PITCH OFF 2023
OVERVIEW
Join us for the 2023 Yale Angels virtual Pitch Off, where five startups from the Yale community will compete live for a first prize of $10,000 and a runner-up prize of $5,000.
Register to attend: https://tinyurl.com/YAPitchOff2023
This event is sponsored by the Yale University Office of Development and Yale Ventures.
Thanks to the following organizations for their support of this pitch competition: 1stGen Yale, YaleFin, YaleWomen, Yale GALA, Yale Latino Alumni Network, Yale Blue Green, Yale Club of Silicon Valley, and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale.
SUBMISSION PROCESS & DEADLINE
Deadline for submission was April 30, 2023.
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).
The pitch deck should be no more than 20 pages and 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?
ABOUT THE JUDGES
The judges for Pitch Off 2023 will be Gary Stewart '96, Jorge Torres '96, Lindsey Seigel SOM, and Allison Pickens '07.
Allison Pickens ‘07
Founder & General Partner, The New Normal Fund
Allison Pickens is a solo GP investor and independent board director who spends her time supporting SaaS CEOs, including at dbt Labs (on the board), Jasper (the fastest growing SaaS company ever), Mutiny, Oyster HR, Hex, Tackle, and others. She also serves on the board of Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT). As the former COO at Gainsight, having scaled the company from $1M to $85M ARR, Allison is a thought partner to CEOs on many topics related to scaling the business. She has published hundreds of blog posts and podcasts, as well as a book through Wiley. More about her at allisonpickens.com and on her Substack.
Lindsay Siegel MBA ‘11
Head of Impact, Company Ventures
As Head of Impact for Company Ventures
Lindsay Siegel is committed to shift the culture of tech for a more equitable and sustainable future. She leads the Boost Founder Fellowship and City Fellowship, collaborating with the NYC Economic Development Corporation to catalyze the businesses of underserved entrepreneurs in NYC. She also advises Grand Central Tech founders to codify their startups' values and purpose, with a DEI lens. She has long worked at the intersection of social good, business and technology, and spent nearly 5 years at The City College of New York, CUNY, as the Executive Director of the Zahn Innovation Center leading the campus entrepreneurship program. She sits on the advisory board of CUNY Tech Prep and has participated in the selection process for various grants and fellowships including Zebras Unite, CIV:Lab and Echoing Green. Lindsay earned her MBA from Yale School of Management and her BS from Northwestern University.
Gary Stewart ‘96, JD ‘99
Managing Director, TechStars NYC powered by J.P. Morgan, Visiting Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at Yale Law School, and Founder of FounderTribes
Gary Stewart is the Managing Director of the Techstars New York City Accelerator powered by J.P. Morgan. Born in Jamaica, he grew up in the Bronx, where he attended the Bronx High School of Science before attending Yale College, where he graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta and Yale Law School, where he was co-executive editor of the Yale Law Journal and published a well-cited article. He is a VC-backed, exited serial entrepreneur; an early-stage investor that managed a $1.6 billion start-up portfolio; a professor who has taught entrepreneurship at Yale Law School and IE Business School in Madrid, and been invited to speak at Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford and INSEAD; and a former contributor to Forbes Magazine.
Jorge Torres YC ‘96
Entrepreneurship Fellow, Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale and Lecturer, Yale School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
I’m an educator, venture capital investor, and (non-practicing) intellectual property attorney. Currently, I serve as a Lecturer and Entrepreneurship Fellow at the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, which is Yale University’s hub for student-facing innovation education. Before higher education, I worked as a venture capital investor with Silas Capital in New York. I was the first hire on the investment team, and through that work and my angel investments, I’ve partnered with the founders of several emerging consumer brands, technology companies, and a venture capital fund-of-funds. My teaching and coaching focus on new venture creation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. I work with undergraduates, graduate and professional students, young professionals, and seasoned professionals alike. I’m most helpful when called upon to teach and mentor others on investing fundamentals, raising capital, go-to-market, and new product creation. I enjoy mentoring entrepreneurs and do a fair amount of it on my own and through my association with the likes of Techstars, Founder Institute, and Endeavor, to name a few of the organizations whose communities of innovators I’ve supported. I also serve as the Chairman of the Board of HBCUvc, a non-profit whose mission is to increase the racial and ethnic diversity in venture capital. I came to venture capital from a career as a trial attorney. Fun fact: I'm one of the few investors you'll meet who is also a registered US patent attorney.
QUESTIONS
To learn more about our pitch off sponsorship rates and benefits, to volunteer your services on a pro bono basis to the finalists, or for any other questions, please contact Wendy Maldonado D’Amico ‘93 (wendymaldonado.damico@gmail.com) or Ellen Su '13 (ellenfsu@gmail.com).