elevator pitch

Also el·e·va·tor speech

[el-uh-vey-ter pich]

noun

1. a brief talk or pitch intended to sell or win approval for something, as a product or business proposal.

   a two-minute elevator pitch to a prospective investor.

Word History and Origins

Origin of elevator pitch¹

First recorded in 1995–2000; from the idea of persuading someone while on an elevator moving between floors

Example Sentences

That Pritzker doesn’t have a natural feel for such material is a bit surprising given his history in venture capital, a cultural space that celebrates the visionary elevator pitch.

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Asked to describe the sport in which he is a double world champion, Tomas Woods has it down to an elevator pitch: "It's basically BMX in a wheelchair."

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For 15 minutes, nearly every line of dialogue could be an elevator pitch for a Roland Emmerich movie: earthquakes in California, volcanoes in Germany, a nuclear meltdown in Japan.

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Any new musical is a hard sell to investors, but especially one with an elevator pitch that’s slightly odd.

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“Whereas most other producers in the indie space are looking for stuff that’s very squarely genre, or kind of like the elevator pitch makes a ton of sense from a commercial standpoint ... this just felt like ‘Citizen Kane.’

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