Ditching the Elevator Pitch

THERE’S NO SHORTAGE of lore about the importance of the elevator pitch.

There’s the 1850s version, in which inventor Elisha Otis’s dramatic demonstration of his innovation—a safety brake that keeps elevators from falling during a cable failure—set a new bar for colorful, efficient salesmanship.

There’s the Hollywood version, in which writers pitching scripts have just 60 seconds to capture the imagination