don’t use bookmarks. They don’t use favorites very
much because this stuff is complicated and nobody has figured
out how to use it,” Jobs said. Safari would fix the problems by
incorporating Google search into the main toolbar and adding
features that would allow users to more easily navigate back to
previous sites or favorite Web pages.
One simple sentence is all you need to introduce the antago-
nist: “Why do you need this?” This one question allows Jobs to
review the current state of the industry (whether it be brows-
ers, operating systems, digital music, or any other facet) and to
set the stage for the next step in his presentation, offering the
solution.
70 CREATE THE STORY
The $3,000-a-Minute Pitch
During one week in September, dozens of entrepreneurs
pitch their start-ups to influential groups of media, experts,
and investors at two separate venues—TechCrunch 50 in
San Francisco and DEMO in San Diego. For start-up founders,
these high-stakes presentations mean the difference between
success and obsolescence. TechCrunch organizers believe
that eight minutes is the ideal amount of time in which to
communicate an idea. If you cannot express your idea in eight
minutes, the thinking the goes, you need to refine your idea.
DEMO gives its presenters even less time—six minutes. DEMO
also charges an $18,500 fee to present, or $3,000 per minute. If
you had to pay $3,000 a minute to pitch your idea, how would
you approach it?
The consensus among venture capitalists who attend
the presentations is that most entrepreneurs fail to create
an intriguing story line because they jump right into their
product without explaining the problem. One investor told
me, “You need to create a new space in my brain to hold the
information you’re about to deliver. It turns me off when
entrepreneurs offer a solution without setting up the prob-
lem. They have a pot of coffee—their idea—without a cup
to pour it in.” Your listeners’ brains have only so much room
to absorb new information. It’s as if most presenters try to
squeeze 2 MB of data into a pipe that carries 128 KB. It’s
simply too much.
A company called TravelMuse had one of the most outstand-
ing pitches in DEMO 2008. Founder Kevin Fleiss opened his
pitch this way: “The largest and most mature online retail seg-
ment is travel, totaling more than $90 billion in the United States
alone [establishes category]. We all know how to book a trip
online. But booking is the last 5 percent of the process [begins
to introduce problem]. The 95 percent that comes before book-
ing—deciding where to go, building a plan—is where all the
heavy lifting happens. At TravelMuse we make planning easy by
seamlessly integrating content with trip-planning tools to pro-
vide a complete experience [offers solution]. ”9 B y introducing
INTRODUCE THE ANTAGONIST 71
the category and the problem before introducing the solution,
Fleiss created the cup to pour the coffee into.
Investors are buying a stake in ideas. As such, they want
to know what pervasive problem the company’s product
addresses. A solution in search of a problem carries far less
appeal. Once the problem and solution are established, inves-
tors feel comfortable moving on to questions regarding the
size of the market, the competition, and the business model.
The Ultimate Elevator Pitch
The problem need not take long to establish. Jobs generally
takes just a few minutes to introduce the antagonist. You can
do so in as little as thirty seconds. Simply create a one-sentence
answer for the following four questions: (1) What do you do?
(2) What problem do you solve? (3) How are you different? (4)
Why should I care?
When I worked with executives at LanguageLine, in Monterey,
California, we crafted an elevator pitch based on answers to the
four questions. If we did our job successfully, the following pitch
should tell you a lot about the company:
much because this stuff is complicated and nobody has figured
out how to use it,” Jobs said. Safari would fix the problems by
incorporating Google search into the main toolbar and adding
features that would allow users to more easily navigate back to
previous sites or favorite Web pages.
One simple sentence is all you need to introduce the antago-
nist: “Why do you need this?” This one question allows Jobs to
review the current state of the industry (whether it be brows-
ers, operating systems, digital music, or any other facet) and to
set the stage for the next step in his presentation, offering the
solution.
70 CREATE THE STORY
The $3,000-a-Minute Pitch
During one week in September, dozens of entrepreneurs
pitch their start-ups to influential groups of media, experts,
and investors at two separate venues—TechCrunch 50 in
San Francisco and DEMO in San Diego. For start-up founders,
these high-stakes presentations mean the difference between
success and obsolescence. TechCrunch organizers believe
that eight minutes is the ideal amount of time in which to
communicate an idea. If you cannot express your idea in eight
minutes, the thinking the goes, you need to refine your idea.
DEMO gives its presenters even less time—six minutes. DEMO
also charges an $18,500 fee to present, or $3,000 per minute. If
you had to pay $3,000 a minute to pitch your idea, how would
you approach it?
The consensus among venture capitalists who attend
the presentations is that most entrepreneurs fail to create
an intriguing story line because they jump right into their
product without explaining the problem. One investor told
me, “You need to create a new space in my brain to hold the
information you’re about to deliver. It turns me off when
entrepreneurs offer a solution without setting up the prob-
lem. They have a pot of coffee—their idea—without a cup
to pour it in.” Your listeners’ brains have only so much room
to absorb new information. It’s as if most presenters try to
squeeze 2 MB of data into a pipe that carries 128 KB. It’s
simply too much.
A company called TravelMuse had one of the most outstand-
ing pitches in DEMO 2008. Founder Kevin Fleiss opened his
pitch this way: “The largest and most mature online retail seg-
ment is travel, totaling more than $90 billion in the United States
alone [establishes category]. We all know how to book a trip
online. But booking is the last 5 percent of the process [begins
to introduce problem]. The 95 percent that comes before book-
ing—deciding where to go, building a plan—is where all the
heavy lifting happens. At TravelMuse we make planning easy by
seamlessly integrating content with trip-planning tools to pro-
vide a complete experience [offers solution]. ”9 B y introducing
INTRODUCE THE ANTAGONIST 71
the category and the problem before introducing the solution,
Fleiss created the cup to pour the coffee into.
Investors are buying a stake in ideas. As such, they want
to know what pervasive problem the company’s product
addresses. A solution in search of a problem carries far less
appeal. Once the problem and solution are established, inves-
tors feel comfortable moving on to questions regarding the
size of the market, the competition, and the business model.
The Ultimate Elevator Pitch
The problem need not take long to establish. Jobs generally
takes just a few minutes to introduce the antagonist. You can
do so in as little as thirty seconds. Simply create a one-sentence
answer for the following four questions: (1) What do you do?
(2) What problem do you solve? (3) How are you different? (4)
Why should I care?
When I worked with executives at LanguageLine, in Monterey,
California, we crafted an elevator pitch based on answers to the
four questions. If we did our job successfully, the following pitch
should tell you a lot about the company:
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