Pitch Off 2024

PITCH OFF 2024

EVENT DETAILS AND TIMELINES

The 2024 Yale Angels Pitch Off will be taking place on June 13th, 2024 at 5:00 PM EST

SUBMISSION PROCESS & DEADLINE

The deadline to register for consideration and submit an overview deck is May 4th by midnight EST.

The Yale Angels team will review all submissions and notify applicants of their final status by May 20th. If you are selected as a semifinalist, we will request a 5 minute pitch video to be sent to us by May 27th for further evaluation.

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

CRITERIA & REQUIREMENTS

Ventures for consideration must meet the following criteria and submission requirements:

Current Yale undergraduate, graduate student, or alum of any school or year who is a founder or co-founder. Yale affiliation will be verified against Yale databases.
Pre-seed or seed stage for-profit venture
Completed registration form
Pitch deck submission of no more than 20 pages (see detailed requirements below).

Your pitch deck (<= 20 pages) must answer the following questions:

Problem: Describe the pain of your customer. How is this addressed today and what are the shortcomings to current solutions?
Solution: Why is your value prop unique and compelling? Why will it endure? And where does it go from here?
Why now? Why hasn’t your solution been built before now?
Market potential: Identify your customer and your market.
Competition / alternatives: Who are your direct and indirect competitors?
Business model: How do you intend to thrive?
Team: Tell the story of your founders and key team members.
Financials: If you have any, please include.
Vision: If all goes well, what will you have built in five years?
Accepted formats include: PPT, Googleslides, & PDF. Videos will not be accepted.

ABOUT THE JUDGES

We have 5 fantastic judges joining us for the Pitch-Off. Read about them below:

Megan Cain MBA'19

Megan is an investor at the Westly Group, an early stage VC fund focused on investing at the intersection of electrification and automation. Prior to joining the Westly Group, Megan worked at Morgan Stanley within the Global Power, Utilities & Clean Technology Investment Banking group. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Megan worked at Goldman Sachs within the Prime Brokerage division. Megan began her career at the New York Stock Exchange within the Technology group where she served as Product Manager for a liquidity discovery software platform. Megan holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Art Chang '85

Art Chang is a professor and program leader at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies in the Masters Program in Technology Management. Art has been a technology entrepreneur, advisor and investor in numerous startups in over 20 industries over his 40-year career.

Art’s accomplishments include the creation of JPMorgan’s Global Legal Knowledge Management system; co-creating NYC Votes with the NYC Campaign Finance Board staff; co-creating Casebook for government child welfare with the Annie E. Casey Foundation; founding team member of the Queens West development in Long Island City; and a catalyst in the creation of New York City’s tech startup community.

Art was the second man to graduate from Yale University with a BA in Women’s Studies, which he earned while working full-time. Art received his MBA in Finance from New York University.

Cheryl Contee '93

Cheryl Contee is CEO at The Impact Seat Foundation, where she leads early stage portfolio companies to success, provides resources for underrepresented founders, and helps build a new investment paradigm. In addition to her role at the TISF, Cheryl is the Founder and Chair of Do Big Things, a mission-based digital marketing agency. She was also the National Board Chair for Netroots Nation, the co-founder of Attentive.ly, and a New Media Ventures board member. In 2023, Cheryl is launching the re-edition of her Amazon best-selling book, Mechanical Bull: How You Can Achieve Startup Success.

Jacob Mullins '05

Jacob Mullins is a Managing Director at Shasta Ventures based in San Francisco. Jacob co-leads the firm’s investments in Software-as-a-Service applications and Applied Artificial Intelligence, specifically Computer Vision. He has also invested in Fintech, Esports, AR/VR and blockchain/web3. Prior to Shasta, Jacob was a multi-time co-founder of companies in Consumer Products (Hoodia Products founded while at Yale in 2003), Media (VentureBeat.com) and Fintech (Exitround.com). Jacob graduated from Yale College in 2005 where was a member of Trumbull College and is a Gates Millennium Scholar.

Christopher Wan '17

Christopher Wan is an investor in the San Francisco office, where he focuses primarily on early-stage deep technologies. Before joining Bessemer, Chris was at In-Q-Tel and Tusk Ventures, investing in companies at the intersection of technology and government. Chris was also part of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, where he researched and wrote policy proposals on artificial intelligence. He began his career as a software engineer on Facebook’s News Credibility team. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Yale University (PC ’17), where he helped lead and found a few hackathons. He is a member of the California State Bar and is an alum at Stanford Law School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

QUESTIONS

Please contact Jo Ilfeld ‘96 (jo@incitetoleadership.com)