I’ve been a presentation coach for more than 8 years now.

And if there’s one thing I can assure you, it’s that delivering a business pitch for fund in ONE MINUTE is one of the hardest part of pitching and public speaking.

I don’t think the judges in such programs even understand this. You’d be expected to communicate your business idea in less than 60 seconds and still impress the judges. 5 minutes is hard. 3 minutes is tough. 1 minute is mad.

An average person needs more time in a contest to express their ideas clearly. Once you shorten this time you create tension which further disorganizes their coherence and negatively affects their presentation.

Not to mention, some businesses are so hard to discuss their potentials in ONE MINUTE. You’ll likely run out of luck if any of the judges starts interrupting you or being sarcastic about your ideas (like I see in Nigerian pitches). The odds will be greatly against you.

And even I cannot guarantee your success in such moments. But I could be of great help if you’ll listen.

 

 

  ONE MINUTE PITCHES are not your regular pitch.

They’re called ELEVATOR PITCH for a reason – – quick. Savvy. Impressive.

Your goal is not to discuss the full business or expand on your research, your goal should be to achieve 3 things:

1. Get attention by briefly and clearly describing the problem your business wants to solve.

2. Explain how you solve this problem – – a peep into your unique methodology, application or business process.

3. Discuss how much you need, what you plan to do with the money and how much stake you’re giving out in equity to the investors. If the total words, in typing, exceeds 250 word count, you won’t make it in one minute.

Your first hard task would be to find a way to clearly communicate your problem and solution in a way that the judges can easily “get it” You’ll have to be very particular about words and phrases. You’ll cut off so many jargon, weak phrases and ambiguous terms. Your adjectives have to be intentional.

At the end of your speech, think about your closing. What can I say to make the judges feel something – – ponder, wonder, react…

Ask more questions.

Getting the judges to ask you a question is a good sign of progress as that might buy you extra time to share more interesting insights.

I’d like to discuss more about this if I get enough responses from people who’re interested in BUSINESS PITCH.

 

Questions?