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Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

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Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#21

Post by zhte415 »

ak39 wrote: post #3
zhte415 wrote: post #2

Present problem, measurable impact of problem. Present solution, and measurable impact of solution. Have done enough initially to show that is feasible. Fantastic.

Not necessarily. I'm not being contrarian for the sake of it. This approach that takes the first third of the time presenting the problem to an audience that arrived to hear the solution to a known problem can sometimes be annoying. It could just as well be done this way: 1. State the problem in a short less than 1 minute summary. 2. Present the solution and sustainability etc (bulk of the presentation) 3. Then, last…

No time or break down was mentioned. That is your imagination.

> For the sake of it.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#22

Post by EarlPoncho »

madeofpalk wrote: post #14

I've always been incredibly confused as to why everyone clamours over Elon Musk's presentations. IMO, he's actually pretty terrible at presenting. But he delivers great products in a very straightforward kind of way, and he seems to have such a forward-thinking ambition. That's why people idolise him so much.

yeah since when is stuttering and fumbling your way through a presentation considered good?

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#23

Post by Hermel »

Jugurtha wrote: post #10
Hermel wrote: post #4

While the presentation succeeds at conveying an appealing vision, it dramatically lacks substance. What is "one pixel" supposed to mean? I'm not a child. Give me square kilometers. Or how does the price compare to competitors? Maybe I'm different than most, but I actually care more about the numbers and cold facts than nicely prepared hot air.

I understand, but here's why you can't do that.. Let's look at about a 30 seconds excerpt from his intervention in Norway[0]. From 8m7 to 8m38. Now, he starts explaining the numbers at 8m7s. At 8m38, he's made his point and at that stage, you would be 'convinced'. The interviewer said "Uhuh" (you can hear the audience laugh when she says that). She didn't understand that he has already made his point. (1 kilometre² =…

Normally, one does not pitch to the masses. So OPs point of using this as an inspiration for your pitch to a VC is misguided.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#26

Post by brianstorms »

It was a mediocre presentation, thanks to Musk's Muskifying it to the max. Stammering, mumbling, nervous, rushing here and there, not connected with the pace of the audience, assuming the audience understands certain terminology... oh, and having the audience wait like 45 minutes, 50 minutes (or was it over an hour, I forget) for the event to start, and not apologizing at all for making the audience wait so long.

The media often like to say Musk is the next Steve Jobs. It's just the opposite. Musk is the anti-Jobs. He doesn't give a damn about his presentations, he doesn't rehearse for them, doesn't care whether the message gets through or not. If you are bright, and you grok what he's saying, fine. If you are new to EVs, or solar, or stationary storage, or battery technology, too bad.

It's part of a company-wide problem at Tesla: communications. It's really bad. Internal, and external. I believe it's because Musk doesn't value it. It could wind up hurting Tesla and I would argue it already is hurting the company.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#28

Post by josefresco »

brianstorms wrote: post #26

It was a mediocre presentation, thanks to Musk's Muskifying it to the max. Stammering, mumbling, nervous, rushing here and there, not connected with the pace of the audience, assuming the audience understands certain terminology... oh, and having the audience wait like 45 minutes, 50 minutes (or was it over an hour, I forget) for the event to start, and not apologizing at all for making the audience wait so long. The…

"Musk is the anti-Jobs."

I find that very refreshing and exciting. I think we're all hung-over from the over polished, maniacally-focused presentations/shows and overall approach that Jobs was famous for. With Elon you feel like you're hearing from a really bright guy, who'd rather be engineering something in the back room. The fact that he actually delivers, AND seems to deliver on the design side as well - makes it all the more intriguing.

You could argue that Jobs did both - but I think Elon's quirkiness, and outspoken nature/transparency is a pleasant contrast.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#29

Post by IkmoIkmo »

madengr wrote: post #25

I don't get the "power wall". Unlike a car, a house has space for lead acid batteries. They are cheap at Costco and recyclable.

Well don't forget to a large extent it's probably about economies of scale. Lead acid may be more economical when density/weight isn't as big a concern (such as in a home), but Tesla wants to produce cheap car batteries which can't be lead acid for the goals they set for their cars, and if they have a large extra market for the car batteries they produce, they can produce them cheaper, more efficiently, at larger scales.

If Tesla wasn't producing cars and somehow found itself wanting to build batteries for homes, still, it may not have gone lithium-ion.

Beyond that though there are still (some) issues with the amount of cycles/lifespan, charging speed, disposal and efficiency of lead acid, even if they're cheap and recyclable.

And even in houses, space is still a concern with lead acid being a few times more voluminous as lithium-ion, and it's not like the power wall is a tiny unit. Don't forget the standard version has a capacity of 7 kWh, while using a clothes washer and a clothes dryer just once uses up about 5 kwh+ according to Tesla itself. And the Tesla car batteries typically have 75 to 85 kwh of capacity or so, so you'd need 10 units fully charged to charge your car once. They've made it clear that you can buy and link multiple power walls, and I wouldn't be surprised if people ended up having more than 1 in their home. So space is definitely not completely irrelevant unless you're not in a very urban environment (which is a big use case for sure, but not always the case).

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#30

Post by zxcvvcxz »

This article completely misses the point.

Musk is not a great presenter. He stutters, mumbles, goes off topic, etc as others have pointed out.

Do you know what makes his presentations more worthwhile than pretty much anyone else in the Valley?

The substance. He works on hard problems, and he fucking delivers. Who's got time for style when you're revolutionizing multiple industries? We see that it doesn't matter, people will watch his presentations, buy his products, and back his companies regardless.

The real problem is that most people don't have anything worth pitching.

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