At a recent planning session for a tech conference, I suggested including a ‘pitch fest’ on the agenda to allow local startups to present their business ideas. This board is made up primarily of other high tech business owners, many of whom are serious investors. I was expecting a rash of suggestions for companies and entrepreneurs who might be interested in giving a pitch, but the response I got was quite unexpected.

“Who will vet the ideas?”
“How will we decide who gets to present?”
“How will we find investors who are willing to sit through that?”

What I was proposing was not a business plan competition or an investment forum, but simply an open-mic for entrepreneurs to share their ideas. Unfortunately, it seems that many investors simply don’t have time to hear bad ideas. This attitude is perplexing, but it is certainly not isolated to those who sit on this particular board. In fact, many investors and angel groups are hiring full-time ‘vetters’ to make sure they only see the best ideas. The big VC firms have done this for years. After all, a successful investor can’t possibly listen to every entrepreneur that wants to pitch them. Can they?

The more successful an investor is, the more pitches they will receive. Obviously, they can’t give every opportunity equal consideration and full due diligence, but why can’t they at least hear the elevator pitch? After all, most of these people achieved their success because of their ability to spot a good idea. Why, then, would they want to avoid doing what they are best at?

Giving elevator pitches is important for entrepreneurs. It forces them to focus their plans – not just the pitch – but the business itself. This is true for good ideas and bad ones. Some of the best ideas started as terrible ideas. Sometimes, a bad idea simply needs to evolve based on feedback. Other times, it needs to merge with another bad idea to become viable. ‘Pitch fests’ create opportunities for one entrepreneur’s chocolate to end up in another’s peanut butter.

Investors do entrepreneurs a service by limiting the time they spend on listening to each pitch and by giving quick feedback, but avoiding pitches limits the opportunity for everyone. Pitch me, bro!

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