Problem and Solution

The best way for you to get your audience interested in your products and services is to describe a problem that your target market faces. Once potential investors understand the problem, they will want to hear about your company's solutions.

Problem and Solution Tips

Use a single real-life example. This specificity will save you time and help your audience understand the problem Quantify! Unless the problem has a cost or opportunity associated, there is no market, no matter how painful the problem is Illustrate one solution. Restrain yourself from talking about every product your company offers Anticipate your audience's objections and address them. The audience will be thinking of those objections while you are talking

Michael Gansky, McKinsey & Co. (4:14)

Gansky talks about how to explain the problem in the market and your company's solution.

Nancy Spangler, Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe LLP (3:03)

Spangler suggests that you detail the problem and solution. She also advises that you describe the product or service succinctly and clearly (in ten words or less).

Planethopper, Inc., New York 2001 (1:51)

Springboard Alumna Rachel Barenbaum gives an example of how PlanetHopper's product works.

WebWare, Silicon Valley 2000 (0:51)

Alumna Lauren Flanagan provides a snapshot of the problem—a strawberry. She could have talked about the problem in a general/abstract way by saying, "Companies have millions of images to manage and it costs them a lot of money." Instead she describes the problem of just one image.

Useractive, Inc., Mid-West 2001 (1:48)

Springboard Alumna Tricia Mills Gray describes the crux of the problem, i.e., why hasn't anyone done this before? She answers the unstated question by giving a specific example. She could have just said, "We have technology that works and others don't." But instead she gives an example of the technology barrier to prove to her audience that Useractive has something very different to offer.