Imagine this scenario. You’re meeting your potential customer. This is your first meeting and you really need this person to listen to you, test your prototype or give you good feedback about your idea or prototype. You have to get his/her attention or you have no clue if your product idea will work or not.
Or imagine this scenario. Your team needs expert advice. You contact the potential expert and you have to quickly explain your idea to get the advice you need.
Or imagine this scenario. You’re recruiting a new team member. The potential new person has asked you to present your plan.
Are you ready? Do you know that you only have 7 quick seconds to get the first attention, to win or lose the deal, or have a new talented team member aboard?
A pitch is an oral or visual presentation designed to give a summary of your idea, your product, your team, your business plan, and your startup vision.
We will deal with pitching in more detail next autumn. However, the sooner you start practising the better prepared you will be for any occasion where you want to be heard.
Pitch can have different purposes, from trying to contact potential customers for feedback or testing your prototype, to meeting an investor, or to presenting in a fair or competition. Each of these pitches follows a slightly different structure. However, there are some basic rules for now:
- Describe your idea in one single sentence. You can also start with a “bang” – a fact, figure or a very short story if the audience has a bit more time.
- Say who is in your team and focus on 1-2 skills that make you strong or special (well, a 15- or 17-year-old startup-entrepreneur is pretty special anyhow :).
- Tell about the problem you’re trying to solve. You have identified a problem in the market, right?
- How exactly does the concept work? How are you solving the problem? Explain the main points cleary and step by step so the listener can visualise them.
- Tell the listener what you need from them – feedback, information, advice, or anything else?
- You can also add what you have achieved so far, what you want to achieve for the next months.
- Answer any questions if needed.
- Do not forget to thank the person for listening.
- Before you say goodbye, say your name and the name of your product once again, and leave your contact, if needed.
Here are some videos with tips (Of course, you are welcome to search for best pitches or advice on pitching presentations in Youtube yourself. Try search phrases like pitch your idea, elevator pitch or startup pitch):