So you’ve made a machine that turns earwax into gold, created an odourless blue cheese or perhaps designed a sudoku toilet roll (too late, that’s already been done) – whatever your Big Idea is, pitch it to The Icehouse and you could win $15,000 worth of prizes, including three months in The Icehouse business incubator to develop your product and offer to investors.
Fast Pitch is The Icehouse’s annual business pitch competition. Just like TV’s Dragon’s Den, you’ll be thrown into a trendy loft conversion to sell your earth-shattering product or service to a bunch of hard-nosed businesspeople with moolah. But you will be well primed, and this is the most valuable service offered by The Icehouse to all entrants.
On Thursday 8 October, Icehouse bigwigs and investors will lead a seminar called ‘The Three Keys to Successful Pitches’. Direct from the dragons’ mouths you’ll learn what investors are looking for, how to present your ideas to them, how to answer their questions and how a great pitch can lead to business action.
You then have a week to prepare your pitch to a small group coaching session. The best ten are chosen to compete in the final on Tuesday 27 October. Finalists are given two hours of individual coaching by Icehouse pros.
On the judging panel are venture capitalists, angel investors and influential industry players (including Idealog, NZ Marketing and StopPress publisher Vincent Heeringa). There are four category awards: Best Intellectual Property Idea, Best Funding Opportunity for Investors, Best Presentation Skills and the People’s Choice Award. Plus, the overall winner.
For the chance to show your entrepreneurial chops and tap into a wealth of investor knowledge, register at The Icehouse website, hand over 85 bucks and you could be on the path to a victorious venture.
