K.I.S.S.

“Great! I have no idea what you are doing.”, said David Sifry after I explained to him our product.

I had spent the previous day plowing through episodes of Bazillion Dollar Club trying to understand how to put the final touch on our pitch. The same product pitch that we spent the entire semester developing. The same product pitch that was just shut down. The same product pitch that we have four days to fix.

Before talking to David, I was feeling pretty good about the pitch.

We have spent the semester building an argument centered around the business we creating. Our words have been specially hand crafted and tooled into a beautifully flowing sentences. We are one with our product and vision. To hear that what I was saying was wrong felt a little like getting punched in the face. Don’t get me wrong, David is one of the nicest and most enthusiastic guests I have ever had the opportunity to meet, he just has a way of directly knocking you on your ass with a few words.

Tell me how you started making this product.

Well, we made a list of pains and gains and then…

No. How did you start?

With research.

Before research. Why did you start this?

Oh. Cuz we were overwhelmed.

Yes.

In talking with him about our pitch I realized that we had lost all of the simplicity and enthusiasm we started the semester off with. I sat there not even able to answer the simple questions he was asking. Although it is fun, building a start-up isn’t for the fait of heart — even a simulated one. We have put in a lot of time and energy into this business. And at that very minute, my brain seemed to up and quit on me. I started thinking about jumping ship. Maybe I don’t need to be here for the final pitch. Wonder if it is too late to pivot? They can do this without me. I want gummy worms.

Just about the time I was ready to see about a late withdrawal from the class, I think I got what he was talking about. We had done all of the work throughout the semester and we knew what we wanted to do, we were just explaining it wrong. There is not much exciting about building a “learning management system designed for the specific needs of art & design students”, but “putting a studio in every student’s pocket” sounds pretty cool. We were overwhelmed, and that, my friends, is what our product is going to fix.

After wrapping things up with David and licking my wounds (read: processing what in the hell just happened), I kinda got excited.

Go back to our problem at its roots — Drive the pitch around what makes the purchaser open his or her wallet — Talk to our audience like they know nothing of what we are doing — Make it so freakin’ exciting that people can’t afford to not be part of it

We did more research. We reframed the pitch. We are keeping it simple. I can’t believe it, but we are ready.

12.5.15