How to Pitch Your Idea Using Aristotle

Contenido del curso

Getting into the world of innovation

Listening to your user

Creating valuable ideas

Considering the outside world

Recap

15
Innovación Empresarial: Estrategias para la Creatividad y el Análisis Competitivo
04:08 min

Putting your ideas to the test

Going from idea to business

Getting people on board

Innovating in the real world

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How to Pitch Your Idea Using Aristotle

Curso de Innovación para Emprendimiento

Clase 23 de 27

Clase 23 / 27

Recursos

Learning how to pitch your idea is less about selling and more about connecting and convincing real human beings to back what you're building. If the word "sales" makes you uncomfortable, reframe it: a pitch is a human-to-human conversation rooted in the same design thinking mindset you've been practicing. And the good news? There's no rigid formula, just a set of ingredients you can mix into your own recipe.

Why does a pitch really matter for entrepreneurs?

A pitch is a speech or act that attempts to persuade someone to buy or support something. For your entrepreneurial idea, it's the moment where you translate months of user research and prototyping into a message that moves people to act.

Aristotle figured this out centuries ago and left us three tools we still use today:

Logos: logical thinking, facts, and evidence.
Pathos: emotional appeal that connects with the heart.
Ethos: proof of your credibility and authority.

You'll weave these three into every section of your pitch. Not all at once, and not in equal doses, but always with intention.

What is a pitch in entrepreneurship? It's a short, persuasive message designed to convince someone to support your idea, whether with money, time, alliances, or advice.

How do you start a pitch with the problem?

Always open with the problem. It's the same rule you followed during the innovation process: before the solution, there must be a real need worth solving. Your audience has to understand what need you're addressing and why they should care.

You have three solid ways to open, and you should pick just one.

Which opening hook works best for your audience?

Personal story: yours or someone else's, so the audience can relive it with you. Something like "When I was 12 years old..." or "Let me tell you about Sophia."
Impactful declaration: a piece of data or a striking fact. "Every minute, 12,000 people..." grabs attention because it feels big and relevant.
Powerful question: an invitation to reflect. "Have you ever thought about how much water you use in one day?" puts the audience in an introspective mode alongside you.

Here is where you decide between logos and pathos. If you go with logical proof and big-picture context, you're leaning on logos. If you illustrate the problem with human examples that stir emotion, you're using pathos. Both work. Choose the one that fits your style and your audience.

How do you present the solution and value proposition?

Once your audience agrees there's a real problem, transition naturally: "And that's why I created..." Now you shift into your value proposition, the promise your solution makes to the user.

Explain what makes your solution unique. You already ran your competitive analysis, so you know how you compare. Show that your idea is innovative, and remember the definition: innovation means adding real value to the user.

Prove you've figured out how to create and capture value:

Create value comes from desirability, what people actually want.
Capture value comes from making the solution viable and feasible.

This is a great moment to show your work: prototypes, quotes from potential customers, early results, or even your business model canvas. Anything that demonstrates you've moved through design thinking with rigor.

What is a value proposition in a pitch? It's the clear promise of how your solution will solve a specific problem in a way that's unique, desirable, viable, and feasible.

When should you introduce yourself in the pitch?

Here's something funders repeat constantly: people often back the team, not just the idea. You'll hear investors say, "I put my money behind this person. I almost didn't care what they were developing." So your introduction matters more than you think.

You can place this section wherever it fits best: at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or even at the very end with a casual "by the way, my name is..." It's a personal choice.

This is where ethos takes the stage. To build credibility, you can lean on:

Technical expertise: you know this topic inside and out.
Relevant education: you've been preparing for years.
Personal experience: you've lived the problem as a user.
Investigation: you ran the innovation process thoroughly and did your homework.

Any of these paths works. The goal is that your audience walks away thinking, this person knows what they're talking about.

What is a strong call to action in a pitch?

Every solid pitch closes with a clear ask. "I need X from you" should be near the final line. Explain where you are today, what the next step is, and what specific help unlocks it.

And think broadly. Your ask doesn't have to be money. Valid requests include:

Investment or funding.
A strategic alliance or partnership.
A provider or supplier.
Mentorship or advice.
New team members to join you.

The whole point of pitching is to persuade people to support your idea, so tell them exactly how they can help.

Your challenge: record and share your pitch

Now it's your turn. Prepare a brief pitch, ideally as a video, and share it with the community. Watch what others post, give thoughtful feedback, and use two example pitches as reference for tone and structure. The more feedback you exchange, the sharper your message becomes. Drop your pitch in the comments and let's help each other level up.

Juan Pablo Jimenez

Hace 5 años

23.-How to pitch

-- What is the purpose of presenting?

Connect & convince -Human to human connection.

How do I convince?

You can use logos: logical thinking, appealing to logic, facts, evidence to convince people.
Pathos: Emotional appeal, getting to the heart of your emotions in order to convince you.
Ethos: Giving evidence of my credibility in order to convince you.

-- Ingredients for a pitch

The pitch is basically a speech or an act that attempts to persuade someone to buy or do something. In this case, we are going to use it to convince people to support our idea.

-- 1.-Start with the problem: That's exactly how we started the process of innovation, so we are going to do that here too.

What need are you solving?

Why is it important? Why should they care about this?

Personal Story related to the problem -yours or someone else's that the audience can relieve with you.

Impactful Declaration -data, profound/big & relevant for the audience. For example: "Every minute n people ...."

Powerful Question -exploratory/reflective, puts the audience in introspective mode. For example: "How you ever thought about how much water you use in one day?" or "Have you thought about what kind of future your kids are going to have?".

NOTE: We usually kick off a pith with one of these three, don't do all of them. Choose the one that reflect you the best and is going to get your point across so the audience is aware of the problem.

-- 2.- Continue with the solution:

You're going to say something like "And that's why I created...", make the transition from convincing people there is a problem to tell them about the solution.

Focus on the value proposition: What is it that your solution is promising to do? How is it going to solve the problem?

Explain what makes your solution unique: Now that you know your competition, you know how you compare. What's special about your solution?

Show that your solution is innovative and based on the user: Show them that you figured out how to create and capture value. You can show your results here, quotes from potential customers, prototypes, etc. Things that show that you are really creating and capturing value. You might show your business canvas.

-- 3.- Introduce yourself: Many times people "buy" or support not the idea but the team behind it. Make people believe in you.

What you can say about yourself/the team that sells the idea even more.

This part can go here or at some other point in the pitch. Some people like to start their pitch by introducing themselves, some put it in the middle, and some people put it at the end.

This is where ethos go: establish credibility, show evidence of your authority on the subject (technical expertise, relevant education, personal experience, investigation you have done).

-- 4.-Call to action: Any good pitch has to finish up with "What do you need from us?"

"I need x from you" is one of the last sentences that you are going to put a solid pitch.

Explain where you are at today, what the next step is, and what you need help with to move forward with the idea.

Think broadly about what you need you might need: investment, alliance, provider, advice, etc.

Getting into the world of innovation

Innovación Empresarial: De la Idea al Negocio Real

How Might We Statements Define Innovation

Why Innovation Keeps Your Career Relevant

What Innovation Really Is (It's Not Tech)

Design Thinking vs Lean Startup Explained

Listening to your user

User Research Methods That Actually Work

Why Empathy Shapes Better Solutions

How to Turn User Research Into Insights

Creating valuable ideas

Creativity as a Skill You Can Build

Finding Ideas by Borrowing From Other Fields

Brainstorming Rules That Actually Generate Ideas

De idea a concepto: Transformación y priorización efectiva

Considering the outside world

Identificación y Análisis de la Competencia en Negocios

Context Map Canvas for Your Business Idea

Recap

Innovación Empresarial: Estrategias para la Creatividad y el Análisis Competitivo

Putting your ideas to the test

Prototipos: Validación de Ideas Empresariales

Prototipado Efectivo: Qué y Cómo Validar Ideas

Six Prototyping Methods Before You Build Anything

Iterations, Pivots, and Killing Bad Ideas

Going from idea to business

Business Model Canvas Explained in One Page

Business Models That Capture Value

Getting people on board

Why Most Innovations Die Before Launch

How to Pitch Your Idea Using Aristotle

Innovating in the real world

Frugal Innovation: Doing More With Less

Romper Hábitos para Fomentar el Pensamiento Innovador

Entrepreneurial Innovation Skills Course Recap

Habilidades de Innovación para Emprendedores e Intrapreneurs

How to Pitch Your Idea Using Aristotle