How to Develop an Elevator Pitch

A 1 minute elevator pitch is harder to do (or at least harder to do well) than you think.  Part of the reason is:

         You know to much.  You're too immersed in your idea/business
         You'll almost certainly go into too much detail and miss the big picture

Assuming your elevator pitch is for investors, you need to assume that they know nothing about your business or your industry.  Don't use acronyms.  Don't use language that an 8th grader would understand (i.e., no jargon).

For a start, try filling in the following outline.  Replace the underscored portions with the words that fit your business.  This certainly isn't the only way to do an elevator pitch, but, as a first step, If you fill in the outline, odds are you'll have a credible first-draft of an effective elevator pitch.

Hi, I'm (your name), CEO of (your company)

Our customers are (describe the customer)

who (describe the compelling, unmet need)

Our product/service, the (name of your product) solves that problem by (one line description of what your product or service does)

We make money by (describe how you create revenue)

According to (describe a source) there are (number of potential customers) who have this need, which translates to a X billion dollar market opportunity.

What makes our company unique is (describe what makes you different)

Our team strengths are (describe what makes your team credible)

With (X dollars and sweat equity) our accomplishments to date are  (describe the headway/milestones you've already made)

We are seeking X hundred thousand dollars which we will use over the next Y months to (describe what you'll accomplish with the funds)

A made-up example might help (the numbers are 100% made up - this is just an example!)

Hi , I'm John Smith, CEO of XYZ company

Our customers are dog or cat owners

who are worried about their pet getting lost.

Our product, the PetFinder solves that problem by providing a very small device that attaches to the pet's collar that continuously reports the pet's location to an app that runs on the owner's smart phone.  They always know exactly where their pet is.

We make money by selling the tracking device for $99 and charging a $30 annual fee for the cell-phone link that makes the reporting to the owner's smart phone possible.

According to ABC Research Corp.,  50 million families in the U.S. alone have an average of two cat or dog pets.  Our surverys suggest that half of those pet owners say they would seriously consider  an effective pet tracking solution, which means we have a 5 billion dollar market opportunity for the devices, and a recurring $1.5 billion annual opportunity for the data service.

What makes our company unique is that we've obtained an exclusive license for use of a new chip technology that determines location but is dramatically smaller in size and lower in power consumption that other solutions, making it practical to use with dogs and even cats.

Our three team members have a total of 50 years of  experience in selling into pet retail markets and in developing tech hardware and software products.

With $20,000 and a lot of sweat equity from the founders, we've already built 10 working prototypes to prove the technology, sold to 5 happy, paying customers, and reached agreement with 2 pet stores in the Portland area who would like to sell our product.

We are seeking $350,000 to ramp our marketing and sales efforts and to build 1000 devices that we'll sell through pet stores in Oregon and Washington, our initial target market.