PitchMasters

I’d like to bounce an idea off you. Please tell me what you think.

PitchMasters is ToastMasters for startups. Our mission is to help people feel comfortable pitching their company, idea, or themselves at any time to anyone. We would meet once a month for dinner or drinks and practice the art of pitching with each other.

The format would be to break into small groups and work together on an exercise. Everyone has 2-3 minutes to pitch and the rest would then critique the pitch.

There would be 2 rules:

1. Everyone must pitch
2. Critique the pitch, not the idea.

Here are some ideas for exercises.

Break into groups of 6 people. In each group people pair up. We have 15 minutes for each pair to tell the other person what their current product, company or idea is about. Then each person must pitch their partner’s idea to the group. Format would be 2 minutes to pitch and then 13 minutes to critique. Total running time 2 hours.

People pair up. First one person takes 2 minutes pitching a business problem they currently have. Then the other person takes 2 minutes pitching how they can solve that problem for them. Take 10 minutes to critique each other’s pitch. Switch roles and repeat. Total running time 30 minutes.

I really would like to know if you would be interested in attending PitchMasters and your thoughts on activities that could help people perfect their pitching skills. If I run such an event in Ottawa I’ll be sure to report back on the outcome.