Taking the Stage and Pitching Like a Pro on Your First Try

You never really forget your first time.

Mine was in a big hotel ballroom. It was a tech leaders summit and the pitch session was a 30-minute program filler. I was a last-minute entry to the session. They made a call for entries to the event a few months earlier and I missed the cut off. Well, to be fair, during that time I had no clue I would even be a co-founder of a start up. So a week before the event, I called the organiser to beg to be included. They said yes.

It was, in every sense of the word, unnerving. My charm paid off and I got a spot but that only left me a week to get everything together. I had to learn how to prepare a pitch deck and to mentally condition myself to get up on stage and ask investors to put their trust in me (and put money in my pocket, while they’re at it!)

In the end, I had an unforgettable and hugely successful pitch session on my first try. I walked away with the funding that I needed — I was the only one that got funded that day, by the way. And here’s how I did it:

Preparing for the Pitch

There are two basic kinds of pitches — one is an elevator pitch. This means you need to talk about your concept in the time it takes the elevator to reach your floor. This usually gives you 60 seconds. This…