The 30-Second Elevator Pitch That Landed £2 Million
It was a wet Tuesday in Shoreditch when Abi, founder of a last-mile-logistics start-up, ducked into a lift at Huckletree. A partner from VentureWave squeezed in beside her. Doors closed. Nine floors. Abi took a breath:
“London retailers lose £2 billion a year to failed deliveries. Our dynamic routing AI cuts that by half—already proven in three pilot stores. I’m raising £2 million to roll it out across Zone 1.”
Ding. Ground floor. The investor grinned:
“Love it. Send me your deck and let’s talk Friday.”
Abi had the spark… but no slides, no storyline, and three days on the clock. She rang Pitch Hero.
Day 1 – Diagnosing the gap
Over coffee at Old Street, we ran her through our Investor Presentation Coaching checklist:
- Clear problem? ✓
- Tangible traction? ✓
- Deck ready? ✗
- Rehearsal plan? ✗
Abi chose the Investor track but borrowed rehearsal drills from our Executive Coaching & Media Training package—camera-style playback, rapid-fire Q&A. (Yes, you can mix-and-match the six Pitch Hero services.)
Day 2 – Building the deck from a 30-second script
Using our FREE Pitch Deck Template (download it here—no gate), we mapped Abi’s elevator pitch onto five slide headlines:
- Retail pain (£2 bn leak)
- AI solution in one GIF
- 50 % fail-rate cut in pilot
- Market maths & unit economics
- The £2 m ask: 18-month runway, 120 stores
Add market sizing, team creds, and roadmap, and we hit the magic 11-slide mark—tight, visual, jargon-free.
Day 3 – Rehearse, refine, repeat
Morning: storytelling sprints borrowed from our Start-Up Pitch Coaching lane—three-minute, one-minute, and ten-second versions of the deck.
Afternoon: tough-love Q&A borrowed from Pitch Training for Companies—someone always plays the sceptical VC.
Evening: Abi practised while pacing the kitchen, toddler on hip, using our breathing reset: inhale 4, hold 4, speak 8.
Friday – The investor meeting
Abi opened with the same 30-second line from the lift, then rolled into the deck. Slides were clean; pauses deliberate. When asked, “What if Amazon does this tomorrow?” she politely flipped to Slide 7 (unfair-advantage data set) and answered in 20 seconds flat—drill work in action.
Result? Term sheet for the full £2 million, signed the following week.
Take-aways you can steal tonight
- Write a 30-second pitch first. If it won’t fit in a lift, it won’t fit in a deck.
- Drop those beats into the free template—problem, solution, benefit, proof, ask.
- Choose a coaching lane that matches your moment: Investor, Sales RFP, Start-Up Demo Day, Executive Media, Conference Stage, or Company-wide training.
- Rehearse with fire. Real questions, timed answers, playback video; confidence comes from exposure, not pep talks.
Ready to turn your own spark into a fund-winning deck?
Download the FREE Pitch Deck Template and, if you want the Pitch Hero treatment Abi received, book a FREE Deck Audit.
We’ll mark up every slide and send a 20-minute google meet so you can walk into your next meeting as ready as she was.
Your elevator ride starts now—let’s make sure it ends with a win!