The ultimate elevator pitch.
It was 1853. At the New York World’s Fair, a man climbed into an open elevator shaft in front of dozens of people. He had the elevator hoisted three floors up, and he asked an axeman to cut the sole supporting cable, in front of a horrified, rapt audience. The elevator didn’t come crashing to the ground. Instead of free-falling, the elevator slid a few inches, but it halted. The man lived. His nifty safety mechanism had held up. The crowd went wild. That man was Elisha Otis, Vermont native, compulsive tinkerer, and the founder of the Otis Elevator Company. Orders for his traction elevators flooded in, and his elevators went on to be used in the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building. Otis’ ingenuity lives on today. The Otis Elevator Company reports that it moves 2 billion people every day, and we’ve all ridden in Elisha’s inventions at some point.
But, it all started with that ultimate elevator pitch in 1853.
In 30 seconds of dramatic showmanship on a public elevator stage, Elisha Otis captivated an incredulous audience, and sold everyone on the value of what he had built.
The purpose of an elevator pitch is to describe a situation or solution so compelling that the person you’re with wants to hear more even after the elevator ride is over. — Seth Godin
It’s hard to pull off an Otis-style pitch, but the goal of an elevator pitch is to be extraordinary, to articulate your company’s value proposition fast enough for your audience to get it, and to get hooked.
What your elevator audience wants to know.
Your elevator audience wants to know five things — the Problem, the Product, the Market, the Money, and You.
What is the Problem you’re solving? State the problem in simple, clear terms. The problem needs to be obvious, and should not need a ton of jargon or background for someone to understand. Your description should be devoid of acronyms and industry-speak. It should not need slides to back it up. Use numbers and facts to describe the problem, but don’t drown the audience in data. Not yet. The elevator ride might be over by the time you wrap up.
What is the Product to solve said Problem? What have you built to solve this problem? What does your product do? How does it work? How are you sure that it’s solved the problem? Has it solved a piece of the problem, or the entire problem? Is the product an essential service, or a luxury? Is the product opening up an opportunity, or is it closing a gap? Have you validated your idea with the market? Have you already built The Thing? Have you had initial customer feedback? How has the feedback changed you? What are you hearing? If you can demonstrate the product, Otis-style, even better.
Who is the Market for the Product? How many people out there will want your product? Who are these people? Where will you find them? Will they want your product some of the time, all of the time, one time, or many times? How will you reach that big market you’re dreaming of? How will you land that first customer? How will you land more customers, after that first one? How will you keep customers coming back? What is your plan for gaining market share? Do you have competitors, and how much of the market do they have? How will you get to pole position in the market?
Show me the Money. Are you selling directly to the end-user? Are you selling through a third party? How will you distribute your product? Through what channels? And, how much will people pay for it? How do you know that they will pay that much for it? How much will you make, compared to how much you will need to spend on building what you sell, and on distributing what you build? What is your cost to produce, market, and ship? Can you offset your costs? Can you build once, scale to many? Will you be profitable? How will you grow and flourish? How will you stick around in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?
Why You? Why now? This is the differentiator. They want to know that you have this urge, this compulsion to solve the problem. They want to feel that you are an unstoppable force of nature, and that you possess the drive to see this venture through to the end, and the resilience to handle the setbacks. People want to feel something, be stirred, be inspired, be transported. People love a good story. People want to be a part of a good story. Stories help people believe in the problem, believe in the product, and understand why they should believe in you. Otis climbed on that platform himself, and made himself the first customer of his product, in public. Otis helped people believe that they could ride skyscrapers without fear of free-falling. If you can make the problem personal, if you can talk about how you stumbled into the problem, why the problem matters to you, why you’re filled with a sense of purpose over solving the problem, you stand out as the problem’s first customer. The problem becomes your problem, the product becomes your product, and it’s easy to tell others about it.
What your elevator audience does not give two hoots about. Yet.
Otis’ audience did not care who Otis’ investors were, who was on the Board of his company, what his academic qualifications were, how connected he was, and what famous people he knew.
Otis’ audience cared about a few things — his invention worked, it filled them with wonder, it was personal to the inventor, and they smelled opportunity.
Your elevator audience is not interested (yet) in:
- Your credentials, your track record, or your influence.
- Who you know, and how connected you are.
- Whether or not you have a business degree.
- The amount of money you’ve raised so far.
- Who your Board members are.
- Who your Advisory Board members are.
- Quotes from industry experts.
- Market-survey reports with exponential graphs.
- Hypothetical market sizes from unreliable sources.
- Glossy, polished pitch decks.
- Cliche jargon, like ROI, supply chain, cap table, equity.
Your elevator audience wants to believe in you, in the problem, in the product, in the market, and in the profitability of the venture.
They want first-hand reassurance that they are making a sound bet.
The rest is details.
Save them for another elevator ride, if your first one works out.
