the elevator pitch

Last Thursday, I got to hear three Connecticut start-ups deliver elevator pitches in a competition at the CT Tech Council's Innovation & Entrepreneurship summit. The three companies were competing for $10k in marketing services from New Haven-based marketing company Digital Surgeons. The pitches were delivered in front of about 300 VCs and angel investors, and were evaluated by a combination of individual judges as well as crowdsourced input via a web app called floop.


An elevator pitch, for the uninitiated, is the spiel one delivers to a prospective customer or investor in a spontaneous and time-constrained environment (like, say, during an elevator ride). It's a critically important communications tool used in both planned as well as serendipitous situations; nailing it can make all the difference on a trade-show floor, in a VC-friendly breakfast spot or while watching 11-year-olds play soccer on any Darien, Saratoga or Winnetka weekend morning.

Over the years, I've helped to strategize, write and edit many elevator pitches; it's one of the formats we often use in the agency business to showcase new company or product positionings. It's familiar to clients, can be very dynamic when well-crafted and well-delivered and doesn't cost a whole heck of a lot to produce.

While there is a level of skill involved in elevator pitch delivery (and practice definitely enhances natural skill levels), the real spade work comes in the discipline of crafting the script. There are several resources out there which detail the process, such as this on Dumb Little Man and this on The Closet Entrepreneur, cheesy Eminem lyric notwithstanding. Harvard Business School has developed a nifty tool which details the process quite nicely; while Buzzuka offers a more twitter-oriented resource.

Generally, the most effective elevator pitches have two parts:  a 10-15 second opening which makes a dynamic and succinct case for why you should be heard and another 60 - 90 seconds of ensuing support, delivered in inverted pyramid style as, at any moment, those metaphoric elevator doors are going to open.

From a content standpoint, an elevator pitch should clearly state what problem you will solve for your audience and then provide persuasive support as to how or why you can solve this problem. This support should come from two angles:  rational evidence consisting of relevant, specific examples of how you do it and more emotional cues showing that you are capable. More often than not, you are selling yourself as much as the product or solution you are pitching so confidence and competence are important attributes to communicate.

If you are delivering your pitch in the hopes of raising investment capital, as were the contestants at the CT Tech Council summit, there are some particulars you must include:  a revenue model demonstrating profit potential, a description of company backers and a clear and crisp competitive advantage. Robert Pagliarini of SeekingCapital.com lists other requirements, such as showing passion and having a definitive 'ask' as part of your conclusion.

The three companies making pitches last Thursday were My Luck Club,  Sir Groovy and Small Talk.  I was most impressed with Phyliss Pierce, founder of My Luck Club - a social-powered crowd sourcing site which matches 'luck seekers' (people looking for jobs, apartments, etc.) with 'luck makers' (people connected to those wants). Phyliss was clearly passionate about her venture, she had an engaging personal story and she exuded confidence and sincerity. Her idea was clearly stated in a low-tech and easily comprehensible manner; and she looked like she was having fun.

The other two pitches provided cautionary tales. Sir Groovy, a music licensing enabler, seemed simultaneously slick and sloppy. The founder, clad in a very hip black lame sport coat paired with cargo pants, leaned heavily on amateurish and mis-edited video clips which called his judgement into question; it doesn't surprise me that here on 4 November their website still says "Launching soon - 11.01.2011".  Finally was SmallTalk, a smartphone app to help users find one another and then start conversations at large, networking events. Represented by two of the company's founders, it soon became clear (by their own admission) they were the least experienced presentation team; they froze up uncomfortably during key points of their pitch and couldn't get back on track. In delivering an elevator pitch, the importance of rehearsal cannot be overstated.

The bottom line when it comes to elevator pitches can be summarized by Sir Winston Churchill who famously said "Be clear, be brief and be seated." 

The buzzwords of business

It has been said that one defining attribute of a nation is having a shared language; a way to communicate with one another in an innate and natural manner. Based upon this measure, Silicon Valley could easily be viewed as a nation unto itself; one where the shared language of 'tech speak' unifies otherwise distinctly disparate groups of people.

My introduction to the jargon of the technology business came in a very definitive moment. It was at an agency dinner the night before the annual sales meeting for my new client: a large, global technology company. During the dinner, the lead copywriter on the account introduced himself and chatted me up for a bit, eventually asking if I had my bingo card for the next day. Bingo card? I asked. Yes, he replied, this client takes buzzword bingo to the next level so you better be ready.

During his opening remarks the next morning, the CMO at my new client uttered words to this effect: "Today, let's drill down across centers of excellence to uncover actionable best practices we can bring to the table and hopefully achieve c-level buy-in. But let's not boil the ocean - if we can kluge some repurposed turnkey solutions, that will be a win win". Huh?, I thought, as the copywriter from the previous night caught my attention and mouthed "Bingo." Welcome to tech speak nation.

It's not surprising that there is so much jargon in Silicon Valley when you consider it represents the crossroads of science and technology, where something new happens on a daily if not hourly basis, and the B school mentality where hyperbolic, too cute phraseology becomes the lingua franca separating MBAs from the great unwashed.

But don't get me wrong, I'm no xenophobe; I appreciate unique cultures and languages as much as the next guy and the origins of tech speak can sometimes be fairly clever. Where else but in the microprocessor business can you 'spin a few cycles' to make sure there is sufficient thought put into a problem? And as a sailor, I really like the idea of an 'all hands meeting'.

It is, however, no secret that lampooning business jargon has become a cottage industry. There are plenty of sites around the internet such as this one on the office life or this more tech oriented glossary which serve as tongue-in-cheek business buzzword babel fish. And in an ironic twist, I once worked with a consulting company (a petri dish for jargon if there ever was one) that developed an application to remove buzzwords from powerpoint presentations.

The one place I've found buzzwords and jargon to be especially counter productive is when technology companies use them while trying to articulate the value they provide to their customers. Too often marketers lazily fall back on pat phrases and tech speak which, without context, fail to communicate anything at all.

The bottom line is this - while buzzwords are a convenient, sometimes comedic shorthand to convey a thought, being able to express a thought in simple language is more often the test of whether you really have something to say.