Plan & Pitch

Move over elevator pitch, Richard Branson has just raised the stakes. The Virgin entrepreneur is giving startups the chance to pitch their business to him via Twitter, in 140 characters or less.

It’s the dawn of the Twitter micro pitch! Sir Richard Branson is offering entrepreneurs the chance to promote their business to him via Twitter.

It’s all part of a campaign to promote a new startup business conference in Los Angeles called Perfect Business. The “micro pitch” is the brainchild of Branson; not for nothing has he built a reputation for killer marketing.

The billionaire entrepreneur will decide on the best micro pitch by 8 September. The winner will receive two free tickets to the conference, flights and coaching to “turn your tweet into a full blown business plan”.

To submit an idea, entrepreneurs must send their micro pitch tweet to @perfectbusiness, including the hashtag #micropitch. Problem is, with these two tags, you’ve lost 27 characters.

Entrepreneurs have to keep their pitches extra short.

In a canny, money-making move, Branson and the Perfect Business lot are allowing less Twitter-savvy entrepreneurs to go over the 140 character limit – for $60. You can submit this slightly longer pitch through the Perfect Business website.

The Perfect Business team will then select three finalists from the web entries to get the chance to pitch their business idea to Branson and a host of other venture capitalists including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Rustic Canyon Partners and August Capital at the conference to be held on 26 October.

Real Business sends special kudos out to the entrepreneurs who are keeping to the 140-character limit.

Here are some of the pitches so far:

1ideaguy @Perfectbusiness #micropitch -pharmaceutical ads on hospital trays – 15% profits please

 Graham_Horton @PerfectBusiness a lottery whose prize is a space flight with virgin galactic (great for a birthday present!) #micropitchRyPi

@perfectbusiness tablet/app to pay restaurant bill – no wait/paper, tipcalc, user can custom split, free up staff, turnover, ads #micropitchepicflowers

@perfectbusiness #micropitch Consumers will see flowers in real time in a florist’s cooler from anywhere in the world & be able to buy them

 stolen from real business