First Perfect Pitch Startup Presentation Competition a Success – CEI Takes Home the Unicorn Cup

The verdict is in, if the company barq! actually existed they would have raised a lot of seed money yesterday.  Members of the Phoenix area startup community gathered at PADT to try out a new idea: what if the experts who mentor and coach startups tried their hands at pitching a company?  The result was fun, funny, and educational.

Local incubators/accelerators CEI, Seed Spot, and Tallwave joined PADT in pitching a totally made-up company, barqk! to a group of judges who are startup experts.  We talked about poop, doggy depression, bessel functions, big data, valuations, and the cat revolt. In the end we ended up with four fantastic examples of how to pitch a company and how to answer questions from investors.  One of the best parts was that every single team finished their pitch in the 10 minutes they were given, and they covered everything that needed to be covered. Yes, it can be done!

And the winner is… The Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation (CEI).  Tom Schumann and Patti DuBois told a story, explained the product, and got across the value to the investors of the product

You can watch the recording of the presentations in the video below.  Take some time to watch the pitches and get a feel for barqk!, and how different organizations approach telling the story, and more importantly, attracting investors.  The audience noticed that each team had a unique take that represented their strengths.

Our judges were Jim Goulka from Arizona Technology Investors, Christie Kerner from ASU, Carine Dieude of Altima Business Solutions, and Linda Capcara with TechTHiNQ, and they did a fantastic job, especially with keeping a straight face when the contestants responded with some very inventive responses. Their contribution was important.

If you are interested in doing a similar event, here is some background information:

Rules:

• Each team gets a copy of the angel group funding application and a logo.
• Each team gets 10 minutes to pitch
• The judges have up to 5 minutes to ask questions
• The other presenters can listen in
• PowerPoint slides are allowed
• Some variation from the company application is allowed for humor or to fill gaps, but everyone should stick to the same basic material

Here is their angel funding application, everything you need to know about them is in there: 

We look forward to doing this again, hopefully as part of a larger startup event. Thank you to all who participated by pitching, judging, or being in the audience.