On July 25, 2013, I was given the opportunity to pitch the idea of Project:IDWIL and Washington University's Entrepreneurial Studies program called "ideaBounce®."
The format is that 15-20 presenters are given the floor to pitch their idea to an open audience and four judges. The tricky part is that you get 2 minutes. Not bad, right? Well think about it - that is 120 seconds! That time goes by fast, so you need to have your message down.
I tried to be respectful and listen intently to the 10 speakers before me, but my little hearts was just pounding, and I was rehearsing in my head, so "sorry 10 speakers before me!"
Anyway, I knocked it out - felt good about it, and was one of the top 5! That was amazing because it meant that other people thought my idea had something worth looking into, meant that I would get to have a nice lunch with the judges in order to get some mentoring and networking, and (of course) the cash prize of $100! Not bad huh? To make $100 for a 2-minute pitch means that I can charge people $3000/hour to speak in the future, right?
IDWIL got some exposure that day, but more importantly, it provided an opportunity to talk about my vision on a bigger scale. It was very empowering and galvanized my resolution to make IDWIL real.
So thank you to Skandalaris Center, Aimee Dunne Zander, and the judges - as well as the other inspiring ideaBouncers that night.