Perfecting Your One Sentence Pitch

As a startup founder, you will pitch your business thousands of times to potential customers, partners, team members, investors, and more.

When you pitch, you need to grab the listener's attention quickly, and communicate all of the core elements of your idea in a clear and concise manner. In order to do this, the Founder Institute recommends using the simple one-sentence pitch format described below.

Remember: If you can't describe your business in one-sentence, then you don't understand it well enough.

My Company , is developing to help with

Example: My company, the Founder Institute, is developing a startup accelerator to help idea-stage and pre-seed entrepreneurs build fundable businesses with a structured methodology and global investor network.

Don't use adjectives, particularly superlatives. Never say 'first', 'only', 'huge' or 'best' as these words signal inexperience

Do properly define your target market. For example, 'women' or 'small businesses' are way too large and not nearly targeted enough

Don't use any buzzwords, acronyms or industry jargon in your pitch

Do keep it short. It's easy to write a long sentence, but the right thing is to be concise

Great Startup Ideas are ‘Built’, not ‘Born’.

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In the short video below, Adeo Ressi, Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute, explains the One Sentence Pitch in full:

Frequently Asked Questions

: It is short by design. The goal of the one-sentence pitch is to quickly establish an immediate understanding about your business, so that more fruitful conversation can follow.
: You will need to quickly pitch your business hundreds, if not thousands, of times before you are ready to build a pitch deck. You can’t build a good home without a good foundation. Perfect the one-sentence pitch, THEN you’ll know how to build a great deck.
: Good entrepreneurs never stop pitching, because getting feedback on your pitch is the most effective way to test what messages resonate. In any given day, a good entrepreneur may pitch their business to a potential employee, partner, customer, connector, or investor.
: Check out the list of free Founder Institute events at FI.co/events.

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The Founder Institute is the world’s largest agentic company builder, turning ideas into fundable startups, and startups into unicorns. Since 2009, the Founder Institute program has helped over 9,000 entrepreneurs build 9,000+ companies, including unicorns like Udemy and Esusu, raise over 2BN in funding, and grow a portfolio worth an estimated $20BN. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200+ cities and 95 countries, our mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide. Learn more about the Founder Institute.

Perfecting Your One Sentence Pitch

Great Startup Ideas are ‘Built’, not ‘Born’.

Frequently Asked Questions

Isn't one sentence too short?

Shouldn't I focus on building a pitch deck instead?

Is pitching just for fundraising?

Where else can I get help pitching my startup?

Apply to FI Core

Build your startup with AI agents doing the work

Turn your idea into the next unicorn

Join the world's largest agentic company builder