Venture Capital Firms

How to Create Your Elevator Pitch

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Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists often find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder in elevators, industry events, social functions, coffee shops, and random places. If you are an entrepreneur and are actively seeking funding for your venture, such an encounter can and will happen to you eventually.

Seize the moment.

Do not hesitate.

Relax.

The span of 60 to 120 seconds may be the chance you need to land the funding you’ve been after.

Continue to compile your list of venture capital firms with VCgate and initiating contact with the ones that fit your business. Keep reaching out to friends, family, associates, mentors, and influential persons you know, to ask for introductions to VCs they might know. Carry on your funding search at all levels.

And always be prepared to deliver the elevator pitch that could change your life.

First, you must write the elevator pitch. For this, you must know your own business concept inside and out. An elevator pitch:

• Concisely describes your product or service
• Reveals how your business makes money
• Explains the benefits of your product or service
• Compares your business to an existing company
• Explains how your business differs from that company
• Mentions a fact or two showing that there is a large and growing market for your product or service

The key to writing an elevator pitch is not to squeeze in as many words as possible, but to say much in few words.

Next, memorize and rehearse your elevator pitch until it becomes second nature. It helps to have written – or at least worked on – a business plan. This way, the few words you speak during the course of 60 to 120 seconds will carry the gravitas of many hours of research and refinement. Humans have a sixth sense of whether someone truly knows what they are talking about. Know your business concept, industry, and target market. The invaluable side benefit of your deep knowledge is that you can expound on any one point in the pitch, should a VC stop you to ask a question.

When you do eventually run into a VC, be cordial. Remember, you have two ears and one mouth. Listen. Converse. But do not play coy: inform the individual that you are an entrepreneur looking for funding. When you see an opening, explain your business in the natural tones of someone who has over-prepared. Continue on to deliver the rest of your elevator pitch, then present your business card.

If you have delivered your pitch well, you may even be asked for your business card before you get the chance to pull it out. When that happens, congratulations. You knocked it out of the park.

Watch this free presentation to discover the #1 secret to raising venture capital.

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