Pitch Perfect: ‘The Drunk Hemingway’ Technique for Startups

As a startup founder, condensing your ‘big vision’ into a snappy, memorable statement can feel as tricky as trying to fit ten pounds of sugar in a five-pound sack.

Enter the “Drunk Hemingway Pitch”- a fun and effective technique from “Get Backed” by Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis. This technique distills the essence of your venture into a concise statement using a Mad-Libs like exercise. (fair warning: you don’t actually have to be drunk to do this activity.)

To demonstrate this technique in action, let's look at an example:

Backtracks (W18) is a podcast analytics and hosting platform that provides actionable data and insights for podcast publishers and advertisers. They help users understand their audience, improve their content, and monetize their podcasts. Using the "drunk Hemingway pitch" technique, we distilled their mission down to two sentences.

EX: It is a good podcasting marketplace because it is an intelligent podcast marketplace. There’s nothing straightforward and verifiable about audio analytics, unless you’re settling for guesswork. And then, it’s not only insightful but valuable.

This statement captures the essence of the company in a way that is impactful. It emphasizes the unique value proposition (offering sophisticated audio analytics that go beyond guesswork) of Backtracks, which sets it apart from competitors (insightful and valuable) and demonstrates its potential to revolutionize the podcasting marketplace. Backtracks is an intelligent podcasting marketplace that provides actionable data and insights for podcast publishers and advertisers.

But we wouldn’t use this pitch when talking to an investor. This technique should be used to refine and hone your messaging before pitching to investors, helping you articulate your vision in a clear and concise way.

Getting out of your comfort zone is never easy, but using techniques like “the Drunk Hemingway pitch” help build pitch muscle and reframe your value proposition from a different point of view.

Give it a go, and you might be surprised at how quickly you can perfect your actual elevator pitch in a clear and impactful way. Who knows? Maybe the next time someone asks you what your startup is all about, you’ll be ready with a witty and memorable pitch that leaves them asking for more!