Michael Seibel on how to create a great startup pitch

December 22, 2023

In the clip below, former Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel breaks down the two types of pitches every startup founder needs: a 30-second elevator pitch and a two-minute pitch for investors.

“A lot of people practice 10-minute, 30-minute, hour-long, pitches. I think that’s all garbage. I think you can get all of your points across in two minutes. And one thing I like to tell founders is that the more you talk, the more you have an opportunity to say something that people don’t like.”

30-Second Elevator Pitch:

You should be able to explain to anyone you come across what your company does in 30 seconds.

This should be three sentences:

  • What does your company do? Assume the person you’re talking to knows nothing. This should be a 1-sentence explanation that your mom or dad can understand (e.g. “We’re Airbnb and we allow you to rent out the extra room in your house” NOT “We’re Airbnb and we’re a marketplace for space”).

  • How big is the market? Do a couple hours of research so that you can give investors a rough approximation of the size of the market you’re in (e.g. Airbnb might give the size of online hotel booking market)

  • How much traction do you have? Ideally you can say something like: “We launched in January and we’re growing 30% month over month. We have $X sales and Y users.” If you’re pre-launch, you need to convince investors that you’re moving quickly (e.g. “the team came together in January. By March we launched our beta. By April we launched our product.”).

Two-Minute Pitch:

This pitch is for people you’re actually trying to convince of something (e.g. investors, potential employees, etc.). You basically want to simply explain what you do and then ask for money.

There are 5 key components:

  • Clear 30 second pitch (everything mentioned above)

  • Unique insight—what do the biggest players in your market not understand? This should be two sentences.

  • How do you make money?

  • Team. If your team has done something that has made investors money, you should mention that (e.g. “we’re the founders of PayPal”). If you haven’t, don’t go on about the awards you’ve won or PhDs you hold. What investors want to hear is: how many founders? (hopefully 2-4) how many of the founders are technical? (hopefully 50% or more engineers) How long have you known each other? (ideally you’ve known each other either personally or professionally for at least 6 months) Are you all full-time?

  • The Big Ask ($$$). You have to know what you’re talking about when you ask for money. Are you raising on a convertible note or a SAFE? What’s the cap of the SAFE? How much money are you raising? What’s the minimum check size? If you don’t know these things, investors won’t think you’re serious or that you haven’t done your homework.

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Michael Seibel insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Michael Seibel"