Pitch to Win contest: win a pitch deck to the value of $7500

The pitch deck. An under-appreciated animal. The visual ‘powerpoint’ that accompanies a startup’s pitch often doesn’t get the time it deserves, but visually presenting your business model and market-strategy in an efficient way to potential investors is key to winning them over. After all venture capitalists and angel investors are busy people. Luckily there’s a company in the USA that wants to help you with this.

Born in Austin, Texas, Investor Pitches is a company that not only builds pitch decks for clients, but they’re holding an international competition in which you could win a beautifully-designed deck for your own pitch.

The Pitch to Win contest is all about aiding the best startups around the world in their quest to receive funding, through the power of a fantastic pitch deck valued at US$7 500.

This is a great opportunity for international startups, specifically from emerging markets, to get some much-needed help in developing a key element of the pitching process. The only criteria is that your entry has to be in English.

There are no limitations to how you can use your pitch deck. It’s not just for pitching (competitions), but also the many meetings, presentations and “I’ll mail you” scenarios a young company might encounter when trying to win over a potential investor.

So how do you enter?

• Create a two-page summary of your company: including product or service description, the problem you aim to solve, your target market, market-size, competition, business model, go-to-market strategy, team, resources and any traction you’ve had.
• Create a two-minute video on any camera (even phone, webcam) that motivates why you should win a pitch deck over other entries (production value does not count).
• Finally, click here to find out where to send it and for more information.

The panel of judges spans investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders including Rudy Gadre, Investor and Former General Counsel of Facebook, and Hugh Forrest — Executive Director, SXSW Interactive.

The winner will be announced on 3 June, 2013.