New Way to Pitch a Startup Investor: In a Chat Room

A screenshot of Quick Pitch.

For many entrepreneurs, the first introduction to an investor can prove valuable in the long run — and they’re typically thrilled to pitch investors in any forum: A conference room, over a cup of coffee, or in front of a large audience at a conference. But next Friday, they’ll be pitching in a forum you just don’t see very often: A chat room.

Called the Quick Pitch: An Online Venture Fair, entrepreneurs from the East Coast will hold one-on-one chat sessions with venture capitalists from Osage Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Greycroft Partners, Grotech Ventures, Edison Partners, Safeguard Scientifics, and Ascent Venture Partners. The system lets entrepreneurs choose which VCs they’d like to chat with for each eight-minute session. The hope is that they lead to face-to-face meetings and maybe even an investment down the line.

Here’s more from Osage:

Each VC fund will have a virtual “booth,” and entrepreneurs can choose to wait in line in one or multiple booths.  Once connected in a chat, the entrepreneur has eight minutes to convince the VC of how exciting her startup is and to secure a follow-up phone call or meeting. 

The event is specifically targeting early stage companies (who have raised less that $1 million) located on the East Coast and working on business-to-business solutions. If successful, Osage and the others could narrow the program’s focus to certain sectors, geographies or stages of development. 

Register or get more information here.

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