020 - Elevator Pitch

In the startup world, you may dream of "Love at first sight" with an investor riding in on a white horse to be your prince charming, but this isn't that kind of fairy tale. Imagine a random stranger walking up to you on the street, handing you a book, and proposing marriage.

That is the kind of social norm violation that neglecting to gradually earn someone's time and emotional interest commits. Avoid it at all costs.

An "Elevator Pitch" is a moment where the precise choice of words and phrasing can massively impact the future. It is the first and most delicate point, acting as a gatekeeper for new companies and technology. Like first impressions with a romantic interest, every word counts.

Every moment of a potential investor's time is earned, as is their emotional interest, one step at a time. No investor will spend the time to understand a new technology or opportunity without an emotional investment first being cultivated.

Logically, they may have every reason to be interested, but there is a vast divide between introduction and the necessary emotional investment to develop that understanding.

Like human courtship, people also tend to rely heavily on their own existing networks, often selecting investments much the same way they select romantic partners. Consequently, those choices have much the same high rate of failure to reach any Return on Investment (ROI). This is less than ideal.

I'll be the first to admit that my skills at the Elevator Pitch leave much to be desired, as I'm far better at recognizing and removing #bias than I am at injecting it. My best attempt may read something like this:

"Our systems can outperform the leading conventional AI while requiring thousands of times less data and compute. They can also deliver capacities that generative AI fundamentally cannot. This translates to massive operational cost savings, risk mitigation, and improving performance over time."

The world of funded tech startups is full of skilled "Pickup Artists", whose offerings are no different than those of Elizabeth Holmes, an assortment of things they can't actually deliver. These individuals have already raised billions this year by waving the flag of "Generative AI". Many of them are also now being sued.

Perhaps Pitch Decks are the modern VC's version of Tinder. (*Please, don't make this an app*)

Are the investors you know looking for a "pump and dump", or are they in it for the long term?

Metaphors can be a particularly fun educational opportunity. Get a few people batting these puns and jokes back and forth and you might even spark some innovation.

*This message is brought to you by Humor and metaphor-oriented cognitive biases.