
How to craft a great pitch without spending much time on it - brault
http://hardba.co/howtopitch
======
jasode
_> In the minds of many of those who didn’t know me that night I became “The
guy who wanted to invest $1000 in the stock market when he was 18”, which is
an easier label to remember than “The guy who wants to democratize the
financial system”_

I think your self-diagnoses is not quite right. The wrong conclusion is to
think "$1000 at 18" is more memorable because it's a biographical detail. The
bigger issue is that _" democratize the financial system"_ was too abstract
and vague.[1] A clear and concise description of your _product_ is still
better than a founder's biography. You just happen to pick a nebulous product
description and that distorted the weighting towards your personal story.

To me, the landing page of [http://hardbacon.ca](http://hardbacon.ca) was more
effective than your live pitch to describe the product. (The youtube video
didn't show your slides so maybe the live audience received your messaging
better.)

From that page, I would substitute "democratize financial system" with
something like:

\- "We're like LendingTree for small investors. Instead of presenting a list
of banks offering loans, we present a list of brokers including human brokers
and automatic robot brokers."

\- "We're like Expedia/Orbitz/Hipmunk for choosing an investment broker. We
let non-professional investors compare brokers and advisers."

[1] "democratize the financial system" is so generalized that it could apply
to PayPal, Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Square, Stripe, Kickstarter, Bitcoin,
etc.

~~~
ben_jones
I also feel like people only remember what they want to remember. For instance
if I'm at a bar and an attractive person tells me their name I am much more
likely to remember it then the bartender who I also had a casual conversation
with, however vain that might sound. I've heard a few dozen pitches and I
still remember many who gave them by what their company is doing rather then
who they are... YMMV as always.

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ToJans
Serious question, although a bit off-topic: why is the number of
Facebook/Instagram/... followers even relevant? What is the average conversion
on channels like these, and aren't there more efficient channels to focus on
in the beginning? F.e. go to a student event and hand out flyers there, chat
with people etc?

~~~
gcav
Agree. If you have a conversation ratio for a channel then optimizing how you
acquire followers makes sense. Otherwise go ask people to pay you money and
hear what they have to say

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MOARDONGZPLZ
I can't tell what the site is about from clicking on it. Additionally, it
appears the author is giving advice, but didn't win the competition? Winning
isn't necessarily a requirement, but it would have helped validate the article
as the title, "How to Craft a Great Pitch" seems to imply a way we know the
advice is solid.

Finally, Instagram likes? SNAPCHAT likes? What?

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gnicholas
This post comes across (IMO) as a thinly-veiled attempt to get us to learn
about this guy's startup. The advice (sound natural, be memorable) is not
unique, and the strategy seems bizarre (why Excel?) and apparently didn't win
him the competition.

Of course, an alternate explanation for his loss could be that his problem
statement ("I was 18 and couldn't invest $1k in the stock market") isn't a
problem anymore. Hell, I had an Ameritrade account decades ago and invested
roughly this much money.

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jdhe
If correct, the comment from jasode is much clearer at explaining the point of
the site than the landing page. I got it that they were comparing brokers, but
its not clear that this is the point of the site.

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urlwolf
Great topic. I have had this problem may times over.

