An opportunity to pitch your business to an audience of A-list investors, business leaders, celebrities, CEOs and mentors at St James Palace is being offered by Pitch@Palace, and this year’s theme? Technology!
The event is designed to give you the chance to get your entrepreneurial tech business idea in front of a global audience of VIPs. After competing in an elimination round, if your business is selected you’ll be invited to attend a bootcamp where you’ll receive training for your pitch, and support with investment, introductions and strategic guidance. All the businesses that get to bootcamp will attend the final networking event, held at St James’s Palace.
Last year’s elimination round was hosted at the Bath and Bristol tech and creative incubator Engine Shed, with The Duke of York present to oversee the competition.
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Three South West-based companies did well, both Wriggle, YellowDog – from Bristol and Bath SETsquared Centres – and Altitude Tech – from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory – made it through, and walked the red carpet to St James Palace.
“I think one of the oddest moments was when the Duke of York, Fergie and Princess Beatrice were all standing around using a YellowDog flip book”
We caught up with finalist Gareth Williams, founder of Yellowdog – the app that pays for your PC’s processing power to help create animation, to find out more. He tells us about the crazy things that can only happen when royalty are involved: “I think one of the oddest moments was when the Duke of York, Fergie and Princess Beatrice were all standing around using a YellowDog flip book.”
An experience both brilliant and bizarre, the Royal theme stuck to form with some appropriate embellishments including a uniformed member of the Queen’s Guard who sounded a bugle if your pitch went over the allotted time – as Wired editor, David Rowan calls it, their own version of rickrolling.
“Pitch@Palace was one of the best, and highest calibre, networking events I’ve been to”
Gareth and the other business involved with Pitch@Palace view it as a totally positive experience, and would recommend it to other tech companies, “I’m a great fan of networking – you never know where a connection may lead you. And Pitch@Palace was one of the best, and highest calibre, networking events I’ve been to. As well as it being a rather unusual evening – it’s not often you get invited to a royal palace – it’s totally nerve wracking. Pitching in front of royalty, some celebs and many business leaders was more nerve wracking than I anticipated it would be.”
“From a single pitch we picked up investors, customers and a couple of business development opportunities”
Handy Pitch@Palace pitching tips
If you are thinking about entering, Gareth’s advice is to be prepared, “Practise and hone your pitch – and get as much feedback on it as you can. And if you do go, we did a little guerrilla marketing by turning up quite early, grabbing a tall cocktail table, and covering it with YellowDog collateral. This provided us with a base that none of the other pitchers had. The outcomes have been excellent, from a single pitch we picked up investors, customers and a couple of business development opportunities.”
You can see more from the evening in the video below, including Peter Jones describing the event as “The Royal Dragons’ Den”:
Tech themes being called for
Applications are encouraged from a broad range of tech, but the website has identified interest in the following areas:
- Biotech and Medical Technology
- Consumer Technology and Internet of Things
- Cybersecurity
- Data Management and Analytics
- Educational Technology
- Energy and Environmental Technology
- Fintech
- Industrial Technology
- Media, Communications and Entertainment Technology
- Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality
- Other
Applicants can apply directly to Pitch@Palace bootcamp or via one of the Regional Pitch@Palace On Tour events. There are two pitches a year, so make sure you follow them on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and check the website to keep up with the latest news, as well as inspiration and useful links for startups.
