How to Pitch Your Startup

Hale frames a startup idea as a growth hypothesis made up of a problem, a solution, and an insight that could give the company an advantage. Founders do not need to spell out every detail in an application: a good investor will extrapolate. Hale says the investor is trying to understand the idea, feel excited about it, and decide whether they want to work with the team.

Hale says clarity helps a company grow through word of mouth, because people need to understand and remember what it does before they can recommend it. He advises founders to make their descriptions legible to people who know nothing about the business. Ambiguity, tangled ideas, jargon, vague language, and buzzwords can all make a pitch harder to follow or remember.

A reproducible description gives listeners a mental picture by naming the product, the problem, and the customer. Hale contrasts abstract language such as transforming people’s relationship with information with Airbnb’s description as a marketplace for booking rooms with locals instead of hotels. He recommends leading with what the company makes, rather than a long explanation of why or how.

Hale says an “X for Y” comparison can quickly convey a business model, but it works best when X is widely known and seen as successful, Y clearly wants that model, and Y represents a large market. He gives “Buffer for Snapchat” as a weak comparison because Buffer was smaller than Snapchat. A comparison should create understanding without making the opportunity sound too limited.

Hale argues that concise writing signals that founders have thought through their idea and can identify what matters. In an example, he trims a description of AI and IoT medical devices for sub-Saharan communities to affordable medical devices for sub-Saharan Africa. He keeps the detail that helps explain the appeal, low cost, and drops low power consumption as less essential to the short description.