How to construct your pitch

Watch me pitch Ringio in 60 seconds:

Let’s start by saying that:

So…. if I can do it, YOU can do it too!

The basic structure of a pitch:

• One sentence on what your company does.
• Framing the problem and why it matters
• Outlining the most salient aspect of the solution
• Emphasizing its core benefit
• Wrapping it up with who uses it and why

All pitches are given orally, so write it down if it helps you structure it, but don’t use words that belong to written English, use words and expressions of oral English. When you say your pitch, it needs to sound natural, and believable, and not rehearsed.

When you say your pitch you cannot be thinking about the pitch… it goes too fast, you need to be sensing the person who is getting it.

In order to deliver this pitch at TechCrawl East I had to rehearse for 3 hours straight… it took me 60 rehearsals or so to get it down.

Why go through all the trouble?

It took me a year to realize that, as the founder of a startup, I’m always selling. Almost every conversation with a stranger is a sale. If I’m not selling, I’m not moving the ball forward. So I might as well be prepared to sell, and having a pitch ready is a handy tool for that.