Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Accredited investors finance more than 75,000 U.S. startups annually. We explain how training aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their new business ideas to these investors affects their odds of continued funding discussions. We model accredited investors’ decision to continue investigation as a real option whose value is a function of their experience and the information contained in the entrepreneurs’ pitches. We derive four hypotheses from the model, which we test through a field experiment that randomly assigns pitch training at four elevator pitch competitions. The data support all four hypotheses and are inconsistent with alternative explanations.</p> <p>A newer <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-022-00619-4">version of this paper</a> (published in 2022) contains further analysis.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2882 Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question How does elevator pitch training influence would-be founders' pitches and potential investors' responses to investment prospects? Sample Trial population and sample selection Would-be company founders and potential investors. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description This study explored the impact of elevator pitch training – detailed support on how to pitch to investors - for aspiring entrepreneurs on their efforts to attract equity investors. The researchers randomly assigned participants to four elevator pitch competitions to either a training or null treatment, and then to a panel of judges. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Surveys and internet searches Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Pitching score from judges, number of recommended elements included in pitches.</p> Results <p>Pitch training increased the use of best-practices elements in pitching by around one third of a standard deviation. <br /> </p> Intervention costs Cost benefit ratio Reference Clingingsmith, D., Shane, S. (2017). 'Training Aspiring Entrepreneurs to Pitch Experienced Investors: Evidence from a Field Experiment in the United States'. Management Science. Citation for use in academic references
