Tim Flood

Individuals, offices and institutions from across the UNC campus and community came together for an incredible Global Entrepreneurship Week last week (read about the Look Ahead and Kickoff here).    I was very lucky to act as co-facilitator (with Charles Merritt) for the Reverse Pitch-a-Thon, on Wednesday, sponsored by Julie Macmillan and the UNC Gillings School of Public Health, with a panel of peers—speaking about the campus “Food for All” initiative—who were so blindingly brilliant that I felt like a know-nothing.    And I was a judge at the Carolina Challenge Pitch Party Thursday.    I’m not easy to impress, but I was blown away by the commitment and...

I can’t count how many startup/venture pitches I’ve seen—fewer than many of my pals and peers in the amazing NC startup scene, but far more than enough to feel great in offering some advice.    I’ll forever bang my drum that: Any pitch, to any audience, needs to start with a clear value proposition and mission statement.  Origin stories have very little value (and take up too much time) unless they specifically build-credibility. ‘Customer journey stories’ or ‘parables of the problem’ can engage people, but these stories should not come first and they should take the minimum amount of...