Elevator Pitch

“Elevator pitch is a short description of an idea, product or company that explains the concept in a way such that any listener can understand it in a short period of time.” (Wikipedia)

There’s a Turkish expression which applies to the elevator pitch perfectly.

“Etrafina cami, agyarina mani”

Which means it covers all required topics but also rejects everything else so makes it crystal clear. The audience understands everything you intended to convey and does not understand anything you did not intend to say. It is important to provide clarity in both aspects.

An elevator pitch is a fundamental tool for communicating your idea. Whenever you engage with others — whether they’re friends, investors, mentors, or anyone else — you typically begin by explaining your idea. It’s crucial to have your pitch prepared and polished for these moments.

Exactly, crafting an elevator pitch isn’t just about impressing others; it’s also a way to clarify your idea to yourself. If you can’t succinctly explain your concept, it might indicate a need to refine or rethink your business idea. Often, ideas that can’t be expressed concisely are not well-defined or viable.

A visually clean presentation is essential for an elevator pitch. Using a font size of 30 is preferred to ensure readability and clarity, allowing your audience to focus on the content of your pitch without distractions.Here is the slides you should include in your pitch. Read this alongside with AirBnb Pitch Deck together.

Slide 0: Cover

Slide 1: Summary

A single sentence that explains your idea.

Slide 2: Problem Statement

What’s the problem you are trying to address?

Slide 3: Your value proposal, solution

How do you solve the problem? What’s your value proposal? Why should I pay to your product?

Slide 4: Product

Explain your product without using technical language. How it works, what’s its unfair advantage, any unique technology?

Slide 5: Market

What’s your market? Is there a defined market by research companies like Gartner? What’s the size of the market? Activities in the market like merge and acquisitions or any news that proves the market worths to invest?

Slide 7: Business Model

How are you planning to earn money? In which way? How to collect money? What are you gonna sell? Freemium? Premium? Subscription? What are your packages or tiers? When you apply the expected and the maximum number of clients to the business model what’s the expected and the maximum revenue? That’s the second most important slide for investors in my opinion.

Your revenue = Market size * Your market share * business model

Slide 6: Competition

Classify your competitors and make compare matrix and state your position compare to others. Make sure your unfair advantage is represented as a column on the compare matrix. Be honest, don’t say you’re the best or there’s no competitor.

Slide 8: Go-to-market Strategy

How are you planning to enter the market? Who are the first customers and how to/where to acquire them?

Slide 9: Team

Who are the founders? What’s their expertise relevant to the market/product? Any previous startup experience? Any success story?

Slide 10: Traction

What are the current numbers? How many user? Any revenue? Growth rate? This is the most important slide for investors in my opinion. Because if you have tract record you don’t have to prove too much.

Slide 11: Investment

How much investment you need and where to spend that money? What are your key milestones.