Pitch your business in four sentences

A good pitch is not a deck of twenty slides. It is four sentences that make someone curious about the fifth. Below you can read how to write them, and at the end you can try it right away.

Why four sentences?

Whoever reads a pitch wants to know quickly what it is about. Short forces you to choose. What remains is what really matters. If you cannot fit your business into four sentences, you usually do not yet know sharply enough what the most important thing is. That is useful to discover too.

The pitch on the ruler

01What is your business?One sentence, no jargon.
02What do you do, for whom?The product and the customer.
03Where are you now?Facts, including what is not working yet.
04Where do you want to go?The goal, and what holds you back.

Four steps, in this order. The last sentence matters most: that is where the question is.

Sentence 1: what is your business?

Say it so your neighbour could repeat it. Not "innovative platform" or "unique concept", but simply: what are you? A bakery, an app for freelancers, a jewellery brand.

Sentence 2: what do you do, and for whom?

What does someone buy from you, and who is that someone? The more specific the customer, the better. "Everyone" is not a target group. "Coffee bars in the city centre" is.

Sentence 3: where are you now?

This is where facts belong: how long you have existed, how many customers you have, what is growing. Be honest about what is not working yet, too. That actually makes your pitch stronger, because the other person sees where they can help.

Sentence 4: where do you want to go?

A clear goal and the obstacle in front of it. Not "we want to grow", but "we want a third shop and an online store, and we lack knowledge of online sales". Now the reader knows exactly what you are looking for.

Example

We are an artisan bakery with two shops. We bake bread and pastries for local residents and supply coffee bars in the city. Both shops are doing well and orders from coffee bars are growing. We want a third shop and an online store, but we lack knowledge of online sales.

What to leave out

Big words. Disruptive, revolutionary, the new standard. Readers skip them.
Ten numbers at once. Pick the one number that best shows your story.
A pitch without a question. Say what you need. Otherwise nobody knows how they can help.

Try it yourself

Fill in the four sentences below. You will immediately see how your pitch reads and how many words it has. Stay under eighty. Nothing is stored; only when you press the button does your own email program open.

Your pitch in four sentences

Tip: read your pitch out loud. If you stumble over a sentence, it is too long or too vague.