A while ago I mentioned that Laura from 15SecondPitch graciously offered to help me craft a 15 second pitch for Disruptive Thoughts. We finished it a bit ago but I’m only getting around to discussing the wonderful process now - for this I offer Laura an apology.

Laura is a vivacious woman from New York city who saw that her geeky tech friends needed help marketing themselves - and so she started a company that helps people effectively answer the banal question, “so what do you do?” (Laura, correct me if I’m wrong)

Crazy idea? I thought so too until I realized that my friends who have mastered the ability to clearly, and quickly, communicate “me inc.” are significantly better networkers than my friends who haven’t. I now see definite value in this coaching for anyone who is struggling to effectively communicate their 15 second pitch.

Even though the task was bizarre - crafting a pitch for a blog - Laura was a blast. Her emails were always filled with enthusiastic advice and entertaining stories (and maybe, most importantly, she was very patient with me :)). She even spent some time on the phone with me trying to understand the unique challenge. I was impressed with the service.

A better recommendation could be made if the pitch was crafted for an individual rather than a blog, but Laura displayed a good understanding of what’s important in a pitch.

I recommend Laura’s service to anyone who stumbles when answering “what do you do?” because of the true value in having a refined answer. Laura coached me to a nice conclusion - tweaking small words, making minor changes - that resulted in a positive result.

Hello, my name is Fraser Kelton. I am a young, curious, entrepreneur who’s interested in start-up strategy: innovation, commercialization, and venture capital. There’s no hidden agenda here. I am not a consultant for hire and I have no products to sell. My goal is simply to stimulate lively debates. I invite you to interrupt my assumptions and advance my thinking.

I’m going to incorporate her pitch into a refreshed about page in the coming days.


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15 Second Pitch

Posted on 05.04.06 to Startup Strategy, General. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.

Welcome to the conversation.

Hi, I'm Fraser and this is my personal site where I write about the things I'm interested in: start-up strategy, the web, music, and life.

My days are spent commercializing emerging technologies. Currently I'm helping to deliver the promise of semantic web to the consumer market at AdaptiveBlue. Previously I was at Trivaris, a Canadian seed stage investment firm.

I am a co-founder of Innovation Night, a community driven event supporting entrepreneurship in Canadian and US cities.

Here's what I'm doing right now:

    These are the people in my neighborhood: