WEBVTT NOTE Sentence-level transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Ftrl3vfV0 NOTE One cue per sentence. Cue ids are the line anchors on /transcripts/d_Ftrl3vfV0.html. A cue ends where the next begins, or 2 s after its last word. s1 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:03.880 This is your buyer. s2 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:06.840 And this is the typical AI pitch. s3 00:00:06.840 --> 00:00:12.600 We're building an agentic AI orchestration platform for enterprise knowledge retrieval. s4 00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:13.840 Okay, simpler. s5 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:16.120 It's agents, but not just agents. s6 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:21.040 It's agents talking to other agents inside a multi-agent workflow. s7 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:22.120 No, no, stay with me. s8 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:24.600 It saves time, automates the things humans don't want to do. s9 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:28.200 It's autonomous intelligence for your workflows. s10 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:29.360 Sound familiar? s11 00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:32.750 This is why so many AI products are in trouble. s12 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:32.759 [snorts] s13 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:34.840 Founders are shipping faster than ever. s14 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:35.370 Honestly, the tech s15 00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:35.560 [music] s16 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:39.320 is pretty epic, but you only have one shot to make your mark. s17 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:43.880 And in this market, that shot lasts about the time it takes to ride an elevator. s18 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:45.195 Today, I'm going to show you the three-part s19 00:00:45.195 --> 00:00:45.680 [music] s20 00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:52.400 fix for turning complex AI products into stories people instantly understand, remember, and want s21 00:00:52.400 --> 00:00:52.560 [music] s22 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:53.200 to buy. s23 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:54.560 I'm Veronica Hylick. s24 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:56.985 I've built products, made AI explainers that have hit s25 00:00:56.985 --> 00:00:57.160 [music] s26 00:00:57.160 --> 00:01:04.080 8 million views, and helped YC startups, safety orgs, and AI teams do exactly what I'm about to show you. s27 00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:07.200 The whole method starts with one thing. s28 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:08.120 The wound. s29 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:10.085 In other words, the biggest s30 00:01:10.085 --> 00:01:10.320 [music] s31 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:11.400 pain point. s32 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:13.800 What is hurting the customer? s33 00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:18.680 What is the exact moment your user wants to throw their laptop out a window? s34 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:19.320 Yikes. s35 00:01:19.320 --> 00:01:22.920 To demonstrate their wound, follow one rule. s36 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.200 Do not start with what you built. s37 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:31.000 The very first slide of your pitch should immerse people in their day-to-day of their job. s38 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.520 And show them what they are already tired of doing. s39 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:38.906 So, a bad pitch, we built an agentic orchestration SecOps platform for enterprises. s40 00:01:38.906 --> 00:01:39.240 [music] s41 00:01:39.240 --> 00:01:42.920 Yeah, that's a real pitch I've heard from a series B startup recently. s42 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:44.146 Nobody feels anything s43 00:01:44.146 --> 00:01:44.280 [music] s44 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:45.240 when you say that. s45 00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:47.800 Start with the human moment. s46 00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:51.351 Security teams are exhausted managing dozens of disconnected tools. s47 00:01:51.351 --> 00:01:51.960 [music] s48 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:59.866 Alerts live in one system, tickets in another, vulnerabilities in another, and the real investigation is buried in Slack threads and random screenshots. s49 00:01:59.866 --> 00:02:00.120 [music] s50 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:04.400 We fix that by putting it all into one place. s51 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:09.280 That touches a wound because I understand the emotion now. s52 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:15.760 Overwhelmed watching time bleed off the clock, making their lives harder for absolutely no reason. s53 00:02:15.760 --> 00:02:21.000 And if your product actually relieves that pain, now I want to hear more. s54 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:22.360 The format is simple. s55 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:25.720 In about 20 seconds, you need to do three things. s56 00:02:25.720 --> 00:02:29.880 Identify the wound, say we fix that, then show how. s57 00:02:29.880 --> 00:02:31.306 Your product starts claiming s58 00:02:31.306 --> 00:02:31.400 [music] s59 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:37.480 space in their mind because now they can see exactly how it impacts their day-to-day. s60 00:02:37.480 --> 00:02:43.320 Once you've shown them the wound, your next job is to make the product click. s61 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:44.440 Here's the test. s62 00:02:44.440 --> 00:02:47.560 Could a 17-year-old understand what you do? s63 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:50.160 If not, you're probably going to lose the room. s64 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:57.240 One of the fastest ways to fix that is to tie your product to a viral story people already understand. s65 00:02:57.240 --> 00:03:04.000 Think about the McDonald's AI drive-thru clips where it started doing ridiculous things like putting bacon on ice cream. s66 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:04.057 You s67 00:03:04.057 --> 00:03:04.320 [music] s68 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:08.519 instantly get the problem, AI doing something stupid in public. s69 00:03:08.519 --> 00:03:14.440 If that is your wheelhouse, do not open with, "We are an agent observability platform." s70 00:03:14.440 --> 00:03:20.280 Say, "If McDonald's had used us, that drive-thru never would have made it to TikTok. s71 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:27.680 We catch when AI agents go off script and give teams a chance to correct them before it becomes a PR nightmare." s72 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.602 Now it clicks because s73 00:03:29.602 --> 00:03:30.040 [music] s74 00:03:30.040 --> 00:03:33.560 I can instantly see the value your product would bring. s75 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:39.427 And if you really want to nail the product storytelling part, ban these words that no one can picture. s76 00:03:39.427 --> 00:03:39.920 [music] s77 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:42.000 Give me a mental image instead. s78 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.840 "Devon, the AI software engineer." s79 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:44.600 Great. s80 00:03:44.600 --> 00:03:45.977 I can picture that instantly. s81 00:03:45.977 --> 00:03:46.080 [music] s82 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:48.720 Or, "We're a smoke alarm for AI behavior." s83 00:03:48.720 --> 00:03:49.640 Also clear. s84 00:03:49.640 --> 00:03:51.872 Those are not perfect technical definitions, s85 00:03:51.872 --> 00:03:52.560 [music] s86 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:54.320 and that is fine. s87 00:03:54.320 --> 00:03:56.600 At this stage, they don't have to be. s88 00:03:56.600 --> 00:03:59.732 They are the front doors into the rest of the conversation. s89 00:03:59.732 --> 00:03:59.880 [music] s90 00:03:59.880 --> 00:04:03.000 You can give the technical version later to close the sale. s91 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.520 Just don't make it the first thing people have to understand. s92 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:09.480 The final step is to show the transformation. s93 00:04:09.480 --> 00:04:14.280 This is where you stop describing the product and start proving its value. s94 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:18.160 A lot of founders will say things like, "We improve code quality with AI." s95 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:20.320 or "We increase productivity." s96 00:04:20.320 --> 00:04:27.560 That sounds nice, but I still do not know what actually changes for me once your product enters my world. s97 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:31.919 Show me what life looks like before and show me the after. s98 00:04:31.919 --> 00:04:42.600 Before your support team spends 30 minutes digging through docs and tickets, with us, they ask one question and get the answer in 10 seconds with the sources attached. s99 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:47.400 Now I understand the value because I can see the old world and the new one. s100 00:04:47.400 --> 00:04:52.080 If I cannot see what changed, I do not feel the story. s101 00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:56.080 So, let's go back to that elevator. s102 00:04:57.400 --> 00:04:59.560 Yeah, we already know how that ends. s103 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:00.840 Let's try again. s104 00:05:00.840 --> 00:05:08.680 Your team is wasting hours digging through Slack, email, and random Excel spreadsheets just to find one piece of information that you need. s105 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:10.000 We fix that. s106 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.438 We connect all that fragmented knowledge in one s107 00:05:12.438 --> 00:05:12.480 [music] s108 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:17.000 place so you can search it and get the answer you need in seconds. s109 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.200 Same product, different story. s110 00:05:19.200 --> 00:05:23.573 15 years ago, if you built something great, the market might have found you. s111 00:05:23.573 --> 00:05:23.919 [music] s112 00:05:23.919 --> 00:05:25.680 That's not true anymore. s113 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:29.468 The products with the clearest stories are the ones that get funded, s114 00:05:29.468 --> 00:05:30.440 [music] s115 00:05:30.440 --> 00:05:32.280 bought, and talked about. s116 00:05:32.280 --> 00:05:34.708 Great tech that nobody understands s117 00:05:34.708 --> 00:05:34.840 [music] s118 00:05:34.840 --> 00:05:36.120 dies quietly. s119 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:43.223 Identify the wound, make your product click, show the transformation, then your idea won't fail s120 00:05:43.223 --> 00:05:43.640 [music] s121 00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:45.400 because nobody understands it. s122 00:05:45.400 --> 00:05:52.160 It will thrive and maybe even explode because you can explain it in an elevator. s123 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:54.120 Founders, tell me what you've been running into. s124 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:56.324 Leave a comment with your startup, and tell s125 00:05:56.324 --> 00:05:56.400 [music] s126 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:02.680 me the biggest problem you've had with turning your product into a story.