Day 45: Selling Classics to Investors
At Hörstrecke, a small start-up in Leipzig that sells classic novels as short audio episodes for commuters, the founder Martina Hesse (A) has her new employee Julius Haase (B) rehearse the pitch he is to give investors tomorrow.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
So, Herr Haase, ich bin jetzt Investorin und habe heute schon neun Pitches gehört. Legen Sie los.
Right, Mr Haase, I'm an investor now, and I've already heard nine pitches today. Off you go.
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B
„Und es ward Licht, und alsbald ward Hörstrecke! Wir disrupten die Weltliteratur und machen Goethe pendlertauglich, in Folgen von zwölf Minuten.“
'And there was light, and soon there was Hörstrecke! We're disrupting world literature and making Goethe commuter-friendly, in twelve-minute episodes.'
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A
Stopp. Stünde wirklich mein Geld auf dem Spiel, wäre ich bei „disrupten“ gedanklich beim Mittagessen und bei „Goethe“ im Taxi.
Stop. If my money really were at stake, by 'disrupting' I'd be thinking about lunch, and by 'Goethe' I'd be in a taxi.
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B
Das ist doch unser Alleinstellungsmerkmal! Jedweder Pendler hat den „Faust“ dereinst in der Schule gehasst, und wir versöhnen ihn damit.
That's our unique selling point! Every commuter under the sun once hated 'Faust' at school, and we're reconciling them with it.
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A
Mitnichten, das ist eine Behauptung. Investoren wollen Zahlen: Wie viele Abonnements haben wir, und wie viele hören eine Folge zu Ende?
Far from it, that's a claim. Investors want figures: how many subscriptions have we got, and how many people listen to an episode to the end?
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B
Viertausend Abos zu 6,99 Euro im Monat. Beim „Werther“ steigen siebzig Prozent vorzeitig aus, aber das liegt an Werther, nicht an uns.
Four thousand subscriptions at 6.99 euros a month. With 'Werther', seventy per cent drop out early, but that's down to Werther, not us.
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A
Sehen Sie, das ist Ihr Pitch! Es hülfe enorm, mit den Abos anzufangen, und die Werther-Quote verkaufen Sie als Ehrlichkeit.
You see, that's your pitch! It would help enormously to start with the subscriptions, and you sell the Werther figure as honesty.
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B
Und die Genesis fliegt raus? Ehrlich gesagt fand ich den Einstieg ziemlich genial, Frau Hesse.
And Genesis gets cut? To be honest, I thought the opening was pretty brilliant, Ms Hesse.
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A
Fand ich bei meinem ersten Pitch auch: drei Minuten Faust-Monolog, ausgerechnet in Auerbachs Keller. Danach stand ich da, ich armer Tor, und war so klug als wie zuvor.
So did I at my first pitch: three minutes of Faust's monologue, in Auerbachs Keller of all places. Afterwards there I stood, poor fool, no wiser than before.
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B
Verstanden: Zahlen zuerst, Goethe zuletzt. Die Genesis hebe ich mir für die nächste Finanzierungsrunde auf, da braucht man ohnehin ein Wunder.
Understood: figures first, Goethe last. I'll save Genesis for the next funding round, you need a miracle for that anyway.
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