5 ms·

How To Pitch A Product

117 points by cwan 16y ago

jeffiel 16y ago
He sure did them a solid :) Nice work John!
johndbritton 16y ago
It's really funny because when I started working on the demo I had a full slide deck. Each time I practiced I eliminated a slide or two until there was nothing left. At that point I decided to just show the site and start coding.
patio11 16y ago
You'd be astonished how magical "I can make your phone ring" feels to people. Family, friends, and people who don't even know me giggle when I do my demo on them.
- Alex3917 16y ago
  It's even better if it's a business pitch rather than a technology demo. The world's best sales pitch is always being able to say, "If I push this button then your phone is going to ring 150 times in the next 3 minutes with people who want to buy your product, want to see?" That's how you get to charge 150K per client per year, and that's why DailyCandy and the like are worth so much.
- johndbritton 16y ago
  I had about 10 other things I wanted to demo, but that's all I could fit in the slot they gave me.
meldymel 16y ago
HOLY COW. That was the fastest programming I've ever seen. Haha - loved it when the room full of nerds corrected John on the one typo he made with the semicolon. Hilarious! Good demo, yo!
1l2p 16y ago
What an amazing demo. Love the way the audience got involved in the coding ("semi colon!!!") and the interaction between you and everyone in the room. Steve Jobs is in trouble.
niico 16y ago
Even though I'm not a coder I was astonished by how he made his presentation. I wonder now if a regular non-hacker VC would appreciate as much as we all geeks do :P #keepthatinmind Awesome!
- brlewis 16y ago
  The product was an API, Application Programming Interface. To demo it properly, you have to do some application programming. Your question applies to any product that the VC wouldn't use her/himself..
keyle 16y ago
Totally unrelated, but I'm wondering how much Fred paid for AVC.com...
jasonkester 16y ago
Nice that he was able to overload an entire cell tower during the demo. This is actually pretty similar to our demo at NYC Tech a few years back: Showed the product, let everybody jump in live, brought down the venue's wifi. Fun times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbITx2d8Otc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbITx2d8Otc
RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
After all the editor religious wars, it's really nice to see the editor he used. nano.
- mahmud 16y ago
  He used nano and PHP, and I think that was a strong tactical choice. It shows how you don't need anything sophisticated to use Twilio. If he pulled out NetBeans with J2EE, or Visual Studio or Emacs with Rails, people will be suspicious there might be some "magic" happening behind the scenes.
  - johndbritton 16y ago
    I'm glad you're not making fun of me, I actually do use nano on a daily basis... but I usually run it using `pico`. ;)
bice 16y ago
One of the best (and quickest!) "business" demos I've ever seen.
known 16y ago
Meet, phone, email and snail mail potential buyer in that order.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
generalk 16y ago
It sure helps to write code live if you are pitching to developers. John got a big nod from the audience for doing that. In my experience, writing the code live is asking for trouble. It seemed to work for this particular audience though.
mahmud 16y ago
Q: Why do I need this? A: You can't live without it. Most gangsta Q&A answer, ever.
- johndbritton 16y ago
  I'm dead serious, you're going to get left in the dust if you don't use it.
  - danielharan 16y ago
    well, it really depends on what kind of product you're building. answering with customer stories would have been stronger. kick-ass presentation nonetheless.
    - johndbritton 16y ago
      You're right, but I was on stage and that's what came to mind. Next time I'll be ready. ;)
johndbritton 16y ago
Dear Hacker News, I'm sorry you missed the Twilio demo at NYTM. I decided to create a number for you to call in to so you don't feel left out. +1 516 619 8182 Go ahead, give it a try. It'll be fun, and I promise not to share your data. Cheers, John Britton - @johndbritton Developer Evangelist Twilio - http://www.twilio.com http://www.twilio.com
perplexes 16y ago
I did a Sean Connery voice on the conference line. +1 516 619 8182

117 points by cwan 16y ago

He sure did them a solid :) Nice work John!

It's really funny because when I started working on the demo I had a full slide deck. Each time I practiced I eliminated a slide or two until there was nothing left. At that point I decided to just show the site and start coding.

patio11 16y ago

You'd be astonished how magical "I can make your phone ring" feels to people. Family, friends, and people who don't even know me giggle when I do my demo on them.

Alex3917 16y ago
It's even better if it's a business pitch rather than a technology demo. The world's best sales pitch is always being able to say, "If I push this button then your phone is going to ring 150 times in the next 3 minutes with people who want to buy your product, want to see?" That's how you get to charge 150K per client per year, and that's why DailyCandy and the like are worth so much.
johndbritton 16y ago
I had about 10 other things I wanted to demo, but that's all I could fit in the slot they gave me.

meldymel 16y ago

HOLY COW. That was the fastest programming I've ever seen. Haha - loved it when the room full of nerds corrected John on the one typo he made with the semicolon. Hilarious! Good demo, yo!

1l2p 16y ago

What an amazing demo. Love the way the audience got involved in the coding ("semi colon!!!") and the interaction between you and everyone in the room. Steve Jobs is in trouble.

niico 16y ago

Even though I'm not a coder I was astonished by how he made his presentation. I wonder now if a regular non-hacker VC would appreciate as much as we all geeks do :P #keepthatinmind Awesome!

brlewis 16y ago
The product was an API, Application Programming Interface. To demo it properly, you have to do some application programming. Your question applies to any product that the VC wouldn't use her/himself..

keyle 16y ago

Totally unrelated, but I'm wondering how much Fred paid for AVC.com...

jasonkester 16y ago

Nice that he was able to overload an entire cell tower during the demo. This is actually pretty similar to our demo at NYC Tech a few years back: Showed the product, let everybody jump in live, brought down the venue's wifi. Fun times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbITx2d8Otc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbITx2d8Otc

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

After all the editor religious wars, it's really nice to see the editor he used. nano.

mahmud 16y ago
He used nano and PHP, and I think that was a strong tactical choice. It shows how you don't need anything sophisticated to use Twilio. If he pulled out NetBeans with J2EE, or Visual Studio or Emacs with Rails, people will be suspicious there might be some "magic" happening behind the scenes.
- johndbritton 16y ago
  I'm glad you're not making fun of me, I actually do use nano on a daily basis... but I usually run it using `pico`. ;)

bice 16y ago

One of the best (and quickest!) "business" demos I've ever seen.

known 16y ago

Meet, phone, email and snail mail potential buyer in that order.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

generalk 16y ago

It sure helps to write code live if you are pitching to developers. John got a big nod from the audience for doing that. In my experience, writing the code live is asking for trouble. It seemed to work for this particular audience though.

mahmud 16y ago

Q: Why do I need this? A: You can't live without it. Most gangsta Q&A answer, ever.

johndbritton 16y ago
I'm dead serious, you're going to get left in the dust if you don't use it.
- danielharan 16y ago
  well, it really depends on what kind of product you're building. answering with customer stories would have been stronger. kick-ass presentation nonetheless.
  - johndbritton 16y ago
    You're right, but I was on stage and that's what came to mind. Next time I'll be ready. ;)

johndbritton 16y ago

Dear Hacker News, I'm sorry you missed the Twilio demo at NYTM. I decided to create a number for you to call in to so you don't feel left out. +1 516 619 8182 Go ahead, give it a try. It'll be fun, and I promise not to share your data. Cheers, John Britton - @johndbritton Developer Evangelist Twilio - http://www.twilio.com http://www.twilio.com

perplexes 16y ago

I did a Sean Connery voice on the conference line. +1 516 619 8182