

5 Elevator Pitches: What Do You Think Of Them? - socalsamba
http://howtosplitanatom.com/startup-reactor/startup-reactor-the-elevator-pitch/

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danohuiginn
For elevator pitches, there's a lot of verbiage. Here's the Cliffs Notes...

 _transpondr_ generates popularity stats for your podcast

 _logobid_ lets graphic designers bid to work for you

 _publicitr_ pushe content to websites, and tracks the results

 _siphs_ is a button to submit to digg/reddit/etc simultaneously

 _zambino_ connects advertisers to online video producers

None of them sound earth-shattering. I'm not saying they're bad: some of them
could do OK if they get the business side right. Zambino seems the most
interesting of the lot, siphs sounds really slight.

And they could all do with streamlining their pitches.

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jkent
May come across as negative, but hey. Almost all suffer from the same
weaknesses. Although it's debatable, I reckon that elevator pitches (general
ones anyway) should contain the following. A brief hook as danohuiginn has
written. What's the product and who are the 'buyers'? What's the revenue
model? Who is behind the company? Competition? Unique Selling Point(s)?

Transpondr - what is the product itself? Is it free analytics for your
podcast? Who is the 'we' behind it? Is there competition and why is it
different? it's first sentence/hook is good though.

Logobid - Should think about who they are pitching to. Why should I set the
price? It's not as clear as so the above note. How are they making money - rev
share? Competition? How is it different? who are they?

Publicitr - the first sentence doesn't add anything. they are talking about a
market, not what they do. again, who are they? competition, how different? not
exactly passionate.

siphs - is it share-this or tell-a-friend? Does it matter which? Choose -
bloggers or publishers? Try not to offer everything to everyone at this stage.
Far too wordy. As above. How to monetise? Who are they? Competition - anyone
else doing it, what is wrong with several submits?

zambino - nice hook. too wordy though. Second sentence - what does it mean?
Again, who are they, competition, USP, revenue model?

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poppysan
The elevator pitch should not contain information that detailed. When you get
into revenue models and such, unless its a USP then it becomes more than an
elevator pitch.

Once you get a formal pitch then you can go into detail. Everyone should
memorize their elevator pitch as it will be used VERY often . :)

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technoguyrob
More interesting yet, how about some of the startup founders on this site make
one of these and post them here? For both yourselves and for fun.

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brlewis
I use this elevator pitch formula. Can't find the original source.

For [customer-base], [startup] is a [category] that [main-feature]. Unlike
[competitors], we [differentiators].

I strongly suggest putting such a pitch in your news.yc profile. Here's mine:

For people with many pictures and little time, ourdoings.com is a photo-
sharing site that organizes them for you. Unlike conventional photo-sharing
sites, we make it easy to create an illustrated story of what you've been
doing, and to share your story in illustrated email.

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colortone
GREAT formula.

Here's a short one, riffing on the "hollywood pitch":

"[Service] combines [reference point] and [reference point] to achieve
[business objective of customer]".

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aj1980
Arpan from Siphs here. Thanks for the feedback so far, definitely appreciated!
Looks like the elevator pitch is too wordy so we will work on clarifying. That
said, the Siphs button does both (lets users either post to a social media
site or send the web page to a friend via email). Regarding monetization, it's
a subscription based model. Before you think, no way, that will never work,
let me highlight that we've already signed up paying customers. Any
experiences with scaling from here would be great! Thanks and kudos to Steve
from howtosplitanatom for putting this together.

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tandaraho
Here's another format I've seen suggested by a VC firm:

<XYZ corp> provides <category> solutions to <target-customer> for <purpose>,
which allows them to <benefit> by leveraging <uniqueness> technology.

this is the example they gave:

Akimbi Systems provides R&D tools to ISVs and enterprises for automated
provisioning of test configurations, which allows customers to deliver higher
quality software faster by leveraging the company's automation platform.

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socalsamba
These are a part of a program that HTSAA is running to help new startups learn
some of the nitty, gritty details of starting a business. These 5 startups
have volunteered to act as case studies. What I am really looking for are your
thoughts, as entrepreneurs, on their pitches.

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sellsius
Love the concept. Over time can amass a nice archive.

Perhaps if a comment box were under each startup pitch?

I like danohuiginn's comment-- can each be distilled to a one sentence pitch?
Sometimes an elevator ride is only 1 stop :)

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ssharp
I think the whole "dropping the vowel" thing is getting a little annoying with
all these web startups. Transpondr? Publicitr? Come on...

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poppysan
find a better available url...hahahaa. Its tough.

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Tarky7
Interesting, very interesting.

