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Michael Seibel: Your Startup Pitch Should Take 30 Seconds. Not 30 Minutes.

By Michael Seibel · Investing · 1 min read

YC's CEO says most founders cannot explain their company in one sentence. That is the first problem to fix.

Key Points

If you cannot explain your company in one sentence, you do not understand it well enough
A great pitch has: what you do, who it is for, and why now — in 30 seconds
Overcomplicating the pitch is the number one mistake founders make with investors

If I cannot understand what you do in 30 seconds, I am not going to invest 30 minutes figuring it out.

The 30-Second Rule

Seibel watches hundreds of pitches per year. The pattern is always the same.

Founders spend 10 minutes explaining what their company does. By minute 3, the investor has tuned out.

A great pitch takes 30 seconds. What do you do. Who is it for. Why now.

Clarity Is Intelligence

If you cannot explain your company simply, you do not understand it yet.

Complexity is not a sign of sophistication. It is a sign of confusion.

The clearest thinkers explain the hardest things in the simplest words.

Too many founders don't know how to simply explain what they do and then ask for money. That's basically what you have to do.

The Fix

Write your pitch in one sentence. Test it on your mom. If she gets it, it works.

Then expand to three sentences: what, who, why now.

If you need more than that, your idea is either too complicated or not clear enough in your own head.