The elevator pitch has several origin stories.
Here’s one I like:
In 1854, Elisha Otis dramatically demonstrated his safety elevator at the New York World’s Fair by cutting the support rope on a hoisted platform on which he was standing. The platform safely stopped mid-air.
Here’s another:
In early Hollywood, screenwriters used elevator rides to pitch ideas to busy executives, prompting the creation of brief, persuasive pitches that required clarity and efficiency.
So what is it? Here is an elevator pitch for an elevator pitch:
“An elevator pitch is a powerful, concise summary of your idea, product, or value proposition that you can deliver in the time it takes to ride an elevator.”
Elevator pitches are very difficult for someone who rambles, tends towards overexplaining, uses too many words, includes too many details, digresses, inexplicably feels the need to explain tangential concepts, is secretly afraid that the audience thinks he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and really and truly just wants to ensure that everyone, everywhere gets the point.
That’s me. And that’s a terrible explanation, like most of mine.
Now, here’s the elevator pitch version of the previous (from ChatGPT):
I ramble, overexplain, and occasionally give TED Talks on side topics, which is why delivering an elevator pitch feels like a personal nightmare.
Or, here’s another (from ChatGPT):
Elevator pitches are hard when your brain writes a novel, your mouth reads the footnotes, and the elevator only goes up three floors.
This post is proof. I set out to write an elevator pitch but ended up walking you around the entire building, door by door, floor by floor. We went to the basement to see the plumbing and electrical infrastructure. We went to the roof to see the antennas. I told you about our contract with AT&T and Verizon to lease antenna space. I probably pulled out the documentation. I showed you the custodian’s closet. I explained the lighting strategies and provided some wonderful (ly boring) anecdotes about the automation features. Did you know that the floors use a new compound that not only meets the green requirements for this building, but have actually saved us almost 5% compared to the alternative?
I’m sorry for that. I can’t help it. That’s why this blog is called The250.
Here’s the elevator pitch for this post:
Elevator pitches are simple, but not easy, especially when your instinct is to explain the elevator before you ride it.
