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> He's not really pitching a new piece of technology at all. He's pitching an ad campaign, which in turn is about introducing consumers to a new piece of techno

> He's not really pitching a new piece of technology at all. He's pitching an ad campaign, which in turn is about introducing consumers to a new piece of technology. You seem to be getting hung up on the fact that Draper isn't actually a startup founder pitching his own product to investors. That's almost completely irrelevant. He is definitely pitching the product. In this case, he simply happens to be pitching the product back to the company who made it. Pitching and advertising, while they have their differences, are fundamentally about the same thing: getting people to believe a product can make their lives better. If, in addition to tossing out numbers, you can make your potential investors believe you know how to connect with your market and truly understand their needs, so much the better. It doesn't have to be in tear-jerker form like Draper's presentation: it's about knowing how to frame the product. And sure, it's a TV show, but it happens to be a fairly exceptional TV show built on a great deal of wisdom about what makes people tick. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

pvg 16y ago
No, he is not pitching the product. He's pitching the campaign. The TV show is great. Pitching and advertising are not the same thing and pitching is certainly not about getting people to believe a product can make their lives better, at least not in the most common cases HN readers are likely to encounter. The title 'this is how to pitch a new technology' is fairly silly. I think all of these are either obvious facts or trivial arguments and that's all I've stated and now you're telling me I'm hung up on something that I never even mentioned (startup founders pitching to investors). Now, if you want to draw pitching wisdom from this clip, terrific. But if you want to respond to me, respond to claims I've made instead of ones you said I've made, but didn't.
- dieterrams 16y ago
  > No, he is not pitching the product. He's pitching the campaign. You're insisting there's mutual exclusion where it doesn't exist. > But if you want to respond to me, respond to claims I've made instead of ones you said I've made, but didn't. I pretty clearly used the words "you seem", as in, "this is what I think you're thinking." I'm not a mind reader, so I'm forced to make a guess. Based on your other comments, it seemed like a pretty reasonable one to me. By the way, pitching in its everyday usage just means to sell someone on something, whether it's customers or investors. (Notice how salesmen are often described as making a "sales pitch".) Advertising is a special form of pitching to customers. Pitching in the entrepreneurial sense of talking to a roomful of investors is also a special form of pitching. This is a YCombinator site, so when someone mentions pitching, there's a good chance they mean talking to a roomful of investors. But a lot of us also talk about pitching to customers. Either way, I think the clip offers some insight in how to do both, even if it's exaggerated for dramatic effect.

pvg 16y ago

No, he is not pitching the product. He's pitching the campaign. The TV show is great. Pitching and advertising are not the same thing and pitching is certainly not about getting people to believe a product can make their lives better, at least not in the most common cases HN readers are likely to encounter. The title 'this is how to pitch a new technology' is fairly silly. I think all of these are either obvious facts or trivial arguments and that's all I've stated and now you're telling me I'm hung up on something that I never even mentioned (startup founders pitching to investors). Now, if you want to draw pitching wisdom from this clip, terrific. But if you want to respond to me, respond to claims I've made instead of ones you said I've made, but didn't.

dieterrams 16y ago
> No, he is not pitching the product. He's pitching the campaign. You're insisting there's mutual exclusion where it doesn't exist. > But if you want to respond to me, respond to claims I've made instead of ones you said I've made, but didn't. I pretty clearly used the words "you seem", as in, "this is what I think you're thinking." I'm not a mind reader, so I'm forced to make a guess. Based on your other comments, it seemed like a pretty reasonable one to me. By the way, pitching in its everyday usage just means to sell someone on something, whether it's customers or investors. (Notice how salesmen are often described as making a "sales pitch".) Advertising is a special form of pitching to customers. Pitching in the entrepreneurial sense of talking to a roomful of investors is also a special form of pitching. This is a YCombinator site, so when someone mentions pitching, there's a good chance they mean talking to a roomful of investors. But a lot of us also talk about pitching to customers. Either way, I think the clip offers some insight in how to do both, even if it's exaggerated for dramatic effect.