Article · 12 min read

How to Pitch Your Company (Michael Seibel / Y Combinator)

Michael Seibel · Y Combinator Free Beginner

This is the discipline your title slide lives or dies by: Seibel's rule is to name the company and say what it does in the plainest possible words, then run the two-sentence test (email a smart friend, have them explain it back, revise until they get it with zero questions). His worked line, 'Socialcam is a mobile app that makes it easy to take videos and share them with friends and family,' is exactly the one-liner you drop under your company name.

• Lead with the company name plus what it does in one predigested sentence, not a mission statement or a category label
• Use the two-sentence test: if a smart friend can't explain it back in their own words, your one-liner is not done
• Clarity beats sounding impressive; 'you don't need to sound cool, you need to be clear' is the whole game for slide one