How to pitch a startup in 15 seconds

I've heard thousands of elevator pitches, and 99% of them aren't clear. Here's a tool to create a crystal-clear, 15-second elevator pitch in just five minutes.

Simple message maps create clarity & brevity.

They are one main summary & three supporting points. It can be recursive — each of those supporting points can have three of their own smaller summaries for a longer pitch.

Since startups are predictable, we can put these four points into a formula:

Summary: What's your X-Y?

Like "we're the X for Y" — e.g. "the Uber for whatever". Similes are powerful & succinct, but you don't have to use one. Just be brief: what are you doing in one short sentence?

Supporting Point 1: What's the problem?

Whom do you help do what? What's their pain? This is the easy part. If it's not easy, you haven't talked to enough customers yet.

Supporting Point 2: What's the solution?

How do you address that problem? What's your product or service? What is the outcome that you help your customers create? How is their life better after you?

Supporting Point 3: How do you make money?

Lastly, why does this make money? Whom do you charge and for what do you charge them? The amount of money does not matter here. The business model is the key point.

As an example, here is a rocky, basic 15-second elevator pitch for one of my businesses:

(Summary) The Right Box helps startups bring products to market faster. (1) Knowing exactly what to do next sometimes feels like the job of a psychic rather than a founder. (2) We use short sprints to find the right hypothesis for the moment, and we craft a path to test it — all in under a week. (3) And we do it in exchange for cash.

It doesn't tell you everything, but it's enough to start a conversation — and that's the goal.