The Art of the Pitch is presentation I’ve given a number of times over the last couple of years. The startup community in Orange County and Los Angeles is vibrant and full of some very good ideas, however skill of writing and delivering a pitch to an audience is always worth improving.
I was an agency account director for many years, and one of the truths about working for an agency is that they have to pitch to win accounts, and pitch ideas to win projects. All new business is pitching AKA selling, and all creative is pitched—the best ideas win. So I accumulated a lot of experience is speaking clearly, quickly and pursuasively for budget.
There really isn’t just one form of pitching. There are three.
The elevator pitch is a famous one, the elevator doors open, an investor walks in, and you have about 30 seconds to sell your idea. This exists, and there is a formula for writing and presenting this first level.
 
Now if the elevator pitch is effective, the investor in question will ask you to step out of the elevator and tell them a little more. That’s my second level: the 3 minute storytelling version.
 
The most documented pitch is, the world of the agency and the startup, the hour long meeting with a panel of investors. That is my third level, the 20 minute deck, which lead into a deeper conversation, to fill out the full hour.
The video above is from the talk I gave at Startup San Diego’s Convergence 2018, on January 24, 2018. Please watch it. I walk through the variety of differences between the 30-3-20 versions, and provide some tips on how you write to each level.
I have a slightly earlier version of the deck on below, which you can review if you don’t have the time to commit to the video.

[slideshare id=44283008&doc=theartofthepitch2015v2-150204172751-conversion-gate02]

This is an earlier version of the presentation with the same basic information.