Richard Branson accepting micropitches via Twitter

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/got-biz-idea-tweet-richard-branson-4-chance-2-turn-2-real-company

by Tichy • 17 years ago

36 28 17 years ago

Tichy• 17 years ago

This is probably a better link (actual page instead of newspaper article): http://www.perfectbusiness.com/theperfectpitch/twitter.cfm

edw5193• 17 years ago

forcing you to explain a business idea in 111 characters really could reveal the megastar ideas

Finally, a reason to tweet.

[EDIT: This is hard! Words like technology, proprietary, and customizable consume too much of a limited resource. I guess I'll have to speak English to convey my idea.]

RyanMcGreal• 17 years ago

+1 for your EDIT.

profquail• 17 years ago

Finally, a reason to tweet.

I'm not a big fan of Twitter, but given how many VC's and investors are using it now, I'm signing up for two right now (a personal account and another for my startup).

EDIT: Or not. Looks like Twitter is down again: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/twitter.com

chrischen3• 17 years ago

Reason is artificial. They could have just used email.

gizmo3• 17 years ago

Okay, let's give this a go:

Dropbox: Share files instantly and easily across mac, pc and web. For teams. Has file versioning. Freemium. (108 chars)

Grooveshark: database with millions of songs. Visit site to play music for free. (80 chars)

Amazon: sell books online. Cut out middle man (bookstore). Share profit with customers. (88 chars)

I haven't put much effort into this, but it looks like 110 characters is plenty.

edw5193• 17 years ago

Funny, your descriptions help me understand better than anything I've seen before. Maybe we're on to something here.

staunch• 17 years ago

I think we're on to the idea of elevator pitches.

henning• 17 years ago

These admirably concise descriptions are only compelling if you factor in what you already know about these services: what they do to be different and successful.

Your description of Dropbox leaves out why it is different from the legions of other online file sync services that are kinda OK or just lame, for instance. Putting yourself back into 1995: "why would anyone want to buy books online when there's Barnes & Noble, Walden, etc right down the street? Ecommerce is great and all but 'Blah.com: buy X online' is not necessarily a reasonable idea."

If I had never heard of these before I don't know how you could describe what it does as well as essential other details that don't fit into 111 characters.

gizmo3• 17 years ago

I partially agree. You can't pitch a web hosting company this way, because they're commodities, and every web hosting company is essentially the same.

Luckily, investors like Richard Branson want ideas to be _new_ in order to be worthy of investment. And if you want to do something new, then you should be able to explain what's new in a few words. 111 characters is an arbitrary limit, but it's not terrible.

Amazon is new because it cuts out the middle man, and promises better margins for publisher and customer alike. That sounds like a good idea right away. Also, not everybody lives close to a Barnes & Noble, so the idea of delivery of books is by itself cool.

With an elevator pitch you only have a few seconds anyway. So you simply HAVE to convey as much as possible in as little time as possible. When you restrict yourself to a number of characters you can try to fit as much as possible in there. A much better metric than "3 sentences" or "10 seconds", because those two metrics can be gamed (sub sentences and talking rapidly).

111 characters is a gimmick, sure. But it's a _cool_ gimmick.

prpon• 17 years ago

Very well said. I could be saying any of these statements and if these were things that were non-existent, it would not be as appealing. I would like to find out if Branson would fund me for the following:

"Provide health care to everyone, employer subsidized, co-ops, non-profit".

"solar powered clean drinking water for rural areas".

I might as well say "Space time continuum, user generated, freemium"

DannoHung2• 17 years ago

Okay, now do twitter.

run4yourlives• 17 years ago

They don't have a business model to explain. <ducks>

gizmo3• 17 years ago

Hah, twitter is difficult.

Twitter: system for people to broadcast tidbits of information. Listener opts in. Sender does not expect reply. (111 chars)

This was my best attempt, because it raises enough questions to see that yes, twitter is different. It doesn't make an attempt to prove it's a good idea, just that it hasn't been done before (and is therefore worthy of investment).

kyro• 17 years ago

Twitter - Streaming the world's thought/opinion/information streams.

gehant• 17 years ago

Live, searchable collective intelligence that continuously percolates

nuweborder• 17 years ago

Thanks for the link. This micropitch will separate the men from the boys, the so called pitches, from the great ones. If it sounds great and can be easily and effectively conveyed to the audience while getting people excited, it can be a hit.

DenisM• 17 years ago

The nice thing about this tweet-pitch idea is that it allows larger number of investgors get less intimdated by and more exposed to a larger number of product ideas. This increases probability of finding a perfect match between an investor-beliver-in-the-idea and a founder-beliver-in-the-idea.

PG should be jumping of joy right now - this could be a major leap towards future where more people feel free to work on their business instead of the job thing.

icey• 17 years ago

I guess if you were looking for ideas to... repurpose, here's an easy idea feed for you:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23micropitch

zaidf• 17 years ago

@PerfectBusiness blinkness.com: the anti-facebook lets college students get shit done. v1 up for my uni http://bit.ly/380vhJ #micropitch

mooted• 17 years ago

I choose not to publicly tweet my billion dollar idea.

teehee• 17 years ago

imo..its not really the idea that makes a billion, its the execution of that idea.

chrischen3• 17 years ago

Somebody pitched this: harrisimo A sporting event where you try and toss computers as far as you can #micropitch 4 minutes ago

nir• 17 years ago

Are people here really taking this seriously? You believe Sir Richard will read your tweet and make you a millionaire? The combination of Branson + Twitter + Fast Company should be overloading your hype detectors. Come on.

movix• 17 years ago

I'm with you on the hype tip. I think this is more about RB getting on trend, than a serious attempt to find great ideas.

If you're not into the whole brevity thing (quotes The Dude) I'd stick to the standard ways of getting your idea across. This just looks like a painfully difficult way of giving your next business away. 'scuse the cynicism.

Richard Branson accepting micropitches via Twitter

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