The Formula for Amazing One Liners

Reflecting on some of the success I've had in fundraising, I've directly raised a few million in capital and been an executive of teams that have collectively raised over $100M.

One thing I’ve noticed is the power of a one-line hook that really draws in an investor. Now that I’ve given this advice a dozen times over the last month, I want to put it in writing.

When YouTubers think about their video ideas, they often think about the thumbnail and title before the content itself. This is because that first impression is almost the most important thing to get views (of course, you do have to make a good video too), but it’s top of mind for most creators.

It’s exactly the same with business ideas.

Venture capitalists and people at networking events hear introductions all day long.

“Hi – I’m working on a B2B SaaS for accounting.”

“It’s a data analytics tool for the e-commerce industry.”

“We’re an educational app focused on language learning.”

“It’s a subscription-based meal delivery service.”

Bleh, boring…

Look – maybe you’re doing one of these and making a lot of money. That’s amazing, and I’m not discounting your hard work and success (in fact, there are heaps of people doing these things who are far more successful than me).

What I’m talking about is standing out in a crowd when fundraising, pitching for top talent, etc. The business space is inherently noisy, and even if you’re doing something similar to the above, crafting a killer one-liner (the business equivalent of a YouTube thumbnail) is imperative. Here are some of mine:

Tailor Brews → We let you brew custom beers from your phone and have them delivered to your door.

EntryLevel → We’re creating a system for reskilling 1 billion people for $5 a person.

When I’m working through my next business idea, the one-liner is actually part of the ideation process.

Here are a few ideas I’m playing around with:

• “The world’s first one-petabyte hard drive.”

• “AI secret agents that perform automated corporate espionage.”

• “Weather balloons that stay in the air 100x longer than current balloons.”

• “The world’s first neo-university: satellite campuses in 100 countries, lifelong degrees, and educational materials that update weekly.”

So, what makes a good one-liner?

Ambitious/Aspirational: Is this the ultimate end state for the idea? What’s the most ambitious version of it?

Simple/Brief: One sentence is ideal, two if you really need it.

Highly Differentiated: Is the idea itself highly differentiated from what’s currently on the market? Is it unique?

Invokes Curiosity: Does it make the other person say, “That sounds cool, but what does that even mean?” You should hook them and leave them no choice but to ask follow-up questions, driven by genuine curiosity.

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Cheers,

Ajay