How to Describe Your Product in One Sentence

Someone asks what you're building. You have one sentence to make them understand.

Most founders fail this test.

Why One Sentence Matters

Attention is finite. You get one chance to create understanding.

A good one-liner makes people say "Oh, that's interesting." A bad one makes them smile politely and change the subject.

"One sentence. That's the constraint. Not one paragraph. One sentence."

David Ogilvy, legendary advertising copywriter, put it bluntly: "If it takes more than three seconds to understand your headline, you've lost the reader." The same principle applies to describing your product.

The Common Failures

The Feature Dump

"We're building an AI-powered platform that combines task management with calendar integration and team collaboration features."

This describes what you built, not why it matters. Users don't buy features. They buy outcomes.

The Abstract Mission

"We're democratizing access to productivity."

This sounds important but says nothing concrete. "Democratizing" has been applied to everything from banking to meal kits. It communicates enthusiasm, not meaning.

The Jargon Pile

"We're a B2B SaaS solution leveraging machine learning to optimize enterprise workflows."

This requires translation before comprehension. Every piece of jargon is a barrier between you and understanding.

The Structure

A good one-liner follows this structure:

"[Product] helps [specific audience] [accomplish specific thing] by [unique mechanism]."

Or, for category creation:

"[Product] is a [new category noun] that [what it does differently]."

The first format emphasizes benefit. The second emphasizes identity.

Example Breakdowns

Vox Animus

"Vox Animus helps indie builders turn product intent into an enforceable brand they can actually use in their AI tools."

Specific audience: Indie builders Accomplish: Turn product intent into enforceable brand Unique mechanism: Can actually use in AI tools

Stripe (early days)

"Stripe is payment infrastructure for developers."

Six words. No jargon. Perfect compression.

Figma

"Figma is a browser-based collaborative design tool."

Eight words. Category, differentiator (browser-based), and unique capability (collaborative) all communicated.

"No jargon. No feature list. One sentence that creates a mental picture."

The "So What" Test

After your one-liner, imagine the listener saying "So what?"

If you can't immediately explain why that matters, the one-liner is too abstract.

"We help indie builders create brands" — So what? "We help indie builders create enforceable brands they can paste into Cursor" — Oh, that's useful.

"The 'so what' should be answered inside the sentence, not after it."

David Skok, venture capitalist and founder of Matrix Partners, advises: "Every pitch should pass the 'so what' test. If the listener would shrug, you haven't communicated value."

Write Ten, Keep One

Your first attempt at a one-liner will be wrong. Your fifth will be better. Your tenth might be right.

Write ten versions. Read each aloud. Cross out the ones that require explanation. Keep the one that stands alone.

Patrick McKenzie, better known as patio11, recommends this exercise: "Write your one-liner. Show it to someone with no context. Ask them to explain it back to you. If they can't, start over."

Compression Techniques

Remove Adjectives

"Amazing AI-powered intelligent automation" → "Automation"

Adjectives dilute. Nouns communicate.

Remove Qualifiers

"Sort of helps you kind of better manage" → "Manages"

Commit to the verb.

Be Specific About Who

"Helps people" → "Helps indie builders who shipped something"

Specificity creates recognition.

Be Specific About What

"Improve your productivity" → "Paste brand constraints into your AI tools"

Concrete beats abstract every time.

Use It Everywhere

Once you have a good one-liner, use it everywhere.

- Bio descriptions - Hero headlines - Cold emails - Podcast introductions - Investor conversations - LinkedIn headline

Consistency compounds. The more people hear the same description, the more it sticks.

The one-liner is your most valuable piece of copy. Spend the time to get it right.

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Ready to craft your one-liner? Try the Vox Animus demo to clarify your positioning first.