Blurbs for the Brain

I often come across a link or post that isn’t worthy of a dedicated post on my blog. It’s really best for me to tweet these things, but then a lot of people who read my blog don’t necessarily subscribe to Twitter so then they’d be missing out. So I figured I’d just compile some of these little tiny topics into a series called Blurbs for the Brain.

Here’s a 3 and a half minute enlightening video on How the Internet Works. Fantabulous!

One of the blogs I follow is Jason Shen’s The Art of Ass-Kicking. As an entrepreneur, he doles out a bunch of insight that’s particularly useful for people who want to start up their own business, but I still find interesting even though I’m a total corporette. He wrote a post titled Startup Founders: Don’t Forget to Sell the Dream. Read the example pitch he gives for Airbnb and some parting thoughts below. But click on the link above for the full post.

“Airbnb enables people to live richer lives, where their extra space allows them to be with their children, take more vacations and save for retirement. We transform travel accommodations from cold, sterile rooms to amazing experiences with locals in unique spaces. How will we become a billion dollar company? Airbnb will host more travelers than the entire Hilton hotel chain with 5,200 locations around the world, without having to manage a single piece of property. We will be the future of travel.”

It’s a little different right? It’s much more than just making money. An investor, like a founder, wants to be a part of something that is really going to change the world. Something to be proud of. Something that they can say “Yeah, I invested to those guys/gals when they were just getting started because I saw the potential in what they could create and the impact they could have on the world”

Now again, I want to emphasize that 90% of your pitch should be about the nitty gritty of your business. But don’t fail to include that 10% of a dream.