Startup Chatter by Donna Bogatin

ENTREPRENEURS: On your mark, get set, make your ELEVATOR PITCH! The just launched StartUpAlpha.com Pitch Community lets you do just that, online (professionally and free of charge).

How about when you get the fabled two minutes in a real elevator, face to face with a target, captive audience? What should you hone in on then?

Craig Newmark, the founder of his namesake craigslist, has a few words of advice and he shared them with me, here at Startup Chatter.

DB:  If an entrepreneur happens upon a prospective investor in an elevator, what should he or she “sell” in a two-sentence pitch to pique interest?

CN: That the product or service is simple and effective in a market where the competition is not.

DB: How does a business plan successfully convey big market opportunity potential while employing reasonable growth assumptions?

CN: The sources of the data need to be and to appear credible, supported further by trusted sources.

DB: What are the two biggest hurdles startups face in the first year of operation?

CN: Getting buzz, which requires networking a lot. Listening to people who are smart, like a good lawyer.

DB: What are the two biggest advantages startups have over incumbents when they first go to market? How can the opportunities be maximized?

CN: Smaller hierarchies, which means fewer people telling their boss what the boss wants to hear, and so on up the ladder.

DB: What personal qualities do most successful entrepreneurs share?

CN: Listening, risk taking, impatience.

THANKS CRAIG!

GOT A STARTUP? MAKE YOUR PITCH!