Explaining your startup in 1 minute is hard!
So I just finished my application to YC's 2022 Summer batch. (I'm an indie hacker at heart and soul, but I have reasons).
Going through the application and explaining the app was simple enough, although it did take a little bit to put together my thoughts in a concise and (hopefully) compelling way.
What was hard ,and what I wasn't expecting, was the 1 minute Founder Introduction video. Damn!
I don't consider myself shy. I am more introverted than extroverted, but I am still social and can talk to people. I have done a TON of public speaking and speeches. But man, this 1 minute intro rocked me for some reason.
I knew what I wanted to say. I even wrote it down to make sure I could formulate it into as few words as possible and had the thoughts clear before I "went live". But the moment I hit the Record button, it was like I forgot everything about Eurotripr and why I was building it.
Even if I get rejected (which is likely since I got rejected from TinySeed for being too early stage), this was a GREAT exercise in being able to give a solid and concise description of who you are and what you are building.
If you can't do this in 1 minute, do you really have a clear enough plan of what you're doing? If you can't even say it in an empty house to a computer screen, how can you explain it to others in person, on your landing page, to friends, to family, to investors, etc?
Again, if nothing else, going through the application processes for YC and TinySeed were great at crystalizing my thoughts and path around Eurotripr. Acceptance or rejection, I am glad I did it.
But man is it hard to introduce yourself and your project to a webcam.
I usually start with a tagline description (3-5 words) and then expand it further. Questions "What is /one of tagline words/?" and "Why is /one of tagline words/ important?" help. Cheers!
I understand how hard it is as I am also an introvert that forces myself to socialize and had recently pitched Howuku and got funded as a solo tech founder.
Have your full pitch scripted out and keep practicing it, over and over and over again until you know it like the back of your hands. And, get into auto-pilot mode when pitching to investors and just focusing on delivering the pitch.
You know what they say, if you can't explain your business in 1-min, you don't understand your business well enough.
It is really hard, but yeah, all the best in your future pitches!
THis seems 100% accurate based on my recent experience with the YC application.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
I don't even mean "explain to people who don't get it". I meant it was literally hard to distill and explain my project verbally in 60 seconds in GENERAL. I can write a few sentences about it, but could not easily vocally explain it. It was weird because it seems so simple in my head and internal monologue. But externalizing it was very difficult for some reason. And it really is quite a simple concept.