Apt. App presented a six-minute pitch to a panel of 3rd grader judges and won Crowd Favorite and First Prize!
With starting a business comes a ton of presentations. Luis and I have presented many times and often with really tough judging panels. But nothing takes the cake more than a panel of third grader judges!
We had the opportunity to present Apt. App at Denver’s first Pitch a Kid event June 3, 2017. We were excited for the opportunity and worked hard to gear our pitch to a third grader audience and to keep it within the strict five-minute time frame. It may sound easy, but we went back and forth on tactics to not talk down to the kids but not above them, to use engaging word tracks and pictures, and making our business message clear so they could understand with ease.
Luis never gets nervous, but when it came time for us to present he was actually sweating a little! We handed out Apt. App stickers to start us off and then dove right in. At first the panel of judges were looking at us with a critiquing eye, twirling their pencils and making note of every little thing we were doing. Then when Luis started explaining the neighbor-to-neighbor notification tool it was a like a lid popped off their little composed bodies! Statements started firing in all directions about how each of them NEEDED Apt. App for their neighbors, brothers and sisters, and even parents! It was so funny and engaging! We couldn’t help but hear each of their statements as they were so adamant they had to tell us how badly they needed Apt. App! Before we knew it we were past the five -minute mark and we had to hurry to finish the presentation and then took our seat to watch the other presenters.
It was entertaining to watch the other company presentations and judging panel as there is no hiding how a third grader truly feels. They were either really into the presentation or not at all. Some of them had very hard-hitting questions like, ”Why do you choose to manufacture in China, when you could make this in the United States?” While others asked matter of fact questions like, “Why did you wear that shirt today?”
After each company presented it came time for the crowd of parents and spectators to vote on the crowd favorite and for the panel of third grader judges to decide on the winners. To our surprise we not only won crowd favorite but also won the Pitch a Kid event! The kids were so sweet presenting us with our plaque of honor we now have proudly posted in our office, but also with a free month of co-working space at Modworks! We really enjoyed our time at the Pitch a Kid event and would highly recommend the fun experience to any new start up! Just be ready as those kids will give it to you straight!
