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One Perfect Pitch

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One Perfect Pitch

How to Sell Your Idea, Your Product, Your Business – or Yourself

McGraw-Hill,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Even Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have trouble explaining their firms to others. Can you explain yours?

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Communication and media expert Marie Perruchet explains how to create the “perfect pitch,” an “ask” that will resonate strongly with high-tech venture capitalists (VCs). She used to cover VCs as a journalist reporting on Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Now she’s a business consultant who counsels entrepreneurs on how to secure investor funding. She understands what makes Silicon Valley VCs tick, what they want to hear and what will motivate them to invest. Her manual includes a comprehensive set of rules for entrepreneurs, although – in what is probably an editing misstep – some of her illustrative examples don’t quite align with her pitch-building advice. For instance, she says to end every pitch by asking for something, but she doesn’t ask for anything in her “perfect pitch” example. Yet, she offers some good advice for entrepreneurs seeking funding, and she provides an unusual and helpful section of counsel for pitchers for whom English is a second language. getAbstract recommends her approach to anyone seeking better pitching skills.

Summary

What’s the Story of Your Start-Up?

Airbnb, the online marketplace and homestay network, has a valuation of $25 billion. Before it succeeded, its founders had trouble coming up with the rent for their San Francisco apartment. Then an upcoming design conference became so popular that all of San Francisco’s hotel rooms sold out.

To respond to convention-goers’ need for lodging, Airbnb’s founders created a website originally called Airbedandbreakfast.com. They rented three airbeds on their lounge floor to travelers and cooked breakfast for their guests – for $80 per night.

Can you tell a story about the firm you want to launch? If your start-up is already underway, what’s its story? Whatever your tale, tell it well so it can help you secure start-up funding. Stories influence people’s emotions and affect their brain chemistry in a way that shapes how they think and what they do. Technology entrepreneurs can use the amazing power of stories to influence venture capitalists (VCs) to invest in their companies.

Communication Skills

Unfortunately, few technology entrepreneurs know how to communicate their company’s stories compellingly. Most tech...

About the Author

San Francisco–based communications and media expert Marie Perruchet, a former BBC journalist, counsels entrepreneurs on how to pitch for venture capital funds and angel investors.

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