Alberta Innovation Network- Perfecting Your Pitch

​Are you looking for investors or customers?

​​Then join us for one or all three of a special three-part series titled "How to Perfect Your Pitch."

​​Designed for aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage business owners, this series shares the secrets to getting customers, investors, and mentors.  The series will also cover some of the best ways to access Alberta's business incubators and accelerators.

​​Each week's session will feature fresh content and the opportunity to practice your pitch and get feedback from the facilitator and the other participants. 

​​These sessions are brought to you by Alberta Innovates and Alberta's six rural Regional Innovation Networks:

• ​​APEX: Southeast Alberta

• ​​CARIN: Central Alberta

• ​​ECARIN: East Central Alberta

• ​​GPRIN: North West Alberta

• ​​RINSA: Southwest Alberta

• ​​WBRIN: North East Alberta

​These sessions are facilitated by two of Alberta’s best-known ecosystem builders, Brandy Old and Craig Elias. 

​​Week #1 - Five Ways to Attract Investors and Mentors

​​Want to know how to capitalize on the five things savvy investors and mentors care about the most?

​​Then join us for this informative session where Brandy and Craig share how to help potential investors/mentors understand that your idea/business has what it takes for them to be more interested in your business.

​​Week #2 - Nailing Your Five-minute Pitch

​​Want to craft a two to five-minute pitch that captures and keeps your audience's attention and makes them want to learn more about you and your business? 

​​Then join us for this fast-paced session where Brandy and Craig share the critical components of a successful pitch, different pitch formats, how to differentiate yourself from the competition and how to avoid the two mistakes that can kill the interest you create.

​​Week #3 – Creating A Compelling Elevator Pitch

​​Want to know how to create interest in your product or service in the shortest amount of time possible?

​​Then join us for the final session in the series, where you'll learn the power of seven-word elevator pitches and how not telling people what you sell right away can be the secret to getting customers, mentors, investors and employees.

​The Facilitators

​While they have different backgrounds, Brandy Old and Craig Elias share a passion for helping people become first-time entrepreneurs and a common purpose of helping grow the start-up community and tech sector across Canada. 

​In the last seven years, they have teamed up to help hundreds of aspiring, early-stage, first-time, underrepresented, rural, and student entrepreneurs embark on the journey of entrepreneurship. Their goal is to help them be more successful while avoiding the common mistakes that new entrepreneurs typically make. 

​Brandy and Craig have worked with global thought leaders like Ash Maurya and David Bland to level up the entrepreneurial ecosystem by training entrepreneurs and mentors about the Lean Canvas and coaching them on testing their riskiest assumptions.   

​They are part of a passionate team of Technology Development Advisors for Alberta Innovates working across the province. You can find them speaking at start-up events across the country, running kick-off startup boot camps that challenge entrepreneurs to validate their business ideas, and using a board game called Playing Lean to help people learn how to launch products and start companies without draining their bank account, bruising their ego, or damaging their reputation.