Wahoooo! Congratulations on being selected to be one of the handful of startups to pitch at the next Founders Live in your city. This is an exciting time and big opportunity for you to shine, so we want to make sure you prepare appropriately.

**NOTE: The below information applies to PRE-COVID Founders Live in-person Experiences as well as virtual pitch events**

Here’s what you get to look forward to:

Welcome to the Founders Live Pitch Preparation Package. We have put together a number of resources, videos, interviews and clips to help you as you prepare for your event. We encourage you to take action on these and reach out to your city leader if you have additional questions.

Event Overview

The Founders Live event follows a simple format:

• 30 mins opening entertainment
• 1 hour pitches/presentations
• 1 hour networking

During the pitch hour, your 5:30 mins time on stage breaks down as such:

• A 99 Second (1 min, 39 seconds) timed pitch. You will be stopped at 99 seconds!
• 4 minutes of Questions from the audience
• We encourage you to use slides and not to have more than 9 in your slide deck

Wondering what Founders Live events are like online? Go to our livestream channel watch.founderslive.com  to find past events.

Nick’s Quick Tips

I created Founders Live for entertainment, education and inspiration. Our goal is to entertain people around the world with a beautiful mix of fun and innovation at an unforgettable event. But it also is an incredible venue for you to hone in on your message, gain valuable feedback and possibly earn new business! Take it from me, a well crafted 99-second pitch can change your life so it’s best to be as prepared as possible. Here are a few thoughts.

• Make sure to wrap a storyline within your 99 second pitch
• What emotion are you tugging on? Humanize it and make it relatable to any audience
• What’s the problem/solution set? What issue or problem did you discover, who has this problem, and how are you uniquely solving it? Why are you the one to solve it?
• Your goal is to get the audience to nod their head in agreement as soon as possible
• Make sure you include how you make money and some data of usage and growth
• Don’t end with an investment ask, it feels weird to people who are watching
• Prepare and practice for 120 seconds so you leave yourself buffer time at the end
• Your goal = leave them with one major point or thought to ponder and be intrigued by
• Nick’s biggest pet peeve = founders getting stopped during their Founders Live pitch for going over 99 seconds! So don’t get cut off!
• If you have a question or want my perspective message me on Founders Live here.

How To Nail Your 99-second Founders Live Pitch

This 37 minute video lays out how you should approach your pitch and how to best bring in an element of storytelling and relatability into the pitch.

The Value of Pitch Coaching and Storytelling – Advocat Technologies Founder Pradnya Desh

Take The Next Step – Level Up Your Pitch Game with Story Fruition Pitch Course. https://storyfruition.com/founders-live/

Use Founders Live coupon code FLSTORY2021 – it will take $50 off the FL course only, so the final price is USD $49, a tremendous value to improve your pitch and increase your chances of getting to Founders Live Prime Time events!

One-on-One private pitch coaching with Story Fruition

Founders Live Dallas City Leader David Ezell’s 6 tips for success

Tips from Past Winners

Amy Hutchins of Unearth: Prep advice on pitching at Founders Live events

Alex Jiao of Silene Biotech: Advice on The 99 Second Founders Live Pitch

David Tanos of Tanosteel delivers a great 99-Second pitch at Founders Live Boston.

Joyce Wu of Cluck: a good example pacing and content of winning pitch

Destiny Njoki of Lamazi Tribe from Nairobi, Kenya and winner of Founders Live Prime Time EU & Africa, another a good example pacing and content of winning pitch especially in a virtual experience.

Rebekah Bastian of OwnTrail and winner from Seattle, WA, provides numerous tips of preparation and how to approach the pitch. To go straight to the tips, listen from 6:10 until about 11:00 in the episode (click image to go to the podcast.)

---

John Fanning CEO of Zelgor Games from Boston MA gives a number of great tips on how to approach the pitch and the brief structure of how you put it together – starting at 6:00 minutes into the episode.

---

Alex Resnick – Founders Live San Diego City Leader: This is a full conversation but Alex gives a few tips at around 12:00 in the podcast. (click image to go to the podcast.)

---

Gregarious Narain – Founders Live Denver City Leader on how to craft your best pitch: This is a full conversation but Gregarious gives many Founders Live pitch tips starting around 19:40 in the podcast. (click image to go to the podcast.)