Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: CEPSR 750
Attention Students, Faculty, and Young Alumni Entrepreneurs
We’re starting competition season again with Fast Pitch on November 15. Get your team together and get ready to pitch. Our prize pool this year is $5000! $2000 will be awarded solely to undergraduates and $3000 will be awarded to the overall best pitches.
Undergrads, grad students, and faculty from all schools and institutes across Columbia University are eligible to participate.
Register Now for the Columbia Engineering Fast Pitch Competition
Fast and furious, Fast Pitch is our elevator pitch competition. Teams must sell their customers and our judges in 60 seconds or less. Your elevator pitch could be the 30 or 40 most important words in your business. If you can’t hook your customers, investors, or partners in the first minute, you’ve likely lost them forever. Winning teams will be judged to be the most concise, complete, and compelling. The Fast Pitch competition will help your team improve your marketing, sales, and promotional capabilities. Attendance and participation is free, and the experience is priceless.
Want to hone your elevator pitch skills before the competition?
Fast Pitch Prep with Kevin Zhang: Thursday, November 3, 8-9 p.m. in John Jay Lounge
In this first pitch prep session, Kevin Zhang, former president of CORE and fast pitch judge, will guide you in creating a persuasive and compelling elevator pitch that you can use to ignite interest in your company. Kevin focuses on product marketing, partnerships, and analytics as the first business hire at Fundera, a Khosla-backed startup helping Main St entrepreneurs save thousands on loans to grow their small businesses. Kevin is also honored to serve as Alumni Chairman of the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE). Prior to Fundera, Kevin spent time at Bain & Company, AOLVentures, and Addepar. At this event, you’ll also learn the where, how, and why of videotaping your pitch as well as how to upload your pitch to our judging system to get feedback before the live Fast Pitch competition on 11/17. Register here.
Video Pitch Submission Deadline: Friday, November 5 (Due at Midnight)
Want feedback and priority to pitch live on stage? Make sure to get your video pitch submissions in to our online system by 11:59 p.m.
Video Pitch Feedback and Notification of Selection: Friday, November 11
Submitted your video pitch by 11/5? You’ll receive valuable feedback from experts and be notified about whether you’ll get to pitch live so that you can refine your pitch in preparation for the competition.
For more information about the competition, contact ischultz@columbia.edu.