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My pitch just got massacred on This Week in Startups. Very embarrassing. AMA

3 points by lucidlife ↗ HN
So very embarrassing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ky4ikcCoL0#t=18m10s

Key takeaways for me:

(1) Describe the product in the first sentence.

(2) Less narrative more use cases.

(3) Talk more about the people I'm pitching to and less about myself.

Any more feedback? Jason and Tyler were pretty comprehensive but I really wish I had more time to discuss their points, some of them I agree with but others I didn't.

For example, it might be tacky to mention existing networks but when you've pitched this concept to as many people as I have you can foresee the most common questions. Also, I have a very good success rate getting people to download the app after a pitch and I love the name...

9 comments

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lucidlife
I'll be back to answer any questions in an hour.
sharemywin
I kinda of agree with them on the name. I wouldn't be embarrassed sounded like they liked the product.
lucidlife
We almost called the app WeLiveNow which is along the lines of what he suggested. But honestly I'm still leaning in favor of LucidLife, for the reasons I discussed in the video. It really grabs people's attention and holds their interest.

Thank you for saying I shouldn't be embarrassed but I still am haha. I guess life as an entrepreneur is filled with failure so I should get used to this feeling. Probably will be good for me in the long run.

teemo_cute
Have you met the people you have been pitching to beforehand? Did you get any hint whether they like you or not? (We all make snap judgments.)
lucidlife
I have never met Tyler. I said hi to Jason once but never had a conversation with him. I have exchanged a few emails but I doubt that's the problem. I hope not anyway, it never crossed my mind.
mazeway
Is the natural language processing accurate enough for the app's purpose?
lucidlife
This is the core of what makes our app unique and we plan to spend a lot of time making it smart. It's still a work in progress, I typically compare it to google's search engine in that 15 years later they are still making it better. I suspect the same for our thought analysis engine, it will never be perfect. But it does work.
flylib
sounds like they don't know what they are talking about, I can name hundreds if not thousands of successful companies that you can't tell what they do from the company name, Apple and Google the two biggest tech companies are great examples
lucidlife
I personally get bored by names that accurately describe the main feature of the company. It seems entirely too technical and non-creative, my instinctual reaction is "how can people with no imagination create a product I will love?".