How to Pitch Your Startup in One Sentence

Are you looking for free advertising space, press coverage, or introductions to venture capitalists for potential investment? If so, check out our elevator video pitch competition on Vator.tv, a social network and media site for start-ups, entrepreneurs, and investors. We've partnered with the funded start-up becasue we share the same goals; to discover great companies and technologies, introduce them to the world, and analyze their models, stories, and impact they may have on you and I.

Are you able to pitch your company in under a minute, or even thirty seconds? Well, you should be able to do it in one sentence. The easiest way to do this is to compare your model to another one (or two if it is a combination) that people already know and understand. Just twist the story to make it specific to your company. You'll likely need a couple different versions if an individual isn't familiar with the other companies. Either way, its important to be able to pitch your start-up in different contexts. The simple reason for this is that people come to understand concepts, models, ideas, or value propositions by examining them from different angles or view points.

If you are well versed in the blogosphere and tech community, then I would pitch College Mogul to you as "a cross between TechCrunch and VentureBeat, but for college entrepreneurs, startups, and technologies that live within that demographic." Or, more simply put: "College Mogul is the TechCrunch of the college sphere." (I usually like to add in VentureBeat because they focus on more indepth analysis, which we try and mimic.)

Skoobit, the "NetFlix for Textbooks" and WePay, the "PayPal for Groups" are other good examples. At the start-up I work for, we call Acquia the "Red Hat for Drupal." You don't necessarily have to compare your company to anothers. For example, Tatango provides ad supported group text messages for groups and organizations.

You could also pose your pitch as a question: why drink high sugary and caloric energy drinks when you can get the same kick from ThinkGum?

But, please...stop attempting to use fancy vocabularies, buzz words, and over exaggerated explanations. Its not doing you any good and you're not fooling anyone. You want people to understand your business. So, make it as easy as possible for them and simplify your pitch.

So far 10 companies have entered in our competition:

RecipeKey: Using innovative and intuitive searching methods, visitors to the Recipe Key website are able to quickly find recipes that match their tastes and dietary restrictions.  When a user has multiple miscellaneous ingredients, that user can input the ingredients into Recipe Key and Recipe Key will give the user a listing of recipes to make based on the user's ingredients, tastes, and dietary restrictions.  Recipe Key expands on the traditional cookbook format by offering multimedia content to aid and guide users throughout the cooking process.

Tatango: Tatango offers an easy-to-use platform that allows any group to stay connected through text and voice messaging. As an all in one solution, Tatango allows any group to collect, manage and mobile message all of their group members both from a computer and mobile phone. Tatango was born from the promise of giving groups the ability to stay connected anytime, anywhere. Tatango is permission-based, spam-free and cost-free to consumers.

Gamepe LLC : GamePE is the next generation platform for gamers. The in-game platfrom is designed to bring your favorite application into games - now you can listen to your music, chat over messenger, google talk, irc, aim or just about any chat medium that you like and all that

inside your game not only gamepe is a bridge between the gamer desktop and the game screen, it is also bundled with powerful SDK  exposing it to the rest of the world.

Wiggio: Wiggio.com is a free, simple website that makes it easy for students to work in groups. With Wiggio, you can consolidate all your groups (from class project groups to clubs, committees, frats, sports teams,, charities, housemates and more) onto one platform, behind one password. Once on Wiggio, your group has access to tools such as a shared calendar (w/ text message reminders), easy file sharing, mass text and voice messaging, polling (ask your group questions and get aggregated responses in real-time), chatrooms, free conference calling, and more. Wiggio is the easiest way to work in groups.

Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes: We provide corporate sponsors a chance to reach hundreds of thousands of consumers online and in physical form on the mixtape series.  We also have the ability to insert ads in all formats in one way or another on our mixtapes including print, online, audio commercials in the mixtape, and video in the mixtape.  By combining all of these elements, we can reach numerous markets and targets to provide highly effective campaigns that cover ground on all avenues of advertising.  We also have a physical presence in over 60 countries around the world as well as web traffic from all corners of the globe.

Resorb Networks, Inc: The primary mission for Resorb Networks is to create radical, never before seen applications for the web. By pushing the boundaries of the web and re-inventing Web 2.0 - we create the ability to amaze and entertain web users throughout the world.

ISleptThroughClass.com: ISleptThroughClass.com is aninnovative and dynamically driven Web 2.0 business that allows all U.S.college students to solve the problem of missed classroom notes. The Companydoes this by enhancing their user’s academic experience through aneducationally oriented social network.

PressPass.tv: PressPass, Inc. (“PressPass”) is an Emmy Award winning New Media company supported by All Star, captain, and champion pro athletes including: Santana Moss, Sinorice Moss, Butch Beard, Darrell Reid, Jack Brewer and others. It is revolutionizing the relationship
between icons and fans by empowering professional athletes and other public figures to connect with fans and develop their personal brands in ways never before possible.

CloudTuner: Patent-pending CloudTuner technology introduces intuitive and simple visual user interface for search. The CloudTuner interface can be operated using keyboard and mouse of a PC, keypad or touch screen of a mobile phone and even TV remote control.

MyBlackBook: The mission of MyBlackBook® is to provide people with a place to store their sexual history, partners, and experiences in a safe, secure and confidential place. To allow them to manage, update and lookup their entries in an easy way - giving them the opportunity and ability to assess their sexual behavior and activity and to make changes in their lives.

Note: Descriptions are taken from Vator.tv profile descriptions.