From MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition:
What is an elevator pitch?
Elevator pitch (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is a brief overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The pitch is so called because it can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (say, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).
The term is typically used in the context of an entrepreneur pitching an idea to a venture capitalist to receive funding. Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea and team on the basis of the quality of its elevator pitch, and will ask entrepreneurs for the elevator pitch to quickly weed out bad ideas.
It is said that many of the most important decisions made on the floor of the United States's House or Senate are made "within the span of an elevator ride" as a staff aide whispers into a Congressman or Senator's ear while they head down to the floor to cast their vote.
How do I deliver a winning elevator pitch?
Here’s what one expert told us:
1st sentence: State the Problem
2nd sentence: State your solution
3rd sentence: Who you are, why you’re the one to solve the problem
3rd sentence: State the value proposition
4th sentence: Call to action (what the audience or recipient should do next)
Here are some other expert opinions:
The Elevator Pitch
Sean Wise, one of Canada’s leading mentors for emerging growth companies
The Entrepreneruship Central Library of Entrepreneurial Podcasts from HCP
Presentation on Pitching Business Ideas
Bill Aulet, Renowned Serial Entrepreneur
Keys To A Great Elevator Pitch to Venture Investors
FundingPost.com – a collection of VCs share their thoughts
How To Create A Compelling Pitch
Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder, VC and hedge fund manager
What Makes a Good Elevator Pitch
Kenneth P. Morse, Senior Lecturer and Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center
Perfecting Your Pitch
Bill Joos preaches the art of the pitch for Garage.com a venture-capital investment bank that's helped more than 60 startups raise a total of $200 million since 1999.
Mastering the 30 Second Pitch
Carmine Gallo, BusinessWeek
How To Deliver a Masterful Elevator Pitch
StartupNation
The One-Minute Pitch
MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
Ten Tips For Perfecting Your Pitch
Stengel Solutions is a strategic planning and marketing firm specializing in solutions for industry leaders, growth businesses and nonprofits
A collection of articles from the Kauffman Foundation, “Pitching Angel Investors”
Other Resources:
Highland Capital Partners' Entrepreneurship Central portal captures and shares advice around the essence and process of innovation, entrepreneurship and company building. New information is regularly added offering additional insight and perspective from entrepreneurs, CEOs and other thought leaders.
www.hcp.com/blog
People use Vator.tv to pitch their ideas, businesses, skillsets or needs, such as capital, partner or staffing requirements. Hence, the tagline, "What's your pitch?" Through these pitches, people on Vator.tv can network, exchange knowledge and collaborate with other people who can help those ideas get to the next level. People use Vator.tv to get their ideas or needs discovered or to find, discover and connect with others in networks of interest.
www.vatortv.com
Mass Insight Corporation. Suggests nine potential strategic opportunities for new multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research centers which would help maintain Massachusetts' national R&D leadership and create new economy jobs.
http://www.massinsight.com/docs/Strategic_Alliances.pdf
Mass Insight Corporation. First-of-its-kind directory of major science and technology research centers in Massachusetts.
http://www.massinsight.com/docs/Research_Center_Directory_2004.pdf
GSAS Harvard Biotechnology Club. The Start-Up Program is dedicated to providing resources and services to biotechnology and healthcare start-up ventures.
http://www.thebiotechclub.org/industry/articles/index.php
In 2003, eight Greater Boston research universities (Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston) released a collective economic study, “Engines of Economic Growth,” that outlined their role as the area’s special economic advantage: magnets for talent and investment that infuse more than $7 billion into the regional economy each year.
