In this recent article (by Peter J Denning and Nicholas Dew, Communications of the ACM), the authors kill the myth of the utmost importance of the elevator pitch for your startup business.
I strongly recommend you to read the full article but for those that do not have the time (nor can go through the paywall), I summarize here the two key points they mention:
- Stats show that pitches suffer a failure rate of 96%. Data does not support the conventional wisdom that the elevator pitch is a key to success with innovations. By the way, neither the presence of business plans serve a communication role for venture capitalists
- The purpose of a pitch is to engage the other person into a conversation with you about your idea. You need to reinterpret the pitch. It is not a transmission of information but an offer to have a conversation.
A conversational pitch will get you closer to your idea being adopted.
What do you think? Do you agree with their view? Are you going to change your pitch?
