Pitching at the Babson Rocket Pitch Event: The Ultimate Practice
On October 29th, I pitched my fledgling startup Fetchmob.com at Babson’s annual Rocket Pitch event. Mine being a business that I had been working on for months now, I convinced myself I had no reason to be nervous. The event is not a make-or-break-you type of occasion; it is truly an opportunity for students to learn how to quickly and succinctly to articulate their idea and get comfortable with the concept of pitching (to investors).
The hard part about giving the rocket pitch was actually writing it. When you only have 3 minutes and 3 slides, there’s only so much airtime to get across just how awesome and game-changing your business is. Therefore, it took a lot of thinking to figure out how best to condense everything I wanted to say. Luckily, most students who participate get a little bit of curricular practice prior to the event (i.e. all participants in EPS7500, the MBA program’s essential entrepreneurship course, have to give a rocket pitch in one of the first weeks).
What takes a lot of the nervousness out of presenting was also the fact that before my own pitch, I got to watch a number of other pitches that were going on in various other rooms of the grad school building. I got to cheer on and show support for my classmates and that took my mind off of my presentation and onto theirs.
As useful as the pitches are for your personal development and experience, it was the networking hour after the pitches were over that is the most beneficial for making connections with people who may be interested in your product/service (purchasing it or investing in it). We got set up at a table and demoed our service to visitors, which was a great opportunity to get feedback and have one-on-one conversations with our potential customers.