Nivi · May 29th, 2008
I want to give Pinch Media a shout-out for mentioning our post on high concept pitches in their funding announcement. Their pitch is,
“FeedBurner for iPhone developers.”
Can they shorten it even further? “FeedBurner for iPhones”?
I wonder if they used our other hacks too when they negotiated their deal with Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital. (Mobile analytics must be picking up steam; Motally just joined Venture Hacks—they “track and report usage statistics across mobile websites.”)
Some people think high concept pitches are too simple. I agree, they are too simple—that’s the point. They’re the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.
There are too many startups vying for too little attention. You simply won’t have the opportunity to tell your whole story at once. A high concept pitch is a meme that you use to capture some attention, so you have the chance to tell the rest of your story.
Marc Hustvedt, an angel investor on Venture Hacks, calls the high concept pitch a “Hollywood pitch”. I like it. “Hollywood pitch” is shorter and more concrete. Which one do you prefer?
Topics Case Studies · Pitching
Considering that fellow Los Angeles resident Hustvedt clearly stole the term “Hollywood Pitch” from me via this Hacker News thread last month, it gets my vote.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=167247
I don’t see “high concept pitch” starting as many conversations 😉
(PS Just kidding, Marc!)
kudos to pinch media…
i also love the term “high concept pitch” getting a high concept pitch of its own. though instead of “hollywood pitch” i’m going with…. “the fastball!”
“High-concept” is abstract and sounds more academic.
“Hollywood” evokes a clear connotation – isn’t that the point?
I love the ‘Hollywood Pitch’ – we use ours all the time, but its important to know your target audience. Saying we’re building the ‘Last.fm for News’ or ‘The Funded for Journalists’ will draw a blank stare from many of our friends and family. But with the right audience, I think the hollywood pitch is the way to go.
“The X of Y,” “the X for Y,” or “the X meets Y” sounds like a Hollywood pitch, not high-concept.
C.f. The Player.