Comments on: Turning on your Reality Distortion Field

By: The Elevator Pitch – time to put-up or shut-up | Liad Shababo

The Elevator Pitch – time to put-up or shut-up | Liad Shababo — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:28:12 +0000

[...] are loads of great resources on Elevator pitches online, checkout Venture Hacks, Steve Blank, and Read Write [...]

By: Hugh Hofmeister

Hugh Hofmeister — Mon, 10 May 2010 22:43:54 +0000

I found this article very insightful and valuable advice for communicating the benefits of your product to customers. It reminds you to really simplify your idea, because most people aren’t interested in all the technical jargon etc. I applied this to our product Envision to write a really simple 30 second elevator pitch, check out http://blog.envisionapp.com/2010/05/how-will-envision-change-the-world/. It’s still a bit long, but is quite simple.

By: How will Envision change the world? - Envision

How will Envision change the world? - Envision — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:18:12 +0000

[...] recently read this article, “Turning on your Reality Distortion Field” which made me rethink the way I tell people about Envision. The article discusses the “30 [...]

By: Don’t forget to keep it simple – Recomended reading from Steve Blank « Spreading FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE

Mon, 10 May 2010 16:28:08 +0000

[...] May 10, 2010 · Leave a Comment From Steve Blank’s BLOG post: Turning on your Reality Distortion Field [...]

By: How to Make Your Pitch | Streamlined Life

How to Make Your Pitch | Streamlined Life — Thu, 06 May 2010 07:21:24 +0000

[...] key to a successful elevator pitch. It’s not about all the details; it’s about simplicity. That’s the advice offered by Steve Blank in a recent blog post. “[A]nyone can make a [...]

By: Chris Kelly

Chris Kelly — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:31:47 +0000

Steve Jobs has always had an ability to simplify complicated concepts. This video from Next is an excellent model for refining a presentation to its essence, and defining your competitors in the way that fits your own needs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dmcRbuTMY. Next may not have succeeded on its own, but its software got Steve back into Apple.

By: petrem66

petrem66 — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:56:41 +0000

It takes a lot of imagination to translated a business idea to the language that customers or investors understand in 30 seconds, and can get excited about. I read an excellent book about this topic (Seth Godin ‘All Marketers are liars’)

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:22:55 +0000

Do I have a problem because I did not believe a single word in this pitch?

By: Simple, compelling, and inevitable value prop FTW! « Yet Another (ex-)VC Blog

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:56:06 +0000

[...] via Turning on your Reality Distortion Field « Steve Blank. [...]

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:11:08 +0000

Often our communication and understanding centers of our brains are in conflict. There’s a challenge in boiling down the essence of complex problems and creating a stylized message that anyone can understand. This is the hallmark of a legendary founder, and I hope it’s a skill that can be learned in the nature vs nurture debate.

I appear to have turned my reality distortion field on myself, and uninstalled simple scripts a vital component of my wordpress blog due to nuisance and erroneous update messages…

By: David K. Storrs

David K. Storrs — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:11:48 +0000

Actually, that 75-word summary can be boiled down further and made ‘punchier’:

“Electric vehicles today are like cars in1898; on the brink of transforming society. In 10 years, most trucks will be electric; the heart of an electric truck is a powertrain controller and propulsion system. We’ve designed, built and installed those systems. Every electric truck will need one of our products.”

50 words.

By: How to Make Your Pitch | Extranet Factoring

How to Make Your Pitch | Extranet Factoring — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:27:36 +0000

[...] key to a successful elevator pitch. It’s not about all the details; it’s about simplicity. That’s the advice offered by Steve Blank in a recent blog post. “[A]nyone can make a [...]

By: Paul..

Paul.. — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:51:57 +0000

I experienced this exact same thing a couple of weeks back. I was consulting to a hardware company and their CEO is/was also an engineer (v smart guy). I was with them in one partner presentation and he was way too far in the weeds of the technology. In the taxi on the way back to the airport I was encouraging him to take a different approach in the next meeting (which happened to be with the ‘big boss’ of this particular company). Very much along the lines that you suggested.

To his credit he took the suggestion on board. Net result? The next meeting was far more productive, big boss was impressed and they seem to have a good opportunity to do some serious business together.

By: Peter Armstrong › My (Attempted) Reality Distortion Field

Peter Armstrong › My (Attempted) Reality Distortion Field — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:25:58 +0000

[...] Blank made a great post today called Turning on your Reality Distortion Field, explaining how he recommends doing a 30 second, < 100 word elevator [...]

By: Turning on your Reality Distortion Field – Steve Blank « Tech4buziness – Eng

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:38:10 +0000

[...] Do it in 100 words or less. via steveblank.com [...]

By: Top Posts — WordPress.com

Top Posts — WordPress.com — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:15:57 +0000

[...] Turning on your Reality Distortion Field I was catching up over coffee and a muffin with a student I hadn’t seen for years who’s now CEO of his own [...] [...]

By: Rainbow Unicorn

Rainbow Unicorn — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:51:20 +0000

I always think it makes sense to have 3 versions of that summary prepared. One sentence, 3 sentences and then the 100 word summary. Each one has it’s time and purpose and is very handy to have.

What do you think of this one for Cornify?

“Unicorn & Rainbows On-Demand”

Now if that doesn’t spark instant interest, I don’t know what will.

Sparkles!

By: steve

steve — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:07:52 +0000

The thing think the guy missed is the ceo is everything at the company, so he should also be a sales guy.

By: Jason Kolb

Jason Kolb — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:25:28 +0000

The problem with most engineers is that they don’t realize that you are selling the solution to a problem. There’s no concept there that you need to make people think about what it will cost them if they DON’T get your product–how much money it will cost, how much worse their life will be, etc.

That’s why most startups need a tech guy and a marketing guy, because a combination of the two is very rare.

By: Josh Margulis

Josh Margulis — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:39:36 +0000

Seems like the question is “So What?” and there is a great interview from Andrew Warner at Mixergy.com to discuss this topic:
http://mixergy.com/so-what-magnacca/

The book written by Mark Magnacca is a quick read that helps get you on track for answering this question.