What Makes a Great 90 second Business Pitch?

If you are wondering how much can one really squeeze into a minute and a half - the answer is ‘a lot’.
An effective pitch is the key in creating a strong impression on investors and potential customers. In a 90 seconds pitch, it is very important to drill down to the basics and select a few key highlights, and pare the entire pitch down to a few key ingredients:

• The idea: If the essence of your business can be distilled into one sentence, great. If not, explain the pain (or problem) that your business will ease (or solve).
  
  
• The people: You don’t need to recite your titles or names of people on your board. Just say “I am Jonathan and I have 10 years of expertise in …..”. Investors mainly invest in people, not ideas.
  
  
• The competition: While there is not enough time to trash the competition, you cannot ignore them either. One well thought out line about how you are different from the crowd, will take you a long way towards credibility.
  
  
• The customers: If you have a real client - tout it. There is nothing like the endorsement of knowing that someone else is taking a chance on your company, your products or services.
  
  
• Intellectual property: Very often investors might like an idea, and even how the company is executing, but might be leery about investing, if they do not have an assurance that the technology is protected. So if you have a patent, let them know, and the rest will be easy sailing.
  Again, this 90 seconds pitch is not meant to get you funding or customers. It is meant to give the community (investors or customers) enough of a flavor to whet their appetites, so they will want to give you their votes and talk to you further!
  

Example:
IceCreamSundae.com is the only online portal that delivers ice cream over the internet. My team has over 20 years experience in making ice cream. Unlike Ben & Jerry and others, IceCreamnSundae.com is the only provider that can deliver ice cream 24X7. We have over 500 pilot customers and they all love it. Customer Jonathan once said: “This is the best ice cream I ever had over the internet! I will definitely try it again!” We have 2 patents pending for our ice-cream over the internet technology and it should be approved in the next 90 days! Vote for IceCreamSundae.com.