Pitch

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Throughout this class, you've learned how to build products, with an emphasis on building the right thing. We finish with a brief discussion of pitching product ideas. Pitching is a key skill for product managers and designers. You may find yourself pitching to:

  • Attract investors or stakeholders: if you are seeking funding for your product or idea, you need to be able to pitch it effectively to investors. If you are at a company and seeking permission to work on a new product feature or idea, you may need to pitch to executives to allow you to invest time in the project.

  • Convince customers: You need to be able to articulate the benefits of your product to convince potential customers to buy or use it.

  • Recruiting team members: you need to be able to pitch your idea to convince potential team members to work with you

  • Differentiating yourself from competitors: A good pitch can help you stand out from your competitors and position your product or idea as unique and valuable.

For all the reasons above, learning how to create a compelling pitch is critical

How to Pitch

Below, you will watch a video from Y Combinator's Startup School describing how to pitch.

Y Combinator (YC) is a startup accelerator that provides seed funding, mentorship, and resources to early-stage companies. It is one of the most well-known accelerators in the world. Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe are among the most well-known YC companies.

YC runs Startup School , an online program that provides resources to early-stage startups. It is free of charge and open to startups from all over the world. The video below is from a Startup School lecture on how to pitch. The video is geared towards pitching investors and it is long (~ 28 minutes). Still it provides excellent insight on pitching, and is well worth the time to watch!

Video Notes

From the video, we learned that a good pitch is clear, concise, and creates a foundation for curiosity.

A good pitch answers:

  • What are you making?
  • What is the problem?
  • Who is the customer?

A good pitch is

  • Legible: a legible idea can be understood by people who know nothing about your business
  • Problem-focused: people need to understand the problem you're solving
  • Conversational: you should be able ot explain to your mom and have her understand it. It includes no jargon

A good pitch avoids:

  • Ambiguity: don't use abstract descriptions. Aim to be so clear that your mom can understand it!
  • Complexity: don't weave multiple storylines or ideas together in your description
  • Mystery: remove jargon, suggestions, or anything that typical users won't undersatnd
  • Ignorable language: avoid language that users will ignore, such as marketing speak, mba speak, jargon and buzzwords