The Best Pitch

Why this page exists

Jacob flagged this himself with #explainingideaflow #best #pitch in March 2024. So this is the canonical verbatim version — his own voice, his own rhythm, the one he rehearsed live while drafting.

Jacob's full pitch, verbatim (March 2024)

Now, what I'm actually building is a massive-scale collective cognition system for humanity. But one of the pieces it takes is a personal knowledge management system. You can tell it anything and it organizes it into a structure that makes sense and you can find it again. I'm running a seed-based startup in the Bay Area and we recently launched and I'd love to show you guys. It takes just a second.

(Follow-up, when asked what it is:)

It's called… I don't really understand. What's the… Well, it's like Obsidian, but AI-powered and better ergonomics. It's not…

Like, Obsidian is very hackery and complicated. Imagine Obsidian, but optimized for quickly capturing new thoughts and with a much simpler organizational paradigm, but also power. Who here has used Obsidian or Rome Research or something like that? Okay, so yeah. So it's some… It's like a…

What do you call those things? You're saving me this? It's like the ultimate.

(Compression:)

graph database for your brain

(Closing — the moral frame:)

Tool to discover the path of wisdom and empower people to act on it? Build a neocortex for the global mind/brain; for the Internet? — this covers suggestion board — supporting you in acting on your goals — organizer of information that comes into your life — system to track and coordinate all human scientific and practical endeavor — human activity — align the world to the path of wisdom. #explainingideaflow

Why it's the best

Opens with the civilizational claim. No apologizing for scale.
Immediately grounds it in a personal concrete. "One of the pieces it takes is a personal knowledge management system."
Invites a demo. "I'd love to show you. It takes just a second."
Confesses uncertainty. "I don't really understand. What's the…" — disarms the investor/curious person who expects polished.
Reaches for familiar reference. Obsidian / Roam. Corrects their shortcomings. Lands on graph database for your brain.
Ends on the moral frame. "Align the world to the path of wisdom." Non-optional for Jacob.

When to use

Any time you have 90 seconds and an audience that can hold one abstract claim and one concrete example.
Works in person. Works on camera. Works over lunch.

When not to use

Cold DM's to strangers (no room for the demo invite to land).
Highly technical audiences (they want for-builders or ../framings/god-data-structure instead).
Very short elevator rides (use elevator-summary).

elevator-summary — the 30-second version
for-investors — the VC-tuned version
../framings/graph-database-for-your-brain
../framings/neocortex-for-the-global-brain
../north-star-thesis