Our Pitch to AmCham

In front of a room full of senior leaders, a panel of experts observing our every move and word, five of us pitched our businesses last week at AmCham Singapore’s SME Pitch Fest.

After opening remarks from Ms Yeo Wan Ling, Member of Parliament and Assistant Secretary General of U SME and U WAF at NTUC, and a fireside chat with her hosted by Anoop Sagoo, CEO of Accenture SEA, we took the stage.

We each got to pitch our businesses, first up was Cole Sirucek with his game-changing patient-centric medical information company docdoc, then Joyce Chung, who shared delicious, decadent treats from Guilt Free Food (which are somehow totally healthy, too!)

I had the middle slot. I’ve presented in front of thousands of people numerous times in my career, so stage fright wasn’t a thing. I did get the usual adrenaline dump which had my hands shaking so much I had to keep them moving to hide it (something deftly picked up by judge Glenn van Zutphen anyway) but overall, I felt fine. Confident, rehearsed, repeating the pitch I’ve given to hundreds of people over the past several months.

I did focus a bit more on the structure of my pitch, since I only had three minutes to get it done, but it felt very different. I used to give roadmap updates at AMD (in Japanese, no less), or deliver partner keynotes at regional conferences in front of HP or Lenovo (one time singing a parody of Let It Go, titled Le-No-Vo, of course), and have handled wild, packed crowds at some massive Google parties. This time, it was just me, talking about the company Tom and I built. No safety net of a Forbes 500 brand behind me.

The pitch went very well. The other judges, Hari V Krishnan and Sumit Khurana, shared a blend of kind compliments and suggestions for improvement (next time, use photos of the escape room!) and I left the stage happy, then settled in to watch Andrew Lee share his vision for AI HR Assistants at Revo and had Jenny Zhao put a smile on my face thinking about my puppy Dingo while hearing her speak of pet care products through HICC Pet.

There was no winner announced, but even this game-lover didn’t mind. It was a chance to practice with some excellent mentors giving feedback, and hopefully to inspire other SMEs in the audience on how to build the right pitch for their audience. Thank you to AmCham for the opportunity, and on behalf of all of the speakers, thanks to everyone who let us share our hard work with you.