How we won $20,000 in a business competition

February 4, 2023

Written by Jeremy Bryant

How we won $20,000 in a business competition

February 4, 2023

Written by Jeremy Bryant

🏆 How did we win $20,000 at a recent business competition?

Last weekend, we were invited to pitch No Story Lost at our old business school. There was $29,000 in prize money available.

The week leading up to a pitch is always full of work, preparation, practice, and some nerves. As we thought back to our favorite pitches we've given (and seen), we came up with a short list of things to do to give ourselves the very best chance we could.

Here are 3️⃣ things we focus on to try to win pitches and contests:

📚 Tell Stories:

We have a rule whenever we have a microphone. If you're not telling (relevant, interesting) stories, get off the stage.

🎯 Judging Criteria:

If the judging criteria isn't explicit, ask for it. Once you know it, ask "How can I make it *easy* for the judges to give me full marks on this?" for every category.

🤓 Authenticity:

Judges and audiences can easily smell when you're fake. Be radically you.

A little good luck helps, too :)

Having great content, practicing your pitch, and anticipating questions you'll be asked are just table stakes.

Want more? Here are some tips from BDC on pitching to VCs.

Share a link to this post with someone who has a pitch or speech coming up!

What are your top pitching tips?

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Thanks to everyone at Tiny and Peter B. Gustavson School of Business (esp. Mia Maki and Ashley Campbell) for making the event happen, and of course thanks to the judges - Andrew Wilkinson, Rasool Rayani, Rajiv Khaneja, Nicole Smith and Jason Warner - for believing in No Story Lost.

Feeling very fortunate and grateful!