Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.
Five-minute spoken pitch script
Most first investor meetings give you five uninterrupted minutes at best before questions start, and founders who have never said the pitch aloud fill them with product detail. Writing the spoken version word for word, separate from the deck, forces choices about the problem, the proof and the ask, and gives every later rehearsal something fixed to improve.
First tasks
- Write the first sentence you will say after the introductions
- Draft the full spoken script in short sentences, one idea each
- Read the script aloud with a timer and cut until it fits five minutes
- Check every number in the script against this month's metrics
- Read it to a co-founder or adviser and write down their three notes
Thirty-second company answer for any room
Investors, their associates and the people who introduce you will all ask what the company does, and a rambling answer at a conference or on a first call ends the conversation before it starts. A thirty-second answer naming the customer, the problem, the result and one proof point travels further than any deck, because the listener can repeat it to a partner.
First tasks
- Write the customer, the problem and the result in one sentence each
- Add the single proof point a stranger would find most striking
- Say it to five people outside the industry and ask them to repeat it back
- Write a ten-second version for introductions in a corridor
- Say the answer aloud to someone who has not heard it @recurring(monthly:15)
Baseline recording of the full pitch
Watching yourself on video is humbling: most founders overestimate how clearly they pitch until they see the filler words, the slide read aloud and the answer that circles twice. Recording one complete run, pitch plus ten minutes of questions, before any investor hears it gives an honest starting point and a way to measure progress later.
First tasks
- Ask a friend to play the investor and prepare ten questions
- Record the full pitch and ten minutes of questions on video
- Watch the recording once with the sound off and note body language
- Count filler words and overruns with timestamps
- Choose the three fixes to work on first
