When Jun Loazya interviewed Tim Young from Socialcast, they ended up discussing what I'll call The Starbucks Pitch (10:22).

The Pitching Problem
After awhile, you just can't practice your pitch with your founders anymore. You've all heard it so many times, you're numb to it. Your founder could omit 95% of the pitch, and you'd think, "Hey, that's pretty good; nice and short. And I still totally understand it!". So you've got to bring in fresh blood, people who've never heard of what you're doing, and might not even understand the industry. If you can explain it to them quickly, succinctly, and clearly enough so that they understand, you've got a golden pitch on your hand.

Enter The Starbucks Pitch
Bring your co-founders and a friend or two to Starbucks, practice your pitch on one another for just a bit, and give a few last minute critiques. Now you're ready to approach someone at another table and try to pitch them your idea. Have your friends sit nearby somewhere out of the way, watching you and (most importantly) your listener's face during your spiel. Watch for emotional changes, confusion, glazed eyes, etc. When you're finished, have everyone write down notes on your performance, and points for you to improve on. Internalize it all, practice, and try it again. Repeat per-pitching-founder.

We decided to a Starbucks to give it a shot today.

Results
I noticed a few interesting points when pitching - not a single person said a bad thing. In fact, the first pitch of Chuwe for the day, my subject only asked me to repeat my explanation once. His response afterwards was, "Hey, that sounds great! Way to go!"

"Did you have any questions about Chuwe? Is there anything unclear? What did you have a hard time understanding because of my explanation?"
"No, it all sounded pretty simple to me! I think it's great!"

Either I'm a pitching god, or an epic fail.

I returned to the table for  feedback. It was gentle at first, but snowballed into some pretty "open dialogue" about my failings. "Speak louder, add some humor, smile, don't fill pauses with 'uhm', and for god's sake SLOW DOWN!" (I rarely notice when I'm speaking too quickly). After that feedback, I'm guessing it was an epic fail. Ego deflated ever so slightly, I adjusted the script and internalized it, made it natural - made it mine. I practiced once over.

Time for the second round.

I approached two elderly gentleman, and explained that I was doing a project for my business class. I had to give an elevator pitch for a business idea I had, and would they mind giving me a bit of feedback on what I had so far? (People are a bit kinder if they think you're a student rather than an nosy salesperson). I spoke slowly and assuredly, smiling as I looked each in the eye. I made sure not to stutter or mumble. And yet their reaction was much less kind than the first:

"What's in it for you?"
"Why are you qualified to do this?"

And so on. But after I answered their questions honestly and openly, the two elderly gentleman looked at one another, smiled broadly, and said "We love it!". Right then, a friend of theirs came and sat down at the table, and they excitedly explained my pitch to him. And they may have done a better job than I did.

Seems like I made some progress with my pitch today.

Share your thoughts and techniques on perfecting pitches with the Chuwe community. We love great advice!

> Sean
Rockin' Code Monkey
www.chuwe.com