The Elevator Pitch

A colleague of mine just sent me this HBS Elevator Pitch Generator. It is a nice tool, although I generally don't like elevator pitches. And I definitely don't think an elevator pitch should be focused on "explaining yourself, your business, your goals and your passions." Your "passions"? Who cares about your passions? As an entrepreneur you should be passionate about one thing only: meeting customer needs.

If you do an elevator pitch, it should be focused on your background, the customer need, the opportunity and your solution. There is only one goal: to make money. That should be obvious. 

Here's my one minute elevator pitch on why you should not do elevator pitches:

90% of all new products fail.

Only 11% of all venture investments get to liquidity.

Only 4% of all venture investments generate 62% of all the returns.

Almost half of all third rounds are flat or down.

Thus: innovation is fundamentally broken.

So spend an hour and listen to a detailed pitch solving the innovation problem.

And then spend an entire day thinking deeply about why innovation fails. Be honest with yourself and define every term rigorously.