
Ask HN: What are the ingredients in a brilliant elevator pitch? - groktor
What are the things to have and what to avoid?<p>Are there any great online resources for getting started with this kind of writing?
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danieltillett
No business idea that can be pitched in one sentence can be brilliant. Any
idea that can be shortened down that much is not brilliant, which is why so
many pitches are of the kind "We are an ex-Google/Facebook/Amazon team
building the Uber/Airbnb/Facebook for niche x". Yawn.

Truely brilliant ideas are very, very rare and take quite a long time to
explain.

Edit. My approach is to say that I have solved problem x. If the person is
interested in this then I then ask if they want to learn more and tell them
approximately how long it will take to explain. Most people aren't interested,
but for those that are it is always a productive and enjoyable experiences to
talk to them about the idea in depth.

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smellycat
In business school (I know, shudder, I went to biz school), there's a pretty
textbook formula of "[Product/Service] does [what's unique about the
product/service] to [competitive advantage/how it's solving the problem]."
It's simple, but it's actually much harder to do than you'd think. When you
nail it, it's incredibly compelling.

After you build a draft, you have to ask, "Is anyone out there already saying
this? Do they have our [what's unique] or [how it's problem solving]? If so,
you need to either keep workshopping and thinking about what's truly unique to
your product, and if the problem you're trying to solve is 1) actually a
problem or 2) a thought-out solution.

If you're really struggling to answer those questions or come up with a unique
statement, it's a good indicator that your product/concept may not be viable.

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avghacker
I'd say keep it to one sentence. I heard some one say that if you can't tell
me what your business does in one sentence, you haven't found the niche.

[https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/one-sentence-pitch-
winners...](https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/one-sentence-pitch-winners/)

Google: one sentence business pitch

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groktor
Funnily enough none of those pitches resonate with me. They all seem a bit
long

~~~
groktor
Just found this video, it's pretty good advice
[https://clip.mn/tag/MDhkMDQ2ZTI](https://clip.mn/tag/MDhkMDQ2ZTI)

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Mz
Density of information. It needs to not only be short, but to convey a lot at
the same time. This is why analogies (like "Uber for x") are popular. You need
to capture something of the spirit of the venture, as well as what
differentiates it from its competitors.

