Play the Pitch Roulette Home Game and sharpen your pitching skills
Use the game to practice thinking fast on your feet and hitting all the major elements that must be in every startup pitch.
How to play the game
Pitch Roulette challenges you to pitch a startup company you’ve never heard of. All the company details are contained in the pitch deck. To get the most out of the game, make your pitch without looking at the deck first.
Read all instructions below first.
Do not click on the pitch deck links until ready to play.
Pitch Deck #1 | Pitch Deck #2 | Pitch Deck #3 | Pitch Deck #4 | Pitch Deck #5
- ∙ When ready to pitch, click the link to open the deck.
- ∙ Read the first slide, then pitch it.
- ∙ Keep pitching. After twenty seconds, advance to the next slide.
- ∙ Continue pitching until the end of the deck, about five minutes.Include the essential pitch elements
- ∙ At first, try to explain how each slide expresses one of these categories:
|
Need |
What compelling problem your product solves. |
|
Approach |
How your company delivers the solution. |
|
Benefit |
How your customers benefit from the solution. |
|
Competition |
Why your solution is better than the competition. |
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∙ As you pitch, combine the Need and the Benefit into a Value Proposition. Try to express the value proposition in as few words as possible.
∙ Watch for opportunities to explain how you have validated the Value Proposition.
∙ Watch for opportunities to deliver “the ask”—the resources you want to get from your audience.
Avoid exaggerating the uniqueness of your company
A good pitch balances excellence with competence. You want to express that your company excels when it comes to the value you offer customers. However, you won’t be believable if you claim to be unique in every single way.
To remain credible, stress your competence in the supporting functions of your business. For example, prove that your company will meet industry standards in areas like manufacturing costs or marketing—if these are outside your value proposition. But make sure your value proposition shines through clearly.
Get the emotional content right too
While it is important to hit all the major elements of a company pitch, you also want to strike the right emotional tone. To engage with people, you need to be sincere and enthusiastic. You need to express a firm belief in your product.
You also have to be calm and confident. The only way learn to be calm is to rehearse, refine and practice your pitch until all anxiety is gone. If you are nervous when pitching, it will come across as if you are nervous about your product.
The best way to perfect a pitch
∙ Videotape yourself doing a practice pitch.
∙ Watch the video.
∙ Identify one point where you can improve.
∙ Repeat above over and over.