Getting support for your great idea See Guy Kawasaki on YouTube!

1. The Elevator Pitch
Selling an opportunity
in 30 – 120 Seconds

2. 2
What is an Elevator Pitch?
Context of Entrepreneurship
• A business-oriented, purposeful verbal
message as fast as a ride in an elevator (30
-120 seconds) in understandable language
– even for high-technology ventures
• A concise, carefully planned, and well-
practiced “answer” about yourself, your
business, your firm, your project etc.
• A situation with an opportunity to sell your
company’s identity and set yourself apart
from other entrepreneurs

3. 3
What is an Elevator Pitch?
Business Plan in Context
Elevator Pitch:
The problem (need)
you are going to
solve (told in 30
seconds),
20 Minute Business Plan Presentation
Leading to an early
opportunity to present:
•Your solution, and
•value proposition to
future stakeholders
Elevator Pitch: the preliminary to your back-of-the-envelope business plan
Adapted from W. Runge 04/2008

4. 4
Elevator Pitch Situations
• All conceivable opportunities to initiate
linking stakeholders (investor, backers;
“sponsors”, gaketkeepers, decision
makers) and entrepreneurs.
• (A startup) searching for financial
backing or cooperation partners
• Meeting someone (accidentally or even
better, intentionally) at …
– Network Partnering-Events
– In firms: before /after meetings, in the canteen…
– Meeting a “player” in the club, sitting next to you
on the plane, in the lobby of a hotel, …

5. 5
You only have one chance
to make a first impression!

6. 6
Approach
• Give people a “hook” by talking about
something that really interests them
• Be succinct, clear and to the point
• Focus on one simple message
• Make it easy for people to contact you
after the pitch – and provide them with
an incentive to seek you out
• For investors: align pitch with their values
(e.g, induce expectations of big profits)

7. Adapted from W. Runge 04/2008
7
Presenting: The Rule of Three
• The “Hook"
Get their Attention and
Interest
• The Opportunity
Explain and support
your point with passion
(investors expect energy
and dedication from entrepreneurs)
• Should create Desire (“greed or good”)
• Must demonstrate your team’s unique
competences to exploit this opportunity.
• The Close
Call to Action AIDA!

8. 8
An Elevator Pitch Template
• WHAT you do
• WHOM you serve (target)
• HOW you deliver (proposed solution)
• BENEFIT(S) for target user
EXAMPLE (“What are you doing for who, how
and why?”):
a."I [WHAT: helping verb]
b.[WHO: target market/ideal customer/society]
[____1___] [___2___] [___3___] [___4___]
• [HOW: deliver what your target wants]
• [BENEFIT: key benefit or desired result]"

9. 9
Business Plan Template in brief
USP (Unique Selling Proposition) –
Sentence #1
For (target customer)
who (statement of the need or opportunity),
the (product/service name) is a (category)
that (statement of benefit).
Sentence #2
Unlike (leading competitive alternative),
our product (primary source of
differentiation)
Sentences #3 and 4
And our business model (main features), and
will generate (revenues and profits over time)
Ref. Dorf & Byers, p. 250

10. 10
Call to Action
• Based on the assigned case, create and
present an elevator pitch, derived from the
suggested template (see Slide 8)
• 30 (max 45) seconds version, no PPT.
One teams will then move to the next step:
• One (max 10 minutes) team to present
your business plan to investors: remember
you (not your Powerpoint) are the show.
(you can start with this, then edit the
content down to create the shorter one)

11. Rules for Thursday:
• The entire pitch is by one person alone.
• Entrants will have 90 seconds to present
their idea.
• Props are prohibited: including (but not
limited to) Notecards, notes, or models, etc
• No PowerPoint slides or posters, etc.
• At the end of the pitch, each presenter may
offer a business card (of normal size).
W. Runge 04/2008 11

12. 12
Questions?