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His examples don't support his conclusion. They are all easy to describe with an elevator pitch. Facebook - It is a social network for college students iPhone

His examples don't support his conclusion. They are all easy to describe with an elevator pitch. Facebook - It is a social network for college students iPhone - it is an ipod with a web browser and telephone built in FriendFeed - we extended the Facebook news feed concept to all the places where people host content wii - it is a nintendo with a cool new controller data visualization apps - we made an app for visualizing data His story about Facebook is also bad, because Zuckerburg did say "we made a social network for college students" and Peter Thiel did give him money.

jorgeortiz85 18y ago
You aren't giving elevator pitches for these products; you're giving the one sentence description the NYTimes would use to describe these products to my grandmother. Your sentences accurately describe what these products -are-, but they wouldn't inspire an investor to believe that they were multi-billion dollar opportunities. Facebook - When Thiel invested in Facebook, the prototypical social network was Friendster, a massive failure. Facebook wasn't the first or the only social network for college students. What made it different from the competition? That's a more interesting question, and one that isn't easily answered in an elevator pitch, not today and not in 2004 when it was first funded. iPhone - Let's go back to the iPod then. In the words of Slashdot's CmdrTaco when the iPod first launched: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Barring a prototype, how do you describe to an investor what makes the iPod different? My best attempts would fall flat: "You see, it has this little wheel..." Now we understand what the Nomad --> iPod jump is (innovative technology giving much better usability). Now we can spread hype in anticipation of the Palm/WindowsMobile/Blackberry --> iPhone jump. Now we trust that Apple is able to deliver on this hype. But who would have thought all this was possible in the years before the iPod?

jorgeortiz85 18y ago

You aren't giving elevator pitches for these products; you're giving the one sentence description the NYTimes would use to describe these products to my grandmother. Your sentences accurately describe what these products -are-, but they wouldn't inspire an investor to believe that they were multi-billion dollar opportunities. Facebook - When Thiel invested in Facebook, the prototypical social network was Friendster, a massive failure. Facebook wasn't the first or the only social network for college students. What made it different from the competition? That's a more interesting question, and one that isn't easily answered in an elevator pitch, not today and not in 2004 when it was first funded. iPhone - Let's go back to the iPod then. In the words of Slashdot's CmdrTaco when the iPod first launched: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Barring a prototype, how do you describe to an investor what makes the iPod different? My best attempts would fall flat: "You see, it has this little wheel..." Now we understand what the Nomad --> iPod jump is (innovative technology giving much better usability). Now we can spread hype in anticipation of the Palm/WindowsMobile/Blackberry --> iPhone jump. Now we trust that Apple is able to deliver on this hype. But who would have thought all this was possible in the years before the iPod?