StartupLounge PitchCamp

Today I had the opportunity to help at the monthly StartupLounge PitchCamp program facilitated by Michael Blake and I must say that it is a great program for entrepreneurs and I highly recommend it. The program is designed to give entrepreneurs a brief overview of elevator pitches, time to refine the pitch with a couple mentors, and finally a chance to practice it in front of everyone. Generally, the thinking is that as an entrepreneur we suffer from expert’s syndrome where we know so much about our business that we can’t concisely say what we do in a 30 second elevator ride, and thus having an objective third party goes a long ways in helping.

Here are some of the guidelines from PitchCamp:

• There’s no perfect elevator pitch but there are ways to make a good one
• Answering questions such as who you are, what you do, what pain you solve, and what you want is a good formula
• An analog analogy can be useful to make the business more memorable by attaching the idea to an existing concept people are familiar with
• A hook, or opening comment like “I was frustrated trying to…” can also be memorable

Some other tips include recording yourself and practicing it on anyone who will listen. A choice quote: an amateur practices until they get it right while a professional practices it until they can’t get it wrong.