Why intention matters in any startup pitch
10 years ago, before I heard Simon Sinek’s famous Golden Circle TedTalk, I sat in on a very small talk by Bill Warner in Boston. I’m a fan of Bill’s. He’s a founder, investor, and seems like a really good guy. I dig him.
In that small talk that Bill gave, he asked five founders in the audience to pitch their startups to the rest of the crowd. Each person stood up. Did their 30-second elevator pitch. And sat down. The exercise lasted only but a few minutes.
Each pitch went something along the lines of the following: “Hi. My name is John. And I run a company called XYZ. We are a digital media solution that connects A with B in a unique way. Our tech does a, b, and c. And THIS, and THAT.”
Directly following, Bill asked three other members of the audience, who had not pitched, to repeat what each of the five people had pitched. It was a mini game of telephone, testing to see if the three could remember what each of the five pitchers had said. And guess what happened. Yep. All three of the people bumbled through trying to repeat what it was they thought each person had said. Almost all were off by a sizable degree.
Then Bill said something I’ll never forget (this is not a direct quote, but is damn close):
“The next time you are pitching your idea, I want you to pitch intention. Not tech. I want you to tell me what you intend to do. Not what your technology does. It’s unbelievable how little human beings relate to technology. They will forget your technology. They will not forget your intention. Pitch intention.”
Bill went on to demonstrate how beginning your pitch with the words “I intend to BLANK,” is a significantly more successful way to pitch than beginning with “my technology does x, y, and z.” He asked each of the five founders to stand up and repitch their startups again with the new approach: “I intend to _______.” He then asked three new people from the audience to repeat what they heard. Granted, these three new people had much more focus around the question and had somewhat been given the answer, but still… the level of clarity of them saying what they had each heard was super accurate… for all five pitches.
Next time, instead of pitching your technology, pitch your intention.
Here are some examples:
“I intend to transform the way people shop for furniture” (Wayfair).
“I intend to help people celebrate moments that matter.” (Drizly)
“I intend to empower operators and transform their lives.” (The Operators)
Then turn your intention into reality.
