Perfect your one sentence pitch by focussing on your why

Getting people to quickly understand what your company is about is at the core of our work at Upflowy. The one sentence pitch (or elevator pitch) has been the way companies generally explain what they are/do in a few simple words. 

But, to perfect your one sentence pitch can be a tricky exercise without the right guidance or “formula”. 

When we advise young companies and the best way to create their first point of contact with their customers, we often ask them to help us understand what the business is all about. 

We also ask them to be as concise as possible because the landing page and signup flow communication has to be as short and impactful as possible. 

The CEO of Founder Institute, Adeo Ressi built a great framework for startup one sentence pitches on the premise that: "If you can't describe your business in one-sentence, then you don't understand it well enough”. 

The one sentence pitch displayed by Founder Institute is a guide to help you, but we want to go to the next level, to add the element of ‘why’. Here is what we have come up with: 

"Because we believe [in this ambitious vision], [my company] [is building/is bringing to market/has launched/is] [your 2-3 words define offering] to [enable/empower/offer/help] [a specific persona] to [achieve a define outcome] [by leveraging this unique asset/by adopting this innovative approach]”.

So why is our pitch a better formula to follow? Let us explain. 

The one sentence pitch 

The Founder Institute’s one sentence pitch madlibs gives a great example of how a company can easily explain their business simply and effectively, it looks a little something like this: 

“My company, [name of the company], is developing [a defined offering] to help [a defined audience] [solve a problem] with [secret sauce].”

Here is ours: 

“My company, Upflowy, is developing a no-code engine to help growth leaders to create high performing sign upflows and to iterate on them, without having to rely on engineering.”

For years I've been using it and asking for pitches in this format. As an advisor, as an investor, as a potential cofounder, I can see an efficiency to it, it creates the base for a shared understanding. It also helps to filter through very fast projects outside of your area of interest. 

However, I always felt this pitch was not great to convey passion and meaning. It was mainly factually sharing what the person was working on. But not enough about the person's story and intimate drive to create a successful startup. 

So it got me thinking and here is what I came up with. 

How to bring your pitch to the next level - it is all about the ‘why’

If you are aware of Simon Sinek and his work, he is very famous for his TED talk and explained why people buy Apple products with the golden circle. If you haven’t seen it, this is a must-watch. 

Communicating about the reason ‘why’ you started a business in the first place is more important than communicating ‘what’ you sell or ‘how’ it is better than the competition.

As Simon Sinek said: "The goal is to do business with people who believe in what you believe."

What you want to remember is it's important:

• To your users (to capture the early adopters who need to bet on your early-stage product)
• To your collaborators (to capture the talents who need to bet on your idea while taking a salary cut)
• To your investors (who need to believe in your 10-year plan)
• To yourself (who need to stay motivated through the up and the downs of the journey)

It's fine for Apple to not remind us every single day of what they believe in because their culture is part of our culture, their communication contains gist of what they believe through and through. 

But for a young startup, they need to communicate about it every single hour of their day. 

Understanding the ‘why’ of a founding team really communicates their ambition, more than the very limited Minimum Viable Product they currently work on, that's how they're going to motivate their teams.

Here is what I now recommend people to use as an updated madlibs. You'll note that we've made it a bit more flexible for advanced companies as well. We've also refined some of the placeholders to help people figure out what they need to focus on. 

"Because we believe [in this ambitious vision], [my company] [is building/is bringing to market/has launched/is] [your 2-3 words define offering] to [enable/empower/offer/help] [a specific persona] to [achieve a define outcome] [by leveraging this unique asset/by adopting this innovative approach]"

Next steps

Do you want to dive deeper into the one sentence pitch? Please check out the full article on Upflowy’s website here: 

https://bit.ly/3cZGnVE