ways this can be an advantage because you get to define the problem and the solution.
- Communicates clearly, in simple conversational terms. You will be tempted to write your pitch before you read it. Don't do that. A pitch that looks great on paper will sound horrible when it is read. You should read your pitch before you write it down. A video camera helps. Just sit in front of it and explain your product 10 different ways, eventually you'll come across idioms and phrases that sound good.
One of the best ways to improve your pitch is to watch other pitches. It doesn't take long before you start to see the difference between good and bad pitches. For those that haven't seen it before, here's a great site where you can do just that: http://pitches.techcrunch.com
Watch a few dozen pitches and make notes about the ones you liked and didn't, and try to figure out why that is.
