Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Season 2 Ep. 6: 'It's Not About the Man, It's About the Market.'

[as originally published on entrepreneur.com]

You may have passion, a patent and product sales under your belt, but these ingredients combined aren’t necessarily enough to yield a deal on the weekly pitch show Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch. You need a way into a competitive market, a direct path to revenue and proof that you can really deliver.

On each episode, contestants get just 60 seconds to sell a panel of high-profile investors on their billion-dollar idea. They have to summarize their product, then prove that it has some traction. The most effective pitches end with a reasonable ask for funding, often in exchange for an equity stake. All of this happens from inside the Entrepreneur Elevator, where each entrepreneur recites their pitch to the judges as they watch from the boardroom floor.

When time’s up, the judges deliberate: Should they open the Entrepreneur Elevatordoors and bring in the contestant to share more information or negotiate? Or was that fast-paced pitch sufficient evidence that the idea isn’t worth pursuing? If they arrive at the latter conclusion, the entrepreneur descends to the lobby without a deal.

Related: Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Season 2 Ep. 5: 'Sorry You Felt That Way'

This week, the judges use their door-opening privileges even when pitches don’t seem like an ideal fit, ultimately sending contestants back into the elevator with encouragement, hope for future assistance or a small consolation prize. There’s only so much money to go around, and they have to be selective. As sports broadcaster and tech investor Lindsay McCormick puts it, they have to be “savvy investors rather than emotional investors.”

The product lineup includes everything from hooded scarves to barbecue sauce. Even Buddy Biancalana, who played shortstop for the Kansas City Royals in the 1985 World Series, makes an appearance to solicit funding for an artificial intelligence-powered device.

See how the judges handle each pitch by clicking play on the episode above, or on Facebook or YouTube. If you think one of the entrepreneurs has the next billion-dollar idea, be sure to support it through crowdfunding on our Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch landing page.