On a cool Saturday evening, January 29, the HULT prize at IOE- Pulchowk Campus community met up for yet another invigorating Entrepreneurship Talk Series: The Subtle Art of Pitching presented with Bajra Technologies which marks the completion of the fourth stage of the series. This particular evening was dedicated to explore the art of pitching great, change making ripples of ideas the participants will be exploring throughout their journey in HULT Prize at IOE. A crowd of over 130 participants interacted over a span of one and a half hour exploring and discussing ideas, asking questions and being answered.
The event hosted by the Project Manager Aakriti Sharma was initiated with enlightening remarks from the keynote speaker of the day, Mr. Shreyan Paudel who happens to be Chief Strategy Officer of Bajra Technologies, the Co-founder of a health technology startup “dhi solutions” and an education-focused start up “42”. Briefing the audience on the art of pitching and its necessities, he advised the participants to understand the goals, motives and mindset of the investors you are pitching to. He focused on the empathy analysis of the investor and the consumers and ended his speech with an emphasis on three things he things one needs as an entrepreneur, viz. planning and market analysis, preparedness and patience.
The very energetic Mannsi Agrawal
The first guest speaker of the evening Mrs. Mannsi Agrawal, a TEDx speaker, Corporate Trainer, a Web Series Host and a Distinguished Toast Master, took the platform after the keynote speaker. She led a very interactive and energetic session going above and beyond our expectations. She talked about the principles of pitching, urging the participants to orient their ideas best suiting to the motives of the investors, ensuring them the maximum return of their investments. She worked with the participants in taking a basic idea and molding it into a full baked pitch statement which best advocated the intent of the product or service being pitched. She briefed the participants on the art of presenting oneself and public speaking. She addressed the essence of relating to the audience and making your pitch emotionally appealing to them beyond all reasoning.
During an interactive Q/A session, she addressed language barrier and pitching confidently. Addressing the fear of public, she also disclosed some of the tricks for making your pitch more engaging and understanding the investor’s motives.
AIDA with Satish Gaire
The next distinguished guest speaker was none other than Mr.Satish Gaire, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DirectPay, WooAgents and Podmio and an investor at BookSmart, My Dental Website and LogicXY AI, recognized as the “King of SaaS” platform and rightfully so! The session held by this influential internet marketer and entrepreneur was as engaging as it could get. Starting with his own experience with startups, he confessed the greatest challenge being getting a response. Thus he focused his session of getting a response from the investor through AIDA framework and how to use these techniques, in addition, in your day-to-day life, like making your tiktok go viral and get DM responses which certainly grabbed attention pretty quickly and effortlessly from the audience. He elucidated on the exploit of the AIDA framework (Attention Interest Desire and Action) to pitch your ideas and get a favorable response. Through a lively Q/A session, he addressed questions on grabbing the attention, recommended books that could help one equip with the art of pitching, about market analysis and how to creatively make your product stand out in the competitive market.
Humor and Pitching with Stephen Dyer
The final guest speaker of the session, Mr.Stephen Dyer, an award-winning comedian, keynote speaker and corporate communication trainer and co-founder of MalPensando, a bilingual comedy school in Canada, and the reTHINK group held the audience spellbound with his charming and captivating aura. Mr. Stephen focused his session on leveraging humor to flourish the business pitching. He presented on the pillars of communication, body language, comedy and connection. Time and again, he pressed on his motto of “Escaping competition through authenticity”. He emphasized on the essence of authenticity to leave an impression, to carve an identity on the minds of the investors and people in every walks of life. In an extremely vibrant and interactive session, filled with laughter and open conversation, he talked about the crowd work, pre-pitching and controlling nervousness, among various other public speaking techniques. He went as far as to advise people to get to the venue before time to really know your audience and suit your communication in reference to it. He introduced this idea of connecting to people through vulnerabilities and about positively adding humor to your pitching. He addressed the audience’s questions on productivity with the same enthusiasm.
All of these sessions were a spectacle to behold with the chat box on fire throughout the session, the participants pining for more despite the constraints of time. With the basics of pitching, productivity, and public speaking in entrepreneurship and other walks of life, and the expectations of the participants being met, the program came to an end.
