Argh. Pitch TO your clients. TO your clients. English - use it right.
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Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
21–27 of 27 posts
Re: Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
#22Argh. Pitch TO your clients. TO your clients. English - use it right.
This is just wrong. Pitch when used as a verb can - and sometimes must - be used without "to" ("He pitched me a new startup idea" vs *"He pitched to me a new startup idea"). As a noun it does need "to".
He's correct in this context though, because it is ambiguous as written. It has a great many meanings, in fact: you could mean to take your clients and throw them at a high velocity. It could mean to take some of your clients and heave them into a pile. It could mean to throw your clients into a fermentation vessel. You might mean to suspend your clients by poles to make a temporary shelter out of them for your camping trip.
"Pitch" when used as a verb without "to" has many more possible meanings than when used with "to"—the "to" clarifies the subject-object relationship. Without "to," the the clients could either be the object or the subject, for example it could be the clients "being pitched to" (they are the object of the verb) or "being pitched" (where they are the subject). Adding "to" clarifies and locks down the meaning of the sentence, and a sentence without ambiguity is generally the better one.
Incidentally, adding "an idea" at the end ("Pitch your clients an idea") also clarifies the subject—the subject of the pitch is clearly the idea, since it comes after the object and that's just the ordering rule that English likes; you could also reverse them, but then you'd need the "to" again to clarify the relationship, eg: "Pitch an idea to your clients".
Thus, as it stands, "Pitch to your clients" is indeed the more correct and clear English sentence.
However, given English is not the writer's first language, he's doing extremely well and should be commended. English is an extremely difficult language with a myriad of special cases and nuances, and it takes many years of dedicated practice to master them. We can only be supportive and educational, and hopefully this was.
Re: Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is just wrong. Pitch when used as a verb can - and sometimes must - be used without "to" ("He pitched me a new startup idea" vs *"He pitched to me a new startup idea"). As a noun it does need "to".
He's correct in this context though, because it is ambiguous as written. It has a great many meanings, in fact: you could mean to take your clients and throw them at a high velocity. It could mean to take some of your clients and heave them into a pile. It could mean to throw your clients into a fermentation vessel. You might mean to suspend your clients by poles to make a temporary shelter out of them for your campi…
wow, what a comment :) thanks a lot for your understanding and very, very usefull feedback!
Re: Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
#24Dear Investors: stop pitching the startups you invested in
Re: Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
#25Dear Investors: stop pitching the startups you invested in
It is annoying, but it is also part of their job...at least if they are doing it right.
Re: Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
#26This is a slightly ignorant claim to make. There are plenty of startup companies who have different business models than just "make a program and sell it". Additionally, you're assuming that every startup is also a saas startup. Most aren't, meaning they might have a thousands in lets say production molds and an order of 10000 units from retailers. They'll need the investment money to help them fulfill orders and gro…
Because 123ship.it is a software blog, I think the post is intended in context of software development, not widget stamping.
Re: Dear Startups: stop begging investors and pitch your clients
#27Another article about stop thinking investment and do something that magically will work without the initial money inyection. I think these articles are good motivators but they don't fit in the real world. Let me sumarize my view point: 1. You can develop your MVP at home with your buddies, yes, but maybe you need money to make something crucial that requieres some expert contracting to get it done. 2. You can make…
Totally agreed. I'll simplify this even more - people need to pay bills.
Agree++ - I'll simplify even more: you could buy a cheap startup at Wal Mart, but you want a good startup, right?