Pitching for an investment

Pitching in front of judges for a 2ok investment was a great experience. I compare it to an interview for a job, even if you don’t get the job it’s great practice.

I look at pitching the same way. Even if we don’t win, it’s great practice in case another opportunity comes along with more on the line.

Creating the slide deck was a bit difficult because of the time crunch. The most interesting part about making the slide deck was learning that visuals are more important than words. This was a bit intimidating for me because I am used to having the presentation to fall back on if I forget something, but I just brought notecards with me so it ended up being fine.

Looking back, I wish that we had looked further into our competition and our market. The judges asked us many questions regarding the pillow market, how much the industry is worth and we didn’t have all of those numbers — only the sleeping aid industry as a whole. They also asked us about our competitors, which we were well versed on but could have been more specific in the presentation.

Overall I am happy that we did this because I learned that is is better to have visuals than words on a screen while presenting so that the audience pays attention to what you are saying and not reading the slide. I also learned that practicing the pitch multiple times is the only way to memorize it, realize what’s missing, and how to improve. Research is one the most important factors in coming prepared. I am happy that I got the practice for further endeavors.