>> Pitching. What is it? Why do entrepreneurs have to know how to do this effectively? When are they likely to use this skill? I'm going to give you an overview of what pitching is, and what's involved when you give a pitch. You'll also be shown an example pitch, highlighting common mistakes people make whilst pitching. I want you to use this to reflect on what you think could be improved and how. Firstly, what is a pitch? Well, it is a short persuasive speech that an entrepreneur gives to inform and excite listeners, and to encourage them to engage with their business idea. This may encourage consumers to buy the innovation, or for investors to invest in it. It is a powerful tool for entrepreneurs because it allows them to give a quick overview of their business in a variety of settings such as networking. Why is it often called an elevator pitch? Well, this is due to the length. You should be pitching the same amount of time as an average elevator ride. So you should be aiming to pitch around 30 seconds to 2 minutes. What is involved with pitching? What do you say? To effectively pitch, you should work on two aspects, the content and the delivery. You'll be learning and practicing both of these in this specialization. Now though, you're going to see an example of a less effective pitch. This example will showcase several areas of common mistakes which people make. Whilst viewing the pitch, identify the areas you think the person pitching could improve on, and the advice you'd give them on how to do this. >> Hi, I'm Mark. I'm here with Arbutus Medical Drill Cover System, or I'm here to tell you about this new product. So what is it? Well, so it's a sterilizable, reusable fully-sealed barrier that allows surgeons to use regular hardware drills instead of expensive specialized surgical drills, safely and efficiently. So Arbutus drill cover simply attaches to a drill mechanics via a waterproof check adapter, creating a completely sealed barrier between the non-sterile drill and the sterile field outside. So to assemble it, you just have to insert a hardware drill into the sterile cover, and then you roll the bag edges down, and you tuck them under during loading before rolling them back and sewing them to encase the hardware drill. Turnaround time between cases can be as quick as one minute, which allows the soiled drill cover to be switched out for a sterile one. Drill cover system can be used with surgical drills to ensure their lifespan is prolonged since repeated drill autoclaving obviously, also increases wear and tear. This innovation has great potential for cost saving. So in the NHS, it's approximately 5,000 surgical drills, and estimate cost of £23,000 per drill. So if you need to replace all these, it will cost the NHS 150 million. However, if the NHS decided to use the Arbutus Medical Drill Cover System, it'll only cost £1,000,000 pounds. >> Now, you've seen the example pitch. What are your initial thoughts? This pitch was designed to ineffectively communicate what the innovation is, or why it's important for the audience. What common mistakes do you think were made? How would you improve these, and why? To be able to pitch is an essential skill for any innovator, but to pitch effectively is very difficult. You've seen an example which incorporated many common mistakes. Your next task will be to dissect this example pitch, and think about the weaknesses of it, both in terms of content and delivery. In this specialization, you will see another example of the pitch, where the common mistakes have been improved upon. This will give you a chance to compare both versions of the pitch, and of course, illustrate effective ways for you to pitch your innovation.
