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1 Paragraph (Elevator Pitch)

Summary

The 1 paragraph is a 3 sentence summary of the company that typically includes information on the mission of the company, the backgrounds of the founders, and the startup’s traction / social proof. Typically used for email intros.

The 1 paragraph, also known as the elevator pitch, is a 3 sentence summary of the company. It is typically used in email introductions, so it needs to highlight the most impressive and noteworthy characteristics of your startup.

For the 1 paragraph, I recommend using a simple structure like this:

  1. We do X (taken from the 1 sentence mentioned previously)
  2. Founders / team is impressive because of Y
  3. Our traction / social proof is Z

For my last startup, Chobolabs, the 1 paragraph looked like this early on:

Chobolabs is bringing eSports to mobile, starting with the $15B shooter game genre. Founded by pro-gamers turned serial entrepreneurs, the Chobolabs team has previously worked on mobile games that grossed $100M+ in revenue. The company is backed by Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors, Peterson Ventures, XG Ventures, Jim Ellis, and Maurice Werdegar among others, and is part of Stanford's StartX founder community.

You may notice that each word is carefully chosen. Keywords such as “eSports, pro-gamers, serial entrepreneurs,” references such as other investors and/or incubators, as well as impressive numbers related to traction, market size, or prior successes are critical signals that investors look for and you need to emphasize as a founder. I expand on the role that signaling plays in Phase II - Fundraising.