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Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets To The Perfect Elevator Pitch

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Crafting a solid elevator pitch is a critical exercise for founders of early-stage startups; I know from experience. That little spiel about your company can play a big role in securing investor funding, attracting top talent, and even winning customers. In today’s investing climate, amid a global health crisis and economic uncertainty, your pitch is more important than ever.

After an unprecedented stretch of dealmaking activity, the coronavirus pandemic is causing venture capital firms to think harder about deploying capital. Uncertainty about when the pandemic will end and what the new normal will look like means that VCs have to plan for a wider range of possible scenarios, and many are wary of overspending in the current climate.

While crises like this one can be devastating to businesses of all sizes, they also present opportunities—especially for startup founders who can distinguish themselves from the competition.

Paul Graham, legendary VC and founder of Y Combinator, has explained that the best pitches are concise and should describe your business in the simplest, most compelling terms possible. But what else makes a great elevator pitch? With National Talk in an Elevator Day right around the corner, I asked five successful founders to weigh in.

1. Jose Montero, CEO, and Christen Montero, Cofounder and CMO, Blue

When developing their elevator pitch, the Monteros thought about their company in terms of the problem it helps solve—and why a VC should care. “The most important thing to do is break the ice and grab the audience’s attention,” says Jose. Starting your pitch by describing a familiar problem allows you to establish common ground with your audience. To begin their pitch, Jose and sister Christen depict a world that is more technologically connected than ever before but is increasingly disconnected socially. It evokes a feeling that nearly everyone has experienced and then sets up Blue as the solution.

While your elevator pitch will generally be the same each time you present it, it’s critical to consider your audience when pitching, and no two audiences are alike. “The key to grabbing your audience’s attention is understanding their mind and predispositions,” says Christen. “Form different variations of your elevator pitch to appeal to different target audiences.” The Monteros advise entrepreneurs not to focus too much on the length of their pitches, as the length will also change depending on whom you’re addressing and in what setting. Concentrate on a quick, relatable hook, and your listeners will inevitably want to hear more.

2. Allison Liddle, Speaker, Bestselling Author, Coach, Allison Liddle Consulting

As a prolific public speaker, Liddle understands the power of diction. She advises new founders to pay close attention to which words seem to resonate with listeners during the pitch. Try to speak in their language and get feedback whenever possible. Her own pitch? “I help people launch to the next level in their lives and businesses,” she says. As someone who works primarily with corporate executives looking for ways to motivate and empower their teams, she found that her clients gravitated toward the word “launch.” It may seem counterintuitive, but refining a pitch to be as concise as hers takes time and a willingness to change if something isn’t working.

Liddle advises entrepreneurs working on an elevator pitch to imagine themselves in their ideal client’s shoes. Envision the problems and obstacles the client faces and how your product or service helps them overcome those challenges. Then, write out a number of variations of your pitch and start testing them. “Be open to feedback,” she says. “We cannot get better by ourselves. We need to seek out feedback on our ideas to see if they work or not.” Ultimately, your ability to listen—to investors, customers, and team members—can help you craft a pitch that others want to hear.

3. Jan Bednar, Founder and CEO, ShipMonk

Bednar knows that VCs tend to focus on numbers. That’s why he recommends including relevant numbers in your pitch if your intention is to secure funding. “When I say ShipMonk is a ‘logistics company’ and go into the details of what we do, it’s hard to get people’s attention,” he explains. “If I tell them we’re solving the single biggest pain point of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands in the world and have grown the business to $100 million-plus while bootstrapped, they start paying attention.”

In addition to highlighting the traction you’ve already achieved, Bednar believes it’s important to give potential investors a glimpse of the future. Show them the size of the addressable market to illustrate what’s possible and clearly explain how you’ll capture it. Like others on this list, he advises founders to adjust their approaches to fit their audiences. “An elevator pitch is fluid,” he says, “and it should be changed based on who you are talking to and the theme of the meeting.” Remember that your goal isn’t to give listeners a comprehensive overview of your company, but rather to spark their interest. If you’re able to entice them into asking questions, you’ll have an opportunity to impress them with your answers. With enough interest, anything is possible.

4. Gene Swank, CEO and Cofounder, Propellant Labs

Swank is a firm believer that engagement outranks content when it comes to the elevator pitch. He’s helped thousands of entrepreneurs create and refine theirs, and as an investor himself, he looks for one thing in a pitch: a great story. “Many people will tell you that the order of the slides or the length is important, but these details will rarely make much of a difference,” he says. “Storytelling is the game changer for any elevator pitch.”

So what makes a great story? Swank says the best pitches are unique and use real-world examples to demonstrate how a founder’s product or service can improve customers’ lives. Start with a relatable pain point and hook your audience fast. “If you don’t catch your audience’s attention within the first 30 seconds (max), you will lose them,” he says. In other words, don’t be boring. If you can turn your pitch into a memorable meeting for an investor, you’re far likelier to meet again.

5. Seth Casden, CEO and Cofounder, Celliant

Casden, who has been the CEO of Celliant for almost 20 years, believes that crafting an elevator pitch is an exercise in understanding your company. “You have to start with the core of your business. Know what differentiates your company, what matters to your audience, and your business’s persona,” he says. You can start by writing these things down, but it’s important to remember that your pitch isn’t a written document. It’s (hopefully) a conversation starter.

At Celliant, team members have the freedom to make the company's elevator pitch their own, using the language and delivery style they’re most comfortable with. Like others on this list, Casden believes that a pitch must be adaptable. “We have variations for different situations,” he says. “There’s a short version for the true elevator pitch and a long version for when you have slightly more time. We also have versions based on the audience and their understanding of our space so we can tailor the message as precisely as possible.” He recommends that founding teams take the time to craft elevator pitches together. Doing so will help the team achieve alignment in terms of value proposition, vision, and mission, and it will ensure that everyone tells a consistent story.

The founders I talked to touched on many of the same themes. Each agreed that a solid elevator pitch requires an understanding of the business, its audience, and its objective. As you craft yours, spend time thinking about the story you ultimately want to tell the world and think of your pitch as the introduction to that story. A refined, compelling elevator pitch should not only win VC interest, but also help empower you to close deals with customers. Even in this uncertain climate, a good pitch opens up a world of opportunities.

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