The six best founders we have seen pitch in the last two months. Three judges. A room of investors.
It runs every two months and it is free for the founders. Slots are by invitation – apply, and we will consider you for the next one.
What happens on the night
A pitch competition is a short, structured event where founders present to a panel of judges and an audience. Ours runs every two months in central London.
Six founders pitch in turn to three judges, with slides. The judges question each one in front of the room – the part most founders say they learn most from, because the questions are the ones investors are actually thinking. The panel picks a winner. Then the formal part ends and the useful part starts: an hour or so of open conversation.
The audience is mixed – active angels and VCs, other founders, and people working across the startup sector. It is a big, broad room, which makes it strong for visibility, feedback and connections. If what you want is concentrated time with investors and nothing else, that is the Speed Pitch.
Recent judges include Chet Parker (angel investor and founder, Helephant Ventures), Nick Telson, Philip Green (former CFO of Amazon EMEA, Deliveroo and Groupon), Barbara Brudenell-Bruce and Kayar Raghavan.
How the six are chosen
The competition is by invitation. Six slots every two months – thirty-six a year – and we fill them with the best founders we have seen pitch since the last one.
That is the whole reason it works. The judges and the investors give up an evening because the six in front of them have been chosen, not because they signed up first.
Apply anyway. The application form is how you get on the list we pick from. It does not buy you a slot, but we read every one, and founders we have never met do get invited when the application is strong.
The fastest route is a Speed Pitch. Our monthly investor evening – six-minute rounds, one to one with active angels, no slides. Founders who do well there are the first we consider.
The other route is the network – founders we know through the community, the newsletter, partners and past events.
What it costs
Nothing, to pitch. We do not charge the founders we select.
Tickets to attend and watch are sold through our events page. If you want to be in the room without pitching, that is the route.
The paid product is the Speed Pitch – investor-only, one to one, monthly – which is also the most reliable way to be considered for the competition.
What the winner gets
No cheque. Anyone promising you one at a pitch competition is selling something.
What the winner gets is the story told properly, in three places, to the people you are trying to reach:
- Our investor list – 400 active angels, family offices and funds. Small, and the one that matters. These are people who came to us looking for deals.
- Around 10,000 founders and investors in the Entrepreneurs Collective newsletter.
- About 35,000 people on LinkedIn – largely founders, investors and operators across UK early-stage.
For a company at this stage that is worth considerably more than a small cash prize. A cheque is spent once; being the company 400 investors read about this month is how the next round starts.
Everyone who pitches gets feedback from three judges in front of a live room, and an introduction to any investor in the audience who asks for one.
Pitch competition, or Speed Pitch?
Two formats, two jobs.
The pitch competition is one-to-many, free, every two months, and by invitation. You present with slides to three judges in front of a mixed room. Best for visibility, for practising under pressure, and for the feedback.
The Speed Pitch is one-to-one, paid, monthly, and investor-only. Six-minute rounds face to face with active angels, no slides and no screens. Best when the round is live and you want conversations rather than exposure – and it is how most founders get considered for the competition.
Both are vetted. The Speed Pitch is paid, but paying is not what gets you in: there is an intro call first, and we turn people down. That is the only reason the investors keep coming back.
How to prepare for a pitch competition
The founders who do well are almost never the ones with the prettiest slides.
Know the first sixty seconds cold. Judges decide early whether they are interested. Open with what the business does and who pays for it – not the market size, not your founding story.
Have your numbers ready without looking. Revenue, growth, burn, runway, what you are raising and what it buys. Hesitating on your own numbers costs more credibility than a weak answer.
Cut the deck down. Ten slides is plenty for a competition. Every slide you add is a slide the judges read instead of listening to you.
Get it read by someone outside the company. Someone who has seen hundreds of decks will find in ten minutes the hole you have walked past for six months. We review decks as part of our pitch packages, and a good reviewer will be blunt.
Rehearse until you stop thinking about the words. Most founders under-rehearse by a factor of about five. When the words are automatic you can read the room.
Prepare for the hard question, not the easy ones. There is a question you hope nobody asks. Someone will ask it. Investors are far more reassured by a founder who names a risk and explains how they handle it than by one who pretends it is not there.
Common questions
What is a startup pitch competition?
An event where founders present their business to a panel of judges who question them and pick a winner. Ours runs every two months in central London – six founders, three judges, and an audience of investors, founders and people from the startup sector, followed by open networking.
How do I get a slot?
The competition is by invitation. Complete the application form and we will consider you for the next one – we fill the six with the best founders we have seen pitch in the previous two months. The fastest way to be one of them is to pitch at a Speed Pitch, where we see you in front of investors.
Is it really free?
Yes, for the founders who pitch. Tickets to watch are sold separately.
Is the Speed Pitch just pay-to-play?
No. There is an intro call before you can buy a slot, and we turn founders down. The fee covers the room, the deck review and the pitch practice – it does not buy you in.
Do I need slides?
Yes for the competition. Not at the Speed Pitch, which is face to face with no screens.
Is it only for London startups?
No. Companies come from across the UK. The event is in London and you need to be there in person.
What happens if I win?
We tell your story to our 400-strong investor list, to our newsletter of roughly 10,000 founders and investors, and to around 35,000 people on LinkedIn – and we introduce you to any investor in the room who asks. There is no cash prize.
Can I come and watch without pitching?
Yes – book a ticket on the events page. The event is in person in central London and is not streamed.
Apply for the next one
The competition is by invitation, and the application form is how you get considered. Tell us where you are, what you are raising and when.
We will come back to you within 48 hours.
