Monthly · Central London
Speed Pitch: meet investors in London
Six minutes, face to face, with investors who are actively writing cheques. No slides, no stage, no pitching into a room of strangers.
We run it monthly in central London. Six to eight founders, at least fifteen active angels, family offices and early-stage funds, and a short one to one with every one of them.
Within 48 hours you have written feedback from the investors you met and an introduction to anyone who wants to take it further. If nobody does, your next Speed Pitch is free.
The format
What happens on the night
Investors sit in small groups. Founders rotate. You get six minutes with each group, and you do that again and again around the room.
We suggest about three minutes on the business and three minutes of questions, though the good conversations rarely split that neatly. There are no slides and no screens. You talk, they ask, and you find out quickly which parts of your story land and which do not.
Doors at 6pm, pitching from 6.30, drinks and open conversation afterwards. Most of the useful follow-ups start in that last hour.
Why six minutes
Most investors tell us they learn more in six minutes across a table than in a forty-minute pitch with slides. You learn more too. Eight conversations in one evening tells you what is actually landing with investors, which is information you cannot get from a deck being read without you in the room.
The room
Who is in the room
At least fifteen investors, and we have had thirty. They are active angels, family offices and UK early-stage funds, most writing between £10,000 and £300,000.
Investors who have sat in the room include:
Philip Green
Former CFO of Deliveroo and finance director for Amazon EMEA
Vineta Bajaj
Group CFO of Holland & Barrett, previously Rohlik Group and Ocado
Kayar Raghavan
Serial angel investor
Fiona Hudson-Kelly
Angel investor and founder of Smart Assessor, which she exited
Chet Parker
Angel investor and founder of Helephant Ventures
Alator Capital
Our sister company, whose principals have led transactions totalling over £170 million
Exited founders come too. Stuart Trevor, who founded All Saints, and Vince Heilbron, founder of Coco Vitae, have both attended.
Investors attend free. We ask that they are actively investing or actively looking, because the founders are giving up their evening and the room has to be worth it for them.
Selection
How founders are chosen
There is a call before you can buy a slot. We go through where you are, what you are raising, your traction and your timeline. If you are not ready, we say so and point you somewhere more useful.
What we are looking for:
- Raising £200,000 or more, and in market now
- At least a working product
- SEIS or EIS eligible, which most of the room cares about
- Able to be in London on the night, in person
- Pre-revenue only where there is real intellectual property behind it
Paying is not what gets you in
The fee comes after the call, and we turn founders down. That is the only reason the investors keep coming back, and it is what you are buying: a room that excluded people.
Price
What it costs
£1,500
+ VAT for a founder slot. Investors attend free.
£2,000
+ VAT for two events. Most rounds take more than one evening, and the second room is a different set of investors.
5%
Success fee on money you raise from investors you meet at the event, or from angels we introduce you to afterwards.
Those are the prices, the same for everyone in the room. We do not negotiate them, and when an event is full it is full.
That covers the room, the one to one time with every investor in it, a review of your deck before the night, a pitch practice session, written feedback from every investor you meet, and warm follow-up where an investor wants to keep talking.
Refunds up to seven days before the event.
Feedback
What every investor tells us about your pitch
After the event, every investor fills in a form on each founder they met. They pick one of four:
- Interested in investing
- Happy to advise
- Will make introductions
- Passing
Most of them also write what they thought.
You get it as they wrote it. We pass the comments straight on, unedited. We do not soften them, and we do not summarise them into something more comfortable. An investor who has just spent six minutes on your business and written down what they made of it is worth more to you unvarnished, and you are an adult.
That is up to fifteen assessments from people who invest for a living, written the same evening they heard you, which is the sort of thing founders normally spend months trying to read out of polite emails.
It all reaches you within 48 hours
The feedback and the introductions come together. Investors who want to invest are introduced to you. Offers to advise you or to open their address book are put to you as well, and we make the connection when you say yes, because a match only works if both sides want it. Two days after the room, you know where you stand with everyone in it.
Including the passes. If every investor in the room passes, that is worth knowing, and worth knowing now. It means either the business is not ready or you are not telling it right, and the written feedback usually makes clear which. Founders come back from that and raise. What nobody can do anything about is silence.
Our guarantee
If no investor asks for a follow-up, your next Speed Pitch is free
Nothing to claim and nothing to argue about. The forms tell us who wanted to invest, advise or introduce, so we already know before you do.
We offer it because the whole product is the curation. If we put the right investors in front of the right founder, this costs us nothing. If we get it wrong, it should cost us.
Included
What comes with the slot
A deck review before the night
Someone who has seen hundreds of decks goes through yours and is blunt about it.
A pitch practice session
Six minutes with no slides is a different discipline from a ten-slide presentation, and most founders need one run at it first.
Feedback and introductions within 48 hours
Each investor tells us whether they want to invest, advise, introduce or pass, and most say why. Follow-up is where most events quietly fail, so we do not leave it to memory or to you.
A route to the pitch competition
Every two months we put the six best founders we have seen in front of three judges and a room. Free, by invitation, and the Speed Pitch is where we see you. The winner goes out to our 400-strong investor list, a newsletter of around 10,000, and about 35,000 people on LinkedIn.
Which one
Speed Pitch, or pitch competition?
Two formats, two jobs.
The Speed Pitch
One to one, paid, monthly, investor-only. Best when your round is live and you want conversations rather than exposure.
The pitch competition
One to many, free, every two months, by invitation. You present with slides to three judges in front of a mixed room. Best for visibility, feedback and practice under pressure.
Both are vetted. Most founders do the Speed Pitch first.
Preparation
How to use six minutes
Open with what the business does and who pays for it
Not the market size and not the founding story. You have about thirty seconds before the investor decides whether to lean in.
Know your numbers without looking them up
Revenue, growth, burn, runway, what you are raising and what it buys. Hesitating over your own numbers costs more than a weak answer.
Say what you are raising, early
Investors are sorting you into “my size” or “not my size” in the first minute. Let them.
Leave room for questions
The questions are the point. A founder who talks for five and a half minutes has learned nothing and told them very little.
Bring the hard question with you
There is one you hope nobody asks. In eight conversations, someone will. Naming a risk and explaining how you handle it is far more reassuring than pretending it is not there.
Ask for something specific at the end
A follow-up call, an introduction, a view on your valuation. Vague endings are where the evening’s value leaks away.
Questions
Common questions
What is speed pitching?
Founders and investors meet one to one in short, timed rounds, rather than one founder presenting to a whole room. Ours runs six minutes per group, and each founder meets every group in the room over the course of the evening.
Do I need slides?
No. There are no screens in the room. Bring a laptop or tablet if you want to show the product quickly, but keep it light, because six minutes goes fast.
How many investors will I actually meet?
At least fifteen are in the room, and you meet all of them, in their groups. One past event had thirty.
Is this pay to play?
No. There is a 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 get feedback?
Yes, within 48 hours. Every investor you meet fills in a form afterwards saying whether they want to invest, advise, make introductions or pass, and most write what they thought. You get the comments as they wrote them, unedited, including the passes.
What happens if an investor wants to invest?
You are introduced within 48 hours, in the same message as the feedback.
And if they offer to advise me, or to make introductions?
That comes to you the same way, and we connect you once you say you want it. Both sides have to want the match, so nobody is put in front of anyone by default.
What if nobody follows up?
Your next Speed Pitch is free. You will also have written feedback from everyone in the room telling you why, which is the more useful half.
Do investors pay?
No. Investor places are complimentary, and we do not take a fee from the investor side of any transaction.
What does the success fee apply to?
Money raised from investors you meet at the event, or from angels we introduce you to afterwards. It does not apply to money you raise elsewhere.
Is it only for London companies?
No. Founders come from across the UK. The event is in London and you need to be there in person.
When is the next one?
Dates go up on our Eventbrite page, and the next few are listed at the foot of this page. Venues are central London, and we confirm the exact address with attendees beforehand.
Next step
Apply to pitch
Tell us where you are, what you are raising and when. If it looks like a fit, we will set up a call.
Dates
