Entrepreneurship

Chapter 7 TELLING YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL STORY AND PITCHING THE IDEA

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Chapter Outline
• 7.1 Clarifying Your Vision, Mission, and Goals
• 7.2 Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story
• 7.3 Developing Pitches for Various Audiences and Goals
• 7.4 Protecting Your Idea and Polishing the Pitch through Feedback
• 7.5 Reality Check: Contests and Competitions
Learning Objectives
• 7.1 Clarifying Your Vision, Mission, and Goals
• Clarify the vision statement, mission statement, and goals for your enterprise
• Define and develop a problem-solution narrative that is compelling
• Define and develop a value proposition that is credible and appealing to
customers and investors
 Vision Statement
A vision statement outlines the venture’s broader purpose, what the entrepreneur sees the venture
growing into in the future.
You must develop a vision statement that allows you look into the future to answer this question:
“What might we become someday if our organization were the best possible version of itself?

Entity Vision Statement

Alzheimer’s Association A world without Alzheimer’s disease
Teach for America One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent
education

Creative Commons Realizing the full potential of the Internet—universal access to research and
education, full participation in culture—to drive a new era of development, growth,
and productivity

Warby Parker To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially
conscious businesses

IKEA To create a better everyday life for the many people

A mission statement
• A mission statement is a clear expression of an organization’s reason for being that defines its
primary long-term goal and often includes an abbreviated plan of action for how to reach that
goal.
• A mission statement is written by answering these questions:
• Who are we?
• What do we make or do?
• Why do we exist as an enterprise?

• Developing an effective mission statement and adhering to it puts members of an

organization on the same page, and it communicates to potential partners and consumers
that your organization knows where it is going.
Amazon’s Vision and Mission Statements1

Amazon’s Vision Statement Amazon’s Mission Statement

To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, We strive to offer our customers the lowest
where customers can find and discover anything possible prices, the best available selection, and
they might want to buy online the utmost convenience

Table 7.1
Notice the differences in Amazon’s vision and mission statements. The vision statement is broader than the mission
statement and looks to the future.

1. “Amazon Mission and Vision Statement Analysis.” Mission Statement Academy. June 19, 2019. https://mission-
statement.com/amazon/
Goals
• An organization needs to establish concrete goals for its products and
services to remain viable.
• Goals should be stated in precise terms that are appropriate for the
marketplace.
 7.2 Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story
• Identify the importance of telling your own story

As an entrepreneur, you need to be able to effortlessly discuss:

• your product and its problem-solution narrative,
• its value proposition,
• its market niche, and
• the competition,
• you also need to be able to tell your story.

The audience learn what inspires entrepreneurs, how hard they

have worked on their prototypes and pitches
 7.2 Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story
• 7.2 Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story

Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia just moved from New York. Without employment, they were having trouble
paying their rent and were looking for a way to earn some extra cash. They noticed that all hotel rooms in the city were
booked, as the local Industrial Design conference attracted a lot of visitors.
The youngsters saw an opportunity. They bought a few airbeds and quickly put up a site called “Air Bed and Breakfast.”
The idea was to offer visitors a place to sleep and breakfast in the morning. They charged $80 each a night.
7.2 Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story. Example

The TOMS origin story provides an example of social entrepreneurship. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax,
under CC BY 4.0 license)
7.3 Developing Pitches for Various Audiences and Goals
• Understand the various audiences an entrepreneur may pitch to and how the
pitch goals vary for each
• Define and develop the key elements of a pitch
• Describe a pitch deck and pitfalls to avoid
• Create and create an elevator pitch
7.3 Developing Pitches for Various Audiences and Goals
• Pitch is a formal but brief presentation that is delivered
(usually) to potential investors in a startup.
• As such, a pitch is designed to be clear, concise, and
compelling around key areas, typically the key problem or
unmet need, the market opportunity, the innovative
solution, the management plan, the financial needs, and any
risks.
Summary of Pitch Scenarios
Audience Pitch Pitch Approach Key Content Notes
Length
Friends and Fifteen Usually verbal with a Should cover basic This common pitch can
family minutes simple companion elements of the be emotional as
one-page handout business model and founders are appealing to
explaining the concept, concept, unmet need, people they know well
value proposition, and and solution (including if and are counting on their
funds needed to get it seems patentable), personal reputation and
the enterprise off market and sales credibility vs. detailed
the ground potential, and high-level data to sell the idea
risks
Elevator pitch Two to five Usually a verbal pitch or Should cover high-level Very common at
competitions minutes single slide summarizing innovation, value accelerator or incubator
need, solution, market, proposition, and a “call to events, university
opportunity action” to close the entrepreneurship events,
audience etc. Prizes range from
free services to $1,000–
2,000

Table 7.3
Summary of Pitch Scenarios (continued)
Audience Pitch Length Pitch Approach Key Content Notes
Judges for Five to fifteen Varies from basic verbal Presentation that may These are very common
pitch minutes to deck of one to eight include slides and/or and help the
competition depending on slides, ending with a video as specified in entrepreneur refine the
venue/rules “call to action”; might competition rules pitch
require capital needs
Early Ten to Standup presentation Presentation that may Very common with angel
Investors twenty with slides and video or include slides and/or investors; often the deck
minutes, demo of product/service video; more formal than is required to be sent
depending pitch competitions with before the event
on venue/ a specific “ask” for
rules capital needs and use
Employees Ten to Standup presentation Major outcome is to Very common in
twenty with slides and video or inform and inspire; this startups; usually
minutes demo of product/service can be a recurring event monthly until company
and should be informal is profitable

Table 7.3
Summary of Pitch Scenarios (continued)
Audience Pitch Length Pitch Approach Key Content Notes
Trade Ten to Standup presentation Major outcome is to Very common at trade
groups/ twenty with slides and video or inform and connect to conferences; some have
associations minutes demo of product/service; other key groups their own pitch
may be tailored to the (investors, customers, competitions
specific group etc.)
Grantmaking Ten to twenty Usually written but can Outcome is to get Grants are often
agencies minutes if lead to face-to-face “scored” to gain grant technical and usually
(such as in person meeting, depending on funding; if not awarded, awarded for research
NIH, NSF) but usually agency rules company can reapply in and cannot be used for
embedded the next grant cycle any commercial activities
in grant
application

Table 7.3
Key Elements of the Pitch.
Key Elements of the Pitch. Brand Identity
Element 1: Brand identity image and tagline. Your presentation slide
deck should begin with a memorable
brand image.
It can be a logo representing your product in a stylized way, or it
could be a screen grab of your product wireframe (a computer
rendering if it is a product, and a schematic or flow chart if it is a
software/service business model.
Key Elements of the Pitch. Problem-solutions narrative

Element 2: Problem-solution narrative. Some entrepreneurial ideas

solve common problems.
• Some solve problems that users didn’t know they had.
• Communicate the problem-solution narrative succinctly.
• Incorporate visuals and a “hook” (skit, emotional testimonial,
deep question, etc.) to connect directly with the audience.
• An effective technique when addressing a generally common
problem is to ask the question while raising your hand to prompt
the audience: “How many of you have experienced this
issue/problem/challenge recently?”
 Key Elements of the Pitch. Key features and your value proposition

Element 3: Key features and your value proposition. Your pitch can
introduce potential investors, collaborators, employees, and others
to your key features, your value proposition, and your user interface
at the same time.
Consider using a mockup (full-size model) of your product or
images of a prototype to show your design capabilities while at the
same time pointing outshowcasing
An advertisement key features building
the features ofto
thea iBackPack
value proposition.

The iBackPack boasted the capacity to

incorporate WiFi/MiFi, a battery system,
smart power transfer cables, and a car-
charging system—while carrying four
notebook computers and their
accessories. Monahan promised that the
iBackPack would be a “communication
hub and
corresponding electrical powerhouse for
Key Elements of the Pitch. Product-market fit description

Element 4: Product-market fit description. Define the market niche

clearly and explain how your innovation serves the market purpose
precisely.
Not every problem is one people would pay to fix.
Explain why there’s a market to overcome this problem, how sizeable it
is, and why your value proposition is the best.
Key Elements of the Pitch. Competitive analysis

Element 5: Competitive analysis. Demonstrate that your

product is unique by defining its competition and illustrating
how it will stand out in the marketplace. Investors will pay close
attention to any missed or
omitted competitors.
They will want to see that you can establish barriers to entry,
lest some immediate copycat eat up market share
Key Elements of the Pitch. Financial projections

Element 6: Financial projections. The business model canvas

(BMC) can help you understand and be able to visualize how
your value proposition sits at the center of two dynamics: input
and output cycles.
A break-even analysis reveals the point at which you will have sold enough
units to cover all of your costs. At that point, you will have neither lost
money nor made a profit.
Feature Box
Work It Out: Developing and Practicing an Elevator Pitch
• In groups.
• Have each person spend a few minutes planning a 30-second elevator
pitch.
• Take turns pitching your ideas. Take notes on others’ presentations.
• Take turns providing feedback on the pitches. Feedback should focus
less on the business idea and more on the presentation of the idea.
7.4 Protecting Your Idea and Polishing the Pitch through Feedback
• Understand why you need to protect your idea
• Describe both legal and unconventional tools to keep your ideas safe
• Understand the importance of feedback and how to manage and use it

When you start to pitch your idea, it means you are sharing it with a variety of people for
different purposes.
When encouraged to develop entrepreneurial ideas, students often ask, “How can I be sure no
one is going to
steal my idea?” Legal Agreements
Partner: You may wish to require partners to sign a nondisclosure
Patent agreement (NDA)
Trademark A noncompete agreement in a contract prevents an employee from
Copyrights working for the competition for a
specified period of time after working for you.
A work-for-hire agreement between an individual employee and a
company states that ownership of
innovations belongs to the company, even if an individual makes
substantial contributions to the product,
7.4 Protecting Your Idea and Polishing the Pitch through Feedback

Legal Agreements

You may wish to require partners to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA)

Require a partner to stay silent about key information for life

A noncompete agreement in a contract prevents an employee

from working for the competition for a specified period of time
after working for you.

A work-for-hire agreement between an individual employee

and a company states that ownership of innovations belongs to the company,
even if an individual makes substantial contributions to the product, service, or process.
7.5 Reality Check: Contests and Competitions
• Identify resources for locating contests and competitions
• Understand the opportunities and realities of contests and competitions

Now you have an idea of how to communicate the purpose of your

innovation through:
• clear mission and vision statements,
• while setting tangible SMART goals for your startup.
• how to pitch your innovation to different groups using different types
of pitches
Contest
• An entrepreneurial contest is any
entrepreneurial competition other than a
pitch competition.
• They usually are run by nonprofit
organizations and universities, but more
companies are hosting them to open up
to more outside innovation to attract
diverse entrepreneurs and access
nontraditional sources of new ideas with
commercial potential.
• They usually entail submitting
documentation about your business,
items such as business models,
prospectuses, and forms tailored to
contest specifications.
• There are many reasons for joining a
contest:
• Finding a mentor. Great mentorship, in
the long run, is more valuable than a
cash prize with strings attached.
Competition
• Pitch Competition may offer cash prizes or
mentorship opportunities to the winners.
• Some larger pitch competitions have seed funding
agreement contingencies that winners must sign
before they can accept cash prizes.
• The key difference between a contest and a pitch
competition is that in the latter, you are expected to
present your business idea in the form of a
presentation, usually with a pitch deck, whereas in
the former, you are expected to provide a more
informal summary of your idea.
• Some competitions connect entrepreneurs to
investors waiting with seed money and a contract
stipulating what percentage of the business they
will own.
Competition

Universities, communities, funders, and other interest groups offer pitch competitions to support entrepreneurial ventures.
Shown are participants in the Road to GES (Global Entrepreneurship Summit) Heartland pitch competition in Overland Park,
Kansas. (credit: “Pitch Competition at Road to GES Heartland” by “Global Entrepreneurship Summit Follow”/Flickr, Public
Domain)