With Minute to Pitch It only a day away (RSVP here!), we at MassChallenge thought wed share some of our entrepreneurs tips and tricks for delivering a 60-second pitch.
J. Alain Ferry, RaceMenu
It’s critically important to engage with your audience while pitching – intonation, eye contact, smiling and light hand gestures. But that’s difficult when you’re trying to stick to a script. So record yourself reading the elevator pitch the way you’d want to deliver it – with passion, energy and enthusiasm. Then go for a run and listen to it on your iPod over and over and over until you can recite it like the alphabet. This allows you to focus on engaging your audience during the pitch, without the distraction of remembering your next line.
Trish Fontanilla, Vsnap
When you spend too much time focusing on the words, you lose the meaning behind them. Whenever you practice, don’t mumble through it. Be passionate about what you’re saying every single time.
Anna Callahan, ZoomTilt
Say it over and over, out loud. It should sound like you’re telling your best friend something you’re super-excited about. If anything doesn’t roll off your tongue, change it to something that does. Then repeat, repeat, repeat.
Fernanda Rocha, E-POL
Well, something I do as a foreigner is to try different words with the same meaning until I find the one that sounds better and which I feel more comfortable to pronounce – sometimes one that relates more closely to the word used in my mother tongue. I think this is good advice even for English speakers, trying different ways to say the same thing until you find the one you are most comfortable with!
Jeff Brayer, Memory on Hand
Preparing for a minute long pitch takes a lot more than a minute. You have to carefully consider your words. I always try to quickly and clearly convey who we are, what we do, and why you (the audience) should be excited.
Brian LeBlanc, Atomic Tower
Being a tech company we’re always challenged to explain what we do so that the non-technical folks can understand it (our fault if we fail). So having streamlined to 60 seconds is a real thrill for me. Will the audience get it? Did I make report building compelling so that everyone is as enthusiastic about it as I am? We’ll have to wait to Tuesday night to see.
Oliver Haas, LittleBonsai
“Practice makes perfect. Wear a memorable piece of clothing.”
As you can tell, every entrepreneur has unique methods for prepping and delivering an on-point pitch. Please join us for Minute to Pitch It on Tuesday, August 28 and see how the six Finalists above and many others fill out those 60 seconds as they pitch their companies to an audience of entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts!