Win the room, then the vote.
A pitch competition gives you a few minutes in front of judges who have heard every other pitch that day. The founder who wins is rarely the one with the best deck. It is the one the judges can still describe when they sit down to decide.
What judges remember
Judges get a scoring sheet: team, market, traction, clarity. Then they sit together and argue, and the argument runs on what they can recall. A founder they can sum up in one sentence has someone speaking for them at that table. A founder they need their notes for usually does not.
So build for recall. One word the panel can repeat. One number, not five. An ask that is a sentence and not a paragraph. And a first ten seconds that makes the judges look up from their sheets.
Why the deck is not the pitch
Most competitions let you bring slides, and most founders hide behind them. The panel is watching you, not the screen: whether you stand still, whether you look at them, whether your last sentence lands or trails off. The training is built around sixty seconds without slides for that reason. A pitch that works with nothing behind you works better with a screen.
How the day prepares you
You pitch three times in one day, to a room of founders: once cold, before anything is taught, once before lunch with feedback from the room, and once at the end. In between are four modules: Nerve, Story, Delivery and The Room. Out loud, to people, three times: that is the part of competition prep most founders skip.
The open training has no fixed calendar. If your competition is less than three weeks away, book one-to-one hours instead, or send us sixty seconds for the free check first.
The week before the competition
Four modules, one pitch.
Four modules. The rest of the day you practice: you pitch before we teach anything, again before lunch, and once more at the end.
Before the competition.
How long before the competition should I train?
A few weeks before is ideal, so you have time to practice what you learned. The open training has no fixed calendar: founders sign up to a list and we propose dates once the room is filling up. With a competition date already set, one-to-one hours are the surer route.
My competition gives me three or five minutes. Is a sixty-second training still useful?
Yes. The sixty seconds is the spine of a longer pitch. A five-minute pitch built around one minute that works holds together; one without it wanders. In the training you build the minute. Around it you add the demo, the numbers and the team, and one-to-one hours can fit it to your exact format.
Do I need slides?
No. The day is built around sixty seconds without slides. If your competition uses slides, keep them, and make sure the pitch still works when the projector fails.
I have never pitched on a stage. Is that a problem?
No. The first round of the day is a cold open, before anything is taught, so everyone starts from where they actually are.
What does it cost?
A seat in the open training is €750 excl. VAT, as a founding price, invoiced once your date is set. One-to-one coaching is €199 per hour excl. VAT, with no minimum.