An elevator pitch is the 30 to 60 second verbal summary of a startup's business, used as the cold opening of investor or sales conversations. It's designed to be delivered in the time of an elevator ride with a stranger, with the goal of producing enough interest to earn a follow-up conversation. The name dates to the late 1980s and refers to the apocryphal scenario of catching a hard-to-reach executive in an elevator with a single brief window to make an impression.
The formula that works for most startups: name + category + the specific customer + the specific outcome + the differentiating insight, with [The Ask] as an optional closer when the audience is an investor. Worked example: "We're Stripe, payment infrastructure fo...