One Sentence Challenge

In a blog post at Start-up CFO, Mark MacLeod repeated this comment from an executive who ran a portfolio company of venture capital firm Sequoia:

          ... there is a widely held belief inside Sequoia that those startups
          that can explain themselves in one sentence tend to have a much
          higher success rate than those that do not.

 At OTBC, we have long believed in the value of having a compelling elevator pitch.  In the FastTrac® TechVenture™ entrepreneur program, we work on elevator pitches in every session.  And it's not just because it's a useful communication tool.  If you can't sum-up your business in a compelling elevator pitch (or better yet, in one compelling sentence) then you don't understand your business well enough.

Can you sum up your business in one sentence?  How about in one sentence that your grandmother could understand?  (That's really the ultimate test.)