FINANCIAL TIMES: A successful start-up pitch is in the hands of the entrepreneur

Description

The pitch — that moment when an entrepreneur briefly has a chance to market their idea to an investor — has acquired a hallowed status in the start-up world, and beyond.

Manuals abound (Pitch Perfect, Life’s a Pitch, Perfect Pitch — you get the idea). Television formats such as Dragons’ Den have turned the mundane meeting in a windowless conference room into showbiz. Executives, film directors and innovators are urged to hone their “elevator pitch”. Ted Talks have become a sort of alternative pitching arena for “thought leaders”, where success is measured in views rather than dollars.

What wouldn’t any enthusiast with a bright idea give for an edge over their rivals? Researchers now claim to have identified that edge: hand gestures can make an investor on average 12 per cent more likely to back a business.

“People who use figurative language and skilful gestures are more likely to be persuasive,” according to Mark Healey of Alliance Manchester Business School, co-author of the study, soon to appear in the Academy of Management Journal.