It takes 40 seconds to ride an elevator to the 61st floor of the Salesforce tower in San Francisco. On the day of the pitch competition, the elevator doors opened and inside stood Salesforce President and Chief Product Officer, Bret Taylor. The door closed and the elevator started to rise.
Mars Mundy, one of the eight finalist had a frustrating experience with repair shops that he channeled those frustrations into building a startup to transform the auto repair industry. His start-up Carserv, received a $250,000 funding from Salesforce Ventures.
Here's a word-for-word of Mundy's winning 40-second pitch.
"My name is Mars Mundy, the CEO of CarServ, the operating system for auto repair.
The average car on the road today is twelve years old. Americans spend $314 billion annually on auto repair each year.
Rapid growth in ride sharing and fleets equals more miles driven, meaning more repairs and maintenance.
To drag auto repair out of the dark ages, you have to work from the inside out.
Over the last four years, we've built a team with over 60 years of experience in the auto service industry.
Our Heroku-hosted software is powered by machine learning.
With better data around the repair process, CarServ turbocharges speed, accuracy, and customer service.
Distilling the essence of a complex technology like CarServ into 40 seconds is hard work. Each words counts. Mundy's pitch was successful because he was able to frame a very large problem, offer a novel solution, and create context for investors who are unfamiliar with the business.
Watch this 2 mins 49 Secs video to see the elevator pitch in action
Source: Carmine Gallo | How To Pitch An Idea In 40 Seconds, From Three Entrepreneurs Who Took The Ultimate Elevator Ride
Sales professionals often apologise for taking up a customer’s time, especially when speaking to busy healthcare teams. While intended as empathy, this habit can undermine credibility and position the seller as an interruption rather than a partner.
This piece explores the difference between acknowledging busyness and apologising for it—and why confident, respectful storytelling builds stronger professional authority.
Empathy makes you sound kind. Resonance makes you sound credible. In this article, I unpack a real sales role-play to show why naming a problem isn’t enough — you must illuminate what’s at stake.
