If you really were an Educational Venture Analyst, as you are now emulating, you would spend a significant portion of your time responding to “pitches” from people who have ventures they want you to support. \u00a0A good entrepreneur needs to be instantly and professionally prepared to present three different kinds of pitch, and you need to be ready to critically review and be confidently decisive for each. \u00a0Here they are, in the order you’re likely to receive them:<\/p>\n
Also called the “front-door pitch” (for those salespeople who come to your front door and try to get you hooked in a sentence or two before you close it), the Elevator Pitch involves succinctly and cogently communicating your “value proposition” (exactly why your venture is sure to succeed) within the duration of an elevator ride (the idea being that you’ve cornered a prospective investor in an elevator, so you’ve got their attention for only as long as that ride).\u00a0For the entrepreneur the process is intensely real and humbling – it’s just you and your ideas, often without audiovisual support. \u00a0An Elevator Pitch is something every entrepreneur refines and practices at every available moment. \u00a0The sharp rationale is that if you can’t condense your brilliant concept into a compelling 30-to-60 second sound byte, then you probably also won’t be able to sell your product to prospective customers. \u00a0Case closed.<\/p>\n
For a professional EVA, Elevator Pitches are equally crucial. \u00a0You typically don’t know the individual who is pitching, so you have no interpersonal cues to work with. \u00a0They will be intense, probably nervous. \u00a0Within a minute you must accurately evaluate both them (their credibility and competency) and their idea (it’s viability) decisively. \u00a0You encounter lots of sketchy people and sketchier ideas, so you try to pay attention, not to be jaded. You also need to be constantly vigilant that charm, beauty and great graphics (when part of the package) are only superficially attractive; \u00a0don’t be\u00a0swayed by someone who is just a good salesperson. \u00a0After all, if this idea is so good, why hasn’t somebody else grabbed it already? \u00a0Finally, you rarely know very much about the detailed context of the idea, so you’re frantically trying to understand unfamiliar language and logic. \u00a0Ultimately, your success depends on identifying true diamonds in the rough: the worst thing for your reputation would be for the disruptive brilliance of this idea to be recognized by some other EVA, and you’re the one who let it get away!<\/p>\n
In ETEC522 you’ll get your own chance to review, and compose, Elevator Pitches. \u00a0 The truth is that the vast majority fail. \u00a0 Less than one in twenty will convince you, the EVA, to ask the entrepreneur for something more:<\/p>\n
Just as the Elevator Pitch is predictably brief, the longer Venture Pitch is traditionally 8-12 minutes. \u00a0For the entrepreneur it is typically a stand-up performance with as many persuasive tools and tricks as they can muster. Glitz is wrong, of course – it’s all about conveying the credibility of the presenter (yes, this is most important) and the venture. \u00a0Eight minutes may sound like plenty of time but it isn’t: the entrepreneur must capture and hold attention while delivering an exciting, confident, comprehensive and well-evidenced summary of their enterprise that anticipates and dispenses with every concern or doubt an EVA might have. \u00a0The content and structure of a Venture Pitch are relatively standardized in terms of the kinds of information and arguments that are expected, so most of the magic comes from the presenter, the presentation design, and the power of the ideas they convey.<\/p>\n
For a professional EVA, the Venture Pitch is a much more reliable way to assess the entrepreneur and their concept. \u00a0It would be great if there were enough time to review all opportunities this way, and if the people and ideas behind them were worthwhile. \u00a0By agreeing to review a Venture Pitch the EVA is agreeing to invest their valuable attention. \u00a0It shouldn’t be wasted by either party. \u00a0The EVA has two decisions to make:<\/p>\n
In ETEC522 you’ll also get the chance to review Venture Pitches, and compose one. \u00a0The truth is that the vast majority of these fail as well. \u00a0 Less that one in twenty will convince you, the EVA, to ask for the final pitch:<\/p>\n
For this last pitch the entrepreneur is rarely on stage. \u00a0The Business Plan is almost always a formal document, typically 10-100 pages, laying out the detailed arguments and equations of the enterprise. \u00a0It is this quantitative document that allows the EVA to engage formally with the entrepreneur via a negotiation that establishes the benefits an EVA can expect to receive based on how their investment can trigger the execution of the plan, and therefore the success of the enterprise. \u00a0As with the Elevator Pitch and Venture Pitch, Business Plans canalso fail to capture the interest and commitment of the EVA. \u00a0 However, at this stage of the process the highest failure rate is actually the plan itself. Business Plans are simply projections – most eventually fail upon execution, even with great EVAs on board.<\/p>\n
As important as Business Plans are (and you’ll probably be happy to hear this!) their rigour is beyond the scope of ETEC522; it is sufficient that you know they need to exist and to be as high-quality as the other pitches.<\/p>\n
Finally, it’s natural to think that the Venture Pitch and Elevator Pitch are just shorter, more condensed versions of the Business Plan. \u00a0If this were true you could just create a Business Plan and derive the others from it. \u00a0It’s not quite that simple. \u00a0While the separate pieces clearly need to be coherent and mutually-supporting, they tend to exist independently – and symbiotically.<\/p>\n
For example, the Elevator Pitch is mostly about sizzle, not steak. \u00a0Its function is all about marketing: do people “get it”? \u00a0There’s nothing better an entrepreneur can do than try out their Elevator Pitch on as many prospectively influential people as possible, altering it every time to learn what resonates. \u00a0Refining and capturing that resonance infuses life into the Venture Pitch and Business Plan.<\/p>\n
The Venture Pitch, meanwhile, is for a much narrower audience, conveying the fullest personality and possibilities of the venture in a highly optimistic but entirely open and honest way. \u00a0And the Business Plan lays out all of the hopes and dreams on the table in a confident, complete and businesslike manner.<\/p>\n
A human-scale analogy (perhaps a dangerous one?) might be with the stages of a relationship: \u00a0the three pitches are like flirting, a first date, and a marriage discussion, respectively. \u00a0 There’s just one individual behind them all, with largely distinct personifications. \u00a0So an EVA needs to accurately assess the benefits of a great marriage from the first flirtation! \u00a0 \u00a0It’s a daunting job, but we all do it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you really were an Educational Venture Analyst, as you are now emulating, you would spend a significant portion of your time responding to “pitches” from people who have ventures they want you to support. \u00a0A good entrepreneur needs to be instantly and professionally prepared to present three different kinds of pitch, and you need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5321,"featured_media":0,"parent":45,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4222","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4222\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}