Remember when pitching was fun? No battles or competitions, no celebrity VCs, no make-or-break stress.

We're bringing back low-pressure pitch events for early-stage startups that just need to get their ideas out into the world and hear constructive feedback from fellow founders in the trenches. So join us for an afternoon of innovation, networking, and camaraderie with Pitches and Pints. 🍻

Hosted in collaboration with The Yard coworking community, this event offers a platform for startups to share ideas, gather feedback, and connect with fellow founders.

• 📅 Date: Thursday, Feb 15
• 🕓 Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
• 📍 Venue: The Yard: Herald Square
• 📑 Register: Sign up here to pitch

Begin with happy hour bites and drinks while mingling with fellow founders and members of The Yard. As the sun sets, the spotlight shifts to five emerging startups who will take the stage to pitch their visions. 

This is not a competition -- it's an opportunity for founders to showcase their projects, exchange insights, and receive constructive feedback from founder peers.

Whether you're a startup enthusiast, an industry professional, or a curious mind, Pitches and Pints will be an engaging and inspiring afternoon to celebrate entrepreneurship, foster connections, and toast the spirit of innovation.

Our hosts at The Yard are offering a free day pass for attendees who arrive early and want to cowork before the event. Just tell the front desk you're there for Pitches and Pints happening later.

• Pitch - 5 minutes
• Audience Q&A - 5 minutes
• Pitch deck is required

Our longtime friend Mike Wilner, previously from the Startup Team at AWS, shares advice below on the art of pitching and the deck:

• Keep your narrative crisp
• Be opinionated and non-obvious
• Make sure there's an "oh shit" moment, and convey that it will be a venture-scale business
• Frame progress in terms of what you've actually figured out -- don't jump to arbitrary KPIs

Additionally, he advises that your fundraising narrative should be a concise, memorable explanation of what you're building, why you're fundraising, and why someone should invest. It should answer 5 questions:

1. What are you building?
2. Why will you win?
3. How have you de-risked your business so far?
4. How will you de-risk your business in the near future?
5. What will the future look like if you're successful?

For examples of previously successful pitch decks referenced by Mike Wilner, click here and here.

MEET THE STARTUPS

Trance4mation Games

• Trance4mation Games’ empathy based, relationship transforming board games, card decks and virtual games, provide safe structured spaces for people to explore and share their struggles, experiences, memories, feelings and lives, in community with one another.

Aster

• Aster is a neobank that lets international students get a US bank account from their home country in 3 minutes.

Fulton

• Fulton is the best way to meet new friends in the city with personalized events and intimate groups.

Pa'lante Rum

• Pa'lante Rum is a bev alc startup founded by two Cuban-American brothers who are working to elevate rum and represent the U.S. Latino community.

Gotham Oracle

• Gotham Oracle (GO) acts as a marketplace app for recreation. Simply put, it sources and organizes every recreational event available in NYC while displaying to users a marketplace of best deals and experiences for things they want at the place, price, & time they prefer in a design-friendly way.