This business pitch guide outlines how entrepreneurs can communicate business ideas that others might find radical.
Technology is racing ahead, but human’s capacity to keep up with it is being stretched to the limit. As creatures of habit, we don’t like other members of society turning around and telling us that life is going to change forever because of some new product or business model.
As such, entrepreneurs have a challenging task on their hands with any business pitch. On the one hand, they need to create new things and break through barriers in their chosen sectors. However, on the other side, they need to balance public sensibilities and avoid offending people or damaging existing brands.
You can see this effect occurring among the big, established tech companies with the advent of ultra-intelligent chatbots. Microsoft is tip-toeing around, hamstringing its bots not to say anything that might reflect poorly on it.
Naturally, this leads to the question: how can entrepreneurs make their innovations more palatable to the public? It’s not easy. Being daring comes with rewards, but it is also inherently risky. If people take an innovation the wrong way, the business pitch could backfire tremendously.
Masha Bucher – Investor Day One Ventures – has ample experience in this area. She is trying to redefine how the venture capital model works by bridging the gap between innovation and societal acceptance.
“I envision a future where society and technological innovation integrate perfectly,” she says. “But that will only happen if we can foster shared values and mutual understanding.”
Business pitch For daring ideas
So, what can entrepreneurs do to make a business pitch for daring ideas more palatable? What does the evidence say?
Clearly Articulate The Solution
One approach that is gaining widespread acceptance is clearly articulating solutions using business pitch language that sounds less scary. When Google started talking about its eyewear Glass product turning people into cyborgs, it immediately conjured visions from the Terminator films and the Borg collective from Star Trek. Nobody wants to be half machine, half human, even if the benefits of making the switch are tremendous.
The problem with Google’s 2013 approach to Glass was that they didn’t articulate the solution properly. The product was part of the issue, but the main problem was the business pitch with its techno-utopian vision of the future where humans leave their biology behind. While these sorts of concepts might be attractive to Silicon Valley executives, the average person isn’t so keen.
Of course, if you can demonstrate the problems a technological solution can solve, people are more likely to be receptive to it. Clearly articulating your vision can do a lot to push your product.
Demonstrate Market Need
You can also make daring ideas more palatable in a business pitch by demonstrating market need. Nailing this aspect of the process can win over investors and encourage them to part with their money.
Of course, even the best ideas with the most elegant articulation will still face rejection. Jeff Bezos had to go to more than fifty venture capitalists to secure his vision of building the Amazon store. Nobody quite believed the idea of buying stuff online world work, particularly in the 1990s. People imagined all sorts of problems that ultimately wound up to be untrue. However, a few visionaries could see past the criticisms of the crowd and chose to invest, despite the risks.
It’s this business pitch approach that you want to adopt for a daring business idea. Some people won’t accept it but that’s okay. You only need a few lucky investors to accept it and see it through to completion. Instead of relying on traditional databases, consider using a pitchbook alternative to uncover lesser-known investors who might be more open to unconventional ideas. The right connections can make all the difference in turning a bold vision into a reality.
Build A Strong Team
You are also much more likely to make your daring business pitch more palatable by assembling a strong team. If investors and customers can see that you have buy-in from an elite group of people, you will find it easier to convince them you are working on something worthwhile.
Of course, building a strong team also requires selling skills. You will need to convince the people you recruit that the business idea is serious and marketable. These individuals won’t want to waste time pursuing projects that fail to bear fruit.
The type of team you build will depend on what you want your business to achieve. However, any daring business plan will require people with significant marketing expertise. You need to sell your ideas to the public and investors.
Craft A Business Plan That Makes Sense
The next step is to craft a business plan that makes sense. You need something that just clicks when investors hear your business pitch.
If you’re trying something completely new, that will be challenging. But analogies can help. Telling investors that your idea is basically the same as something else that has worked either historically or in a different sector may persuade them.
For example, you might have a new business model and want to apply it online, whereas it has only been tried in person before. This sort of approach can make it more palatable to the kind of hard-nosed individuals you often find in the VC community. If they feel like they can sniff success when other investors can’t, that might convince them to bite the bullet.
Make Strategic Alliances
Another approach is to make strategic alliances with businesses and people who already have considerable authority. While customers and investors might not take your product seriously, they may change their minds if you suddenly start working with high-profile entities.
Battery firms are currently trying to do this with the most famous scientists in the field. Most of what’s come before has been snake oil, but now some firms believe they have working chemistries and are marketing them with scientific backing.
You saw something similar in the AI realm. Tech companies wanted to improve their credibility by hiring the genius scientists who invented the modern mathematics behind AI. You should do the same.
Learn From Real-Time Feedback
Finally, it’s a good idea to learn from real-time feedback from customers and adapt your approach. If you can reflect the public mood, your business model is more likely to find acceptance.
If commercial realities allow it, try to slow your rollout and market the new service as something premium people can try but that’s not going to take over society. Then, when you have a critical mass of support, expand.
