Cut and dry, if you can’t tell me what your entrepreneurial project does in a sentence, you’ve got a problem.

I can’t begin to tell you how common a mistake it is among budding entrepreneurs to delve into the mundane details of their projects. It usually starts off like this.

“We at New Mobile Platforms Ltd. have developed a revolutionary platform that will change the way in which people communicate. By utilizing free wifi access across major urban areas we were able to relay signals and triangulate the locations of other individuals using the same application on their mobile devices, thus pinpointing the users location to 2.3m. Other users and subscribers to friend’s devices, can see other users via real time database query’s that are updated on their mobile devices from street to our data centre and their handset every 15 seconds via, GPRS, EDGE and G3 network connections, as well as free Wifi hotspots. If you look at our programming schematic, you will see that etc… etc… etc…”

Long story short, to most investors, individuals, and to the general public you might as well be speaking Ancient Greek. The majority of the population are not engineers, do not know industry jargon, and most importantly are not interested in detailed programming schematics. What it is that they are interested in is how the product will help them in the course of their day to day lives and what need it satisfies, and when dealing with investors, they’d also like to know how it makes money.

So let’s take the above example, and rephrase it into something that can be pitched in an elevator setting.

“We’ve developed a mobile app that lets you know where your friends are on a map. It’s great for trying to meet up with people and can help you navigate unknown areas, find meetings, and the like. We monetize via Mobile Advertising.”

And that’s it. No long elaborate explanations, no technical details, just what we do, what it offers, and how we plan to make money off of it. Now whether or not this idea is a good one, is a different story all together, but being able to summarize what it does in a sentence is the most important part of any elevator pitch. You get your message across clearly, effectively and quickly.

To summarize.

• Stay away from lengthy explanations that can be confusing.
• Cut away all industry jargon.
• Get to the point and keep it simple.
• Say what you do, how it fulfills a need, and how you monetize it.

The elevator pitch, those few sentences that are pivotal to conveying the message of your company across. You may think you have it right, but the truth of the matter is that even if you think you have it right, try in on a few people and see what they think, then go back to it, think about and try again. The elevator pitch will dictate whether you’ll get some love in the elevator, or whether your idea will just get shot down.

So what is it, Wikipedia defines the elevator pitch as “An elevator pitch or elevator speech is a short persuasive speech about a person, an organization or group, or an idea for a product, service, or project. An elevator pitch is often a part of a Marketing communications, brand, or public relations program. Good elevator pitches are succinct and compelling to their target audience. The name reflects the idea that an elevator pitch should be possible to deliver in the time span of an elevator ride, approximately thirty seconds to two minutes.“

Let’s leave the two minutes aside, and focus on the 30 seconds. The typical interest span of an adult human is eight seconds, so if you don’t get their attention in those fist 8 seconds, or let’s shorten it to even 5, chances are you’ve lost your audience. So.

Number One: Be succinct. Keep your opener to a sentence, at max two. This sentence should convey 1. What you do 2. What you need, and if you can, 3. Who you are.

“Hi, I’m Jacek the founder of f3fundit, a website dedicated to helping the entrepreneur and investor succeed, and we’re looking for applicants to Next Top Startup, a new concept ever we’ve planned for this June in Barcelona.“

What did we do here. 1. Introduction, you know who I am. 2. What we do, and 3. What we need.

Number Two: Have a hook. Let’s face it, if someone’s pitching you something you initially have no interest in, chances are you’ll tune out. A hook is something that grasps your audience’s attention. In this case your audience can be a group of people or one person. And your hook should be adjusted for them. Meaning, if you’re pitching to an investor your hook will differ than if you’re pitching to a collaborator. The hook is basically the value that you give the other party. What do we mean.

The pitch continues:

“The event offers a chance to win up to €25k for one startup, and we’re offering world class mentoring via the people we’ve brought on board.” this hook is targeted at the entrepreneur. You clearly see the value of participating in the event.

“The event offers you an opportunity to assess some of the best international companies, those that have gone through a rigorous selection and training process.” Here the hook is adjusted for the investor. The target audience clearly sees that we’ve eased their pre-selection and that we can help their deal flow.

Number Three: It’s all about you. For the next few seconds the world really is revolving around you, so knock the audience dead. Why should they listen to you? Who are you that you know your subject matter? Can they confide in you, and recommend you? Be sure to answer these questions.

The pitch continuities:

“I know the tribulations that a startup goes through, I’ve been there myself, I’ve likewise invested in companies, and what we’re doing is needed in the community. We’ve thus far received overwhelmingly positive support from the people we’ve contacted.“

You. 1. Establish authority by knowing your subject matter and market, and 2. since others are positive towards your ideas there ought to be something there.

Number Four: Seal the deal. If you and other party are really in an elevator, chances are your 30 seconds are up, or almost up. If you’re speed dating, probably the same. If you’re taking part in a pitch contest and have five minutes, let’s hope you brought slides. But for the sake of argument we’re in an elevator.

The pitch concludes:

“What do you think? How about we exchange contact details and set up a meeting later this week?“

Obviously, there are cultural differences and we’re not saying everyone should be so direct, but they should in their cultural manner get this message across nonetheless. Set up a meeting, a phone call, a chat, what have you, and when you go meet whoever it was you were pitching to, you’ll now have time to elaborate on your idea.

Number Five: Rinse and Repeat. There’s a reason we have a saying that goes practice makes perfect. Practice, do it in front of a mirror, on camera, record yourself, time yourself. Remember not to bee over anxious, test it out on colleagues and friends. Take feedback, rework and repeat the process again until it’s solid as a rock.

Do this, and you’ll be pitching like a pro in no time, and just for fun, let’s see what the whole pitch looks like.

“Hi, I’m Jacek the founder of f3fundit, a website dedicated to helping the entrepreneur and investor succeed, and we’re looking for applicants to Next Top Startup, a new concept ever we’ve planned for this June in Barcelona. The event offers a chance to win up to €25k for one startup, and we’re offering world class mentoring via the people we’ve brought on board. I know the tribulations that a startup goes through, I’ve been there myself, I’ve likewise invested in companies, and what we’re doing is needed in the community. We’ve thus far received overwhelmingly positive support from the people we’ve contacted. What do you think? How about we exchange contact details and set up a meeting later this week?”

34.7 Seconds. Meaning back to the drawing board on this one, and it sounded a bit off. But for the sake of exercise it was written along with this article.

And that’s that. As a bonus, stay far far far away from getting into technical details with your audience, we’ve covered it before, and we’ll say it again. The most important thing is to get your message across.