Mike Lee of Appsterdam, had a talk at at AppsWorld, where he said pretty much the same:
Working at Apple, he had heard the rumors that if you went into an elevator with Steve Jobs, you had to explain what you did and why you were doing it before he left and as such – even though he didn't believe in the rumor – he tried to explain all he did in only 60 seconds.
This is what he answered, when asked for his currently 60-second-speech: "I'm making educational games for kids. […] It's just enough to make you curious and want to have a conversation. […] If your 60 seconds-talk is an attempt to try to cramp as much shit into 60 seconds as you can, you're doing it wrong."
"Because telling you about Appsterdam, it's real simple. If you wanna make apps, come to Appsterdam, it's awesome. You wanna know more about it? Google it. You wanna know why Appsterdam is a thing, what Appsterdam is all about and what kind of insanity leads a person build their own ecosystem before building a company? That's what I'm going to talk about. And I'm going to talk about it honestly. That means there is going to be some swearing. So if that is going to offend you I suggest you just go ahead and ... leave. For the rest of you: It's real simple. -- Do something that actually fucking matters."
The arrogance and self-importance of the speaker made me quit after 60 seconds.
The full version of the Steve Jobs rumor was that he would fire you, on the spot, if he didn't like your answer. To this day, I think it was a myth that they used to spread to the newbies to keep them sharp and focused. And with Jobs's passing, we'll never know the truth now (unless someone was fired in such an encounter, and wants to speak up?).
Regardless of whether one's ass is on the line in an elevator pitch, it's still good advice. Especially because you're going to have to make that pitch about a million times throughout your life. So it's not just about intriguing The Boss; it's about intriguing everybody. (Or not losing everybody's attention, depending on how you want to look at it).
Working at Apple, he had heard the rumors that if you went into an elevator with Steve Jobs, you had to explain what you did and why you were doing it before he left and as such – even though he didn't believe in the rumor – he tried to explain all he did in only 60 seconds.
This is what he answered, when asked for his currently 60-second-speech: "I'm making educational games for kids. […] It's just enough to make you curious and want to have a conversation. […] If your 60 seconds-talk is an attempt to try to cramp as much shit into 60 seconds as you can, you're doing it wrong."
I can only recommend listening to the whole 30-minutes: http://www.apps-world.net/europe/images/stories/audio/dev-d1...