This sponsored post is produced by The Funded.
As a startup founder, you will pitch your business thousands of times to potential customers, partners, team members, investors, and more.
When you pitch, you need to grab the listener’s attention quickly and communicate all of the core elements of your idea clearly and concisely. This is no easy task.
Luckily, the Founder Institute has created a simple one-sentence pitch format that makes it easy for anyone to create an effective elevator pitch;
Let’s go through each of the items.
- The “defined offering” needs to be short, simple, and capable of being understood by everyone, like “a website,” “a mobile application,” “hardware,” or “desktop software.”
- The “defined audience” is the initial group of people you will market your offering to. In the case of consumer applications, it is usually a demographic, such as “women aged 25 to 35 years old.” In the case of business applications, it is usually a job function at a type of corporation, such as “system administrators at medium-sized technology businesses.” Make sure your audience is well defined; if you just say “women” or “small businesses,” you’re not being specific enough.
- Now that you have an offering helping an audience, you need to “solve a problem.” The problem needs to be something that everyone understands, such as “reduce the time collecting bill payments” or “engage in an immersive entertainment experience.”
- The final component, the “secret sauce,” adds your unique approach to solving the problem and demonstrates a mastery of the market. Some examples are “by sending automated email alerts based on analysis of highest response times” or “with virtual worlds constructed in reaction to the movements of the players.” Avoid using superlatives, buzzwords, acronyms, and industry jargon.
- Keep it concise, and remember: If you can’t describe your business in one sentence, then you don’t understand it well enough!
Are You Ready to Put Your One-Sentence Elevator Pitch to Work?
At the Founder Showcase event on May 15, anyone who purchases a ticket has an opportunity to pitch on stage in front of hundreds of Silicon Valley investors, founders, and press — just from submitting their one-sentence pitch. We call it the CrowdPitch Competition, and no other event gives attendees so much.
VentureBeat readers, register here to receive 20% off, and then submit your pitch for a chance to present on stage today!
The Founder Showcase is Silicon Valley’s leading seed-stage startup event, and previous contestants have gone on to raise over $130 million. The 15th edition of the event will take place on May 15 in Silicon Valley and will feature talks from some of today’s top entrepreneurs and investors, including Mitch Kapor, Mike Maples, Jr, and many more. We are expecting over 400 attendees, but there are fewer than 100 tickets remaining.
Learn more about the event at www.foundershowcase.com, or for more tips on perfecting your elevator pitch, visit www.fi.co/madlibs.
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