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These admirably concise descriptions are only compelling if you factor in what you already know about these services: what they do to be different and successfu

by henning 17y ago

These admirably concise descriptions are only compelling if you factor in what you already know about these services: what they do to be different and successful. Your description of Dropbox leaves out why it is different from the legions of other online file sync services that are kinda OK or just lame, for instance. Putting yourself back into 1995: "why would anyone want to buy books online when there's Barnes & Noble, Walden, etc right down the street? Ecommerce is great and all but 'Blah.com: buy X online' is not necessarily a reasonable idea." If I had never heard of these before I don't know how you could describe what it does as well as essential other details that don't fit into 111 characters.

gizmo 17y ago
I partially agree. You can't pitch a web hosting company this way, because they're commodities, and every web hosting company is essentially the same. Luckily, investors like Richard Branson want ideas to be _new_ in order to be worthy of investment. And if you want to do something new, then you should be able to explain what's new in a few words. 111 characters is an arbitrary limit, but it's not terrible. Amazon is new because it cuts out the middle man, and promises better margins for publisher and customer alike. That sounds like a good idea right away. Also, not everybody lives close to a Barnes & Noble, so the idea of delivery of books is by itself cool. With an elevator pitch you only have a few seconds anyway. So you simply HAVE to convey as much as possible in as little time as possible. When you restrict yourself to a number of characters you can try to fit as much as possible in there. A much better metric than "3 sentences" or "10 seconds", because those two metrics can be gamed (sub sentences and talking rapidly). 111 characters is a gimmick, sure. But it's a _cool_ gimmick.
prpon 17y ago
Very well said. I could be saying any of these statements and if these were things that were non-existent, it would not be as appealing. I would like to find out if Branson would fund me for the following: "Provide health care to everyone, employer subsidized, co-ops, non-profit". "solar powered clean drinking water for rural areas". I might as well say "Space time continuum, user generated, freemium"

by henning 17y ago

gizmo 17y ago

I partially agree. You can't pitch a web hosting company this way, because they're commodities, and every web hosting company is essentially the same. Luckily, investors like Richard Branson want ideas to be _new_ in order to be worthy of investment. And if you want to do something new, then you should be able to explain what's new in a few words. 111 characters is an arbitrary limit, but it's not terrible. Amazon is new because it cuts out the middle man, and promises better margins for publisher and customer alike. That sounds like a good idea right away. Also, not everybody lives close to a Barnes & Noble, so the idea of delivery of books is by itself cool. With an elevator pitch you only have a few seconds anyway. So you simply HAVE to convey as much as possible in as little time as possible. When you restrict yourself to a number of characters you can try to fit as much as possible in there. A much better metric than "3 sentences" or "10 seconds", because those two metrics can be gamed (sub sentences and talking rapidly). 111 characters is a gimmick, sure. But it's a _cool_ gimmick.

prpon 17y ago

Very well said. I could be saying any of these statements and if these were things that were non-existent, it would not be as appealing. I would like to find out if Branson would fund me for the following: "Provide health care to everyone, employer subsidized, co-ops, non-profit". "solar powered clean drinking water for rural areas". I might as well say "Space time continuum, user generated, freemium"