Forget the elevator pitch

Now it's a "Twitpitch", your company's story in 140 characters, about 20 words, the maximum length of a message on Twitter.

Businessweek gives us The Escalator Pitch.

Their example is Google.  When Sergey Brin and Larry Page first approached investors, they

had no track record or experience running companies. But Brin and Page had passion for digital information and a concise vision: Google would provide "access to the world's information in one click" (eight words). The investor said when his team heard this, they understood the vision immediately and were eager to hear more."

Quickbase for Kayak

How Paul English, CEO of travel website Kayak.com uses a do-it-yourself database to keep millions of users happy, without employing a single customer-service rep.

The company spends a total of $10,000 a year on QuickBase licenses and related hardware. English says he would have to spend $300,000 a year in salaries and benefits for an estimated 12 extra staffers he would need to run traditional customer-service software. He also saves on other software: Kayak uses QuickBase to manage projects, vendors, and some accounts.

"Small businesses would be foolish to not at least test this kind of solution," says Yankee Group analyst Joshua Holbrook. "You're at a competitive disadvantage if you don't."

PR Secrets for Startups

From Techcrunch comes guest author Brian Solis with his PR Secrets for Startups