Founded In Philly Series II Pitch Night
Photo from Founded in Philly Series I Pitch Night February 2020
ABOUT PITCH NIGHT
During our Founded in Philly Series II Accelerator, the highly-anticipated Pitch Night is an opportunity to bring together the cohort and PSL’s larger network, including investors and board members. This event marks the halfway point through the Founded in Philly accelerator, and the startups are eager to practice their pitches and take away as much feedback and advice as possible.
In this year’s virtual format, we aimed to mimic the real-life experience in a socially distanced setting. Using Zoom breakout rooms, we created a speed-dating type format, which allowed each startup to pitch to three separate times to (6) different investors, and receive feedback in real time. The goal of the evening was to provide opportunities for our founders to practice their presentations, and to begin cultivating meaningful relationships with industry experts.
Supporting judges
This year, we were able to bring the following experts in to facilitate our virtual Pitch Night:
Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures
Touchdown Ventures
Thom webster
Launch Lane
RobinHood Ventures
Osage Ventures
Siddhi Capital
Ben Franklin Technology Partners
Touchdown Ventures
supporting psl board members
As always, the PSL Board joined in support of our startups and the event.
The Feedback
Our founders rose to the occasion and pitched three times in a row, while navigating the particular nuances of a virtual event experience. Our cohort was grateful not only for the positive feedback which reinforced their initial findings as a startup, but for the challenging questions and constructive responses which pushed them out of their comfort zones:
“The overall experience was great. It was nice to get feedback from so many different investors and experienced people that have useful insight that'll ultimately make our company better and more attractive for investment.”
- Nick Lagnese, Transparency In Politics
“My experience with the lightning Pitch was amazing! I am so grateful and happy to have met so many valuable people! The networking connections are the exact reason why I wanted to join PSL.”
- Ayana Swanson, Pure OrganiKs
“We had multiple judges advise us to provide further analysis of our competitors. This was insightful to us because we were somewhat unconfident about other areas of our pitch, but the focus on the competitors was clearly the biggest concern.”
- Cole Bender, Modern Mouth