One of the best ways to prepare yourself to pitch your company is to watch other people pitch theirs. Here are a dozen of the best “start-up” pitches I could find (watching people pitch established companies is, in general, not as much fun 
). Watch and learn! (PS Post any other good ones I may have missed in the comments and I will add them to the post.)
#1 – Sam Altman pitches Loopt at the WWDC 2008. Epic pitch.
#2 – Omar Hamoui pitches AdMob. $0 to $750 million in three years. Not bad…
#3 – Evan Williams talks about Twitter at TED. Great story about the power of taking on side projects and following hunches.
#4 – Yext presenting at this year’s TechCrunch50. A slightly crazy presentation but the proof’s in the pudding. They’re doing $20 million in annual revenue and just raised $25 from IVP.
#5 – Cafe Press’s “Lesson Learned” pitch. No video here (unfortunately), just slides. But powerful slides. Like “8-digit term sheet” kinda powerful slides.
“Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch
#6 – Drew Houston launches Dropbox at TechCrunch50 (2008). A year later Dropbox has 2 million accounts. For a 25 year old Drew’s one hell of a presenter.
#7 – Hey, just because it’s not a business doesn’t mean it’s not a start-up! Us businessfolks can learn a ton from how politicians sell themselves and get people to buy into their vision. Here’s a great example (Obama’s speech after the New Hampshire primary):
And another (Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech). Gotta balance the left and the right…
#8 – Aaron Patzer launches Mint at TechCrunch40 (they won top prize). Notice how he immediately gets you hooked by talking about something that’s important to everyone (money).
#9 – Kevin Rose demos Digg…in 2004.
#10 – OK, so these aren’t all startup pitches. But this is Steve Freaking Jobs we’re talking about. “Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” How can I not include him in this list?
Bonus awesome Steve Jobs videos here and here (jump to 4:50). And if you love learning about how Steve Jobs pitches a startup most definitely check out this awesome Venture Hacks post.
#11- David Sacks launches Yammer at TechCrunch50 2008 (they won top prize).
#12 – Michael Pritchard demoing Lifesaver. Make no mistake. A killer start-up pitch can save lives.
BONUS #1 – OK, a couple of funny ones too. The Tonchidot presentation from TechCrunch 2008 is straight hilarious:
As is Ali G pitching the “Ice Cream Glove”:
BONUS #2 – The best article I’ve read on pitching to investors. And a great video from Dave McClure on the same topic. And one more thrown in for good measure (”How To Demo Your Startup”).
BONUS #3 – Not sick of pitches yet? Check out the links below. Some are good, some are bad and some are downright ugly. You’ve been warned!
Richard Branson’s PitchTV
Shark Tank
TechCrunch50
TechCrunch Elevator Pitches
Fri, Nov 13, 2009
Entrepreneurship