Notes on Successfully Pitching an Idea

Key Concept: FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

• Essential to successful pitching.
• Create a sense that the audience will miss out on something important if they don’t buy in.

Importance of Storytelling in Pitching

• Pitching is a storytelling exercise.
  • Engage the audience and create a connection.
  • The story should highlight why saying yes is crucial for the audience.

Step 1: Know Your Audience

• Focus on the audience’s perspective instead of your own nerves or delivery.
• Tailor your pitch to what the audience cares about:
  • Venture Capitalist: Focus on market opportunity and potential returns.
  • Philanthropist: Emphasize social impact and transformative change.
  • Work Pitch: Align with their goals (e.g., customer loyalty, revenue, promotion).

Step 2: The Hero's Journey

• Structure your pitch through a narrative arc:

  1. Status Quo: Describe the current situation or problem.
  2. Conflict: Highlight issues with existing solutions.
  3. Climax: Introduce yourself (the hero) and how you plan to solve the problem.
  4. Resolution: Illustrate the positive outcomes of your solution.

• Example:

  • A successful pitch described the environmental impact of milk production.
  • The solution involved engineering plants to produce animal proteins sustainably.

Step 3: Address Weaknesses

• Identify and acknowledge your biggest weaknesses directly.
• Don’t gloss over the challenges; instead, create a plan on how to overcome them.
• Inspire Confidence:
  • By being transparent about strengths and weaknesses, you gain audience trust.

Conclusion

• Great pitches not only tell an engaging story but also inspire the audience to join in on a promising future.
• The audience’s action of saying yes should feel like the only option to be part of the narrative.