Founders: here’s when to stop pitching and start listening
Posted on August 03, 2024 by Vijay Rajendran, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
This is an agonizing time when you need to define the market, get others excited about the product, position your product as a pain killer (and not a
We spend so much time working with founders on getting the “pitch” just right.
There’s the elevator pitch.
There’s the Demo Day pitch.
There’s the [oh $#@*, we got that meeting on Sand Hill Road] board room pitch.
All of this pitching and you could forgive startup founders for telling you what they want you to believe. The trouble with this is it doesn’t work for building traction, especially in the early days of the company when you have a product, but you are still looking to establish the market.
This is an agonizing time when you need to define the market, get others excited about the product, position your product as a pain killer (and not a vitamin), and finally show that you are building something that people want.
Most people think that corporate partnerships are about selling and pitching, it’s really about listening, planning, and collaborating.
This is hard. And, yes, it is meant to be hard.
