An alternative format for the elevator pitch

Abstract

The elevator pitch exercise is a staple of most university entrepreneurship programmes. The premise is that someone is in an elevator (lift) with a potential investor and has only the time of the ride to make a pitch and secure a follow-up appointment. In the most typical pitch format, students stand in front of judges and deliver a memorized one- to two-minute proposal. This empirical research examines the strength of a new format for the elevator pitch: the reception format. Data collected from this new format are compared to the traditional one to establish the superiority of the reception format.