A dozen of the best start-up pitches on the Web

One of the best ways to prepare yourself to pitch your company is to watch other people pitch theirs. Here are a dozen of the best “start-up” pitches I could find (watching people pitch established companies is, in general, not as much fun ). Watch and learn! (PS Post any other good ones I may have missed in the comments and I will add them to the post.) #1 – Sam Altman pitches Loopt at the WWDC 2008. #2 – Omar Hamoui pitches AdMob. $0 to $750 million in three years. #3 – Evan Williams talks about Twitter at TED. #4 – Yext presenting at this year’s TechCrunch50. #5 – Cafe Press‘s “Lesson Learned” pitch. “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch #6 – Drew Houston launches Dropbox at TechCrunch50 (2008). #7 – Hey, just because it’s not a business doesn’t mean it’s not a start-up! And another (Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech). #8 – Aaron Patzer launches Mint at TechCrunch40 (they won top prize). #9 – Kevin Rose demos Digg…in 2004. BONUS #3 – Not sick of pitches yet? 13.

Establishing Guiding Principles at SEOmoz A year ago I wrote about Jim Collins' book, Good to Great, on the blog and invited companies and organizations to ask themselves how they stacked up to the qualities that make a company "great." Today, after a long and, at times, challenging process, SEOmoz is moving one step further in striving for that goal by formally announcing our guiding principles. Many companies have a mission statement - something they ceaselessly endeavor towards (like Google's "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" or National Geographic's "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical and natural resources"). Guiding principles are similar in concept, but offer a deeper look at the culture, goals and specific accomplishments a company is striving toward. There are three elements Collins defines as "Guiding Principles" and these are the three we've chosen to tackle. I really liked this quote from Mr.

Lessons Learned From StartupBootcamp 2010 Lessons Learned From StartupBootcamp 2010 This is the first article from Jason L. Baptiste, a new writer at OnStartups and local Boston entrepreneur. You should follow him on Twitter (@jasonlbaptiste) or say hi via email. Expect to hear a lot more from him in the future. On Saturday, MIT hosted Startup Bootcamp to provide a diverse group of lessons to hopeful founders and those teetering on the edge of jumping into a startup. You can also check out more coverage at: 1) Startup Bootcamp Take Aways 2) Why I'm Going To Get A Dog, Lose My Ego, And Just F'Ing Do It Chris Wanstrath (GitHub) - Your Customers Are Your Best Sales Team The story behind GitHub and how the team got there always amazes me. Let Your Product Help Customers Shine If your product helps customers shine, they will attach it to their work and give you increased visibility. Build For More People Spend Face To Face Time With Your Customers It's always good to spend face to face time with your customers. Get Inside Their Head

Apple et l’évangélisation (guest post) Guest post by @andreivest Vous connaissez surement le TED talk de Simon Sinek « How great leaders inspire action ». Simon Sinek, auteur de Start With Why, y démontre la nécessité de communiquer différemment sur son produit. Dans l’innovation, il est absolument essentiel de trouver ses early adopters, de trouver ceux qui vont vouloir ce produit, qui vont être prêts à l’utiliser et le développer avec vous. Une startup n’a souvent pas les moyens financiers et humains d’aller convaincre la masse d’adopter son produit. Le terme «évangéliser» est particulièrement adéquat ici. Si l’on prend l’exemple d’Apple (qui est certes loin d’être une startup, mais qui innove en permanence), cela s’applique parfaitement. Pourquoi les fans d’Apple l’ont-ils fait? Ce n’est pas Apple qui évangélise les masses,ce sont les membres de sa «secte».