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Two-Minute Pitch Structure and Timer

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About This MicroSim

The two-minute pitch in Session 4 asks a founder to fit a validated concept, a canvas, and a 30-day launch plan into 120 seconds. That only works if each part of the pitch has a fixed, small time budget. This MicroSim splits the pitch into four sections and puts them on a time bar:

Section Budget Clock Word budget Jordan's version
Problem 30 seconds 0:00-0:30 about 75 words Busy dog owners within 5 miles lose a half-day of income or personal time every grooming trip.
Solution 30 seconds 0:30-1:00 about 75 words Grooming that comes to their driveway.
Evidence 40 seconds 1:00-1:40 about 100 words 3 of 5 driveway sessions converted to paying customers; $40 price point validated in price testing.
Ask 20 seconds 1:40-2:00 about 50 words Looking for 2 more referrals this month, and feedback on expanding to weekend availability.

Word budgets assume a relaxed speaking pace of 150 words per minute.

Each section has two parts in the detail panel. What belongs here is the general job of the section, which you apply to your own pitch. Jordan's pitch is the worked example, drawn from the validated problem (Chapter 5), the minimum viable offer (Chapter 6), and the price testing (Chapter 14).

The countdown runs on the browser's clock, not the frame rate, so it stays accurate even if the page is busy. When the clock reaches 0:30, 1:00 and 1:40, the next section block glows briefly and turns orange, and the panel switches to it. The timer card shows the time left in the whole pitch and in the current section. The countdown turns dark orange in the last 10 seconds, and it stops at 2:00.

On screens narrower than 600 pixels the four blocks form a 2x2 grid, a thin time bar sits below them, and the timer shrinks to a single strip above the panel.

How to Use

  1. Press Next (or the right arrow key) to step through the four sections without starting the clock. Read the prompt and Jordan's version for each one.
  2. Click any section block to jump straight to it. Previous steps back.
  3. Press Start Pitch Timer and say Jordan's pitch, or your own, out loud. Watch for each block to turn orange as its section begins.
  4. Press Pause to stop the clock and Resume to continue from the same time.
  5. While the clock runs or is paused, clicking another block previews it. The live section keeps an amber outline, and the panel returns to it at the next boundary or when you press Resume.
  6. Press Reset to return to 0:00 with no section selected.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/eight-hour-entrepreneur/sims/two-minute-pitch-structure-timer/main.html"
        height="500px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Audience

Adult early-stage entrepreneurs and aspiring founders in a live virtual cohort.

Learning Objective

Participants will apply a four-part structure (Problem, Solution, Evidence, Ask) to organize and time a two-minute founder pitch, using Jordan's example to decide what content belongs in each section.

Bloom Level: Apply (L3). Bloom Verb: apply.

Duration

20 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 16: Building the 30-Day Launch Plan
  • Chapter 17 reading through "The Mini Pitch: Your Two Minutes"
  • A written problem statement, minimum viable offer, and at least one lean test result for the participant's own idea

Activities

  1. Study the structure (4 min): The facilitator shares the screen and steps through the four sections with Next. For each one, participants type in the chat which words in Jordan's version do the job named in "What belongs here."
  2. Draft four lines (5 min): Each participant writes one line per section for their own venture, staying inside the word budgets. Evidence must cite something customers did, with a number.
  3. Timed rehearsal (8 min): In breakout pairs, one partner runs the timer on their screen while the other delivers the pitch out loud. The timekeeper notes where the speaker was each time a block turned orange: on time, ahead, or behind. Partners then switch roles.
  4. Peer feedback (3 min): Each timekeeper gives one concrete suggestion on the speaker's Evidence or Ask, following the peer feedback norms from Chapter 17.

Assessment

  • Can the participant name the four sections in order with their budgets and the clock times where each one starts (0:00, 0:30, 1:00, 1:40)?
  • Given a sentence such as "We need two more referrals this month," can the participant place it in the correct section and explain why?
  • Did the participant's timed rehearsal reach the Ask by about 1:40 and finish before 2:00?
  • Does the participant's Evidence section report observed customer behavior with numbers rather than opinions or predictions?

References

  1. Elevator pitch - Wikipedia - The short, time-boxed summary of an idea or venture that the two-minute pitch is a structured version of.
  2. Public speaking - Wikipedia - Preparation and delivery practices for speaking to a group, including rehearsal and timing.
  3. Words per minute - Wikipedia - Typical speaking rates, the basis for converting each section's seconds into a word budget.
  4. PechaKucha - Wikipedia - A presentation format with a fixed time per slide, another example of strict time budgets forcing a speaker to simplify.
  5. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2007) - Why simple, concrete messages are remembered, the same discipline a two-minute pitch applies out loud.