Crafting a compelling pitch is crucial when seeking investors or partners. Learn how to tell your startup’s story, highlight key metrics, and tailor your pitch to different audiences to leave a lasting impression.

Building a business? Ever wish you could speak to and learn directly from subject matter experts (while never leaving your couch)? Join host Andy Lee from the University of Minnesota's Technology Commercialization office each Wednesday for this exciting and casual AMA ('ask me anything') style series on business building fundamentals. Check out all of the talks here: https://www.crowdcast.io/@techcomm

This event series is brought to you with support from Launch Minnesota, a statewide collaborative effort to accelerate the growth of startups and amplify Minnesota as a national leader in innovation.

Stephanie is Partner, Platform at Bread & Butter Ventures where she works to add continuous value to portfolio companies and founders. She is the former Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator in partnership with Cargill and Ecolab. Steph has worked with numerous early stage startups as a mentor and advisor, and has received the Techstars #givefirst award three separate times. She has hands-on expertise in bringing products and companies to market while building, cultivating and sustaining customer bases online and off.

Stephanie is the founder of Starting Up North, a publication focused on telling the stories and sharing the insights of Minnesota startups, innovators and their ecosystem, and Goby Partners, a marketing consultancy for startups and growing brands. Prior to Goby, Stephanie was employee #1 at Particle, the leading development platform for the Internet of Things. She established operational infrastructure and built the Particle brand in the marketplace by leading communications, social media, and product launches.

Kailin Oliver is the Associate Director of Minnesota Cup, the largest statewide startup competition in the nation, which is also a part of the UMN Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship. In her role, she is leading strategy, operations, and partnerships for the competition. 

Kailin joined the Holmes Center in June of 2022 as a Marketing and Events Manager, before moving on to focus on MN Cup in January of 2023. Prior to joining the Holmes Center team, Kailin spent her time working for a multitude of nonprofits around the Twin Cities. This included managing Minnesota's local chapter of Camp Kesem, a nationwide organization focused on providing support to children who have been impacted by a parent's cancer diagnosis. Kailin moved to the Twin Cities several years ago from Portland, Oregon, and holds a BA from the Carlson School of Management in Nonprofit Management and Marketing.

Perfecting Your Pitch