Pitches and Pints: Startup Grind Happy Hour Showcase - December

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, December 19
🕓 Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
📍 Venue: The Yard: Herald Square
💸 Cost: Only $5 (includes happy hour refreshments)
📑 Founders: Sign up here to pitch at an upcoming event

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

The agenda for the afternoon is:

4:00 PM: Happy Hour at The Yard
5:00 PM: Startup Pitches and Audience Q&A
6:00 PM: Networking with founders

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. The Yard is a coworking space at the intersection of innovation, creativity, design, & play -- with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Philly, and DC -- with a variety of shared and private workspace options. If you are interested in learning more or scheduling a visit, you can do so here.

PITCH FORMAT

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:

What are you building?
Why will you win?
How have you de-risked your business so far?
How will you de-risk your business in the near future?
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.

Agenda

4:00 PM: Happy Hour at The Yard

5:00 PM: Startup Pitches and Audience Q&A

6:00 PM: Networking with Founders

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Hosted By

Joshua Ness, Managing Director, Startup Grind

Joshua Ness is the Manging Director at Startup Grind NYC and is a Director of Emerging Technologies with IEEE. He works with enterprise, startups, and academic teams to drive innovation. He also works to educate, inspire, and connect the dots for businesses interested in moving forward with emerging technology.

Tova Feldheim, Cofounder

Arjun Mehta, Co-founder

Arjun Mehta is a recent graduate of NYU, holding a degree in Business and Tech Management with a concentration in Finance. During his time in college, Arjun gained invaluable experience through internships at a VC firm, a startup, and his own passion project. At the VC firm, he evaluated the growth potential of numerous health tech startups, analyzed pitch decks, and contributed to investment strategy meetings. Arjun also hosted strategic advisory calls for over 30 startup teams, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the startup VC ecosystem.

His longest tenure was at Invincible Entertainment as a Business Development Associate, where he utilized CRM tools to engage over 100 leads, significantly boosting sales outreach. He also closed multiple licensing deals and developed no-code AI tools to enhance workplace efficiency. Recently, Arjun co-created a chatbot for NYU's ambassador program, streamlining operations and reducing the need for on-shift counselors. Arjun is now seeking a role at a high-growth seed-stage startup to leverage his skills in sales, partnerships, and business strategy.

Jenny Sumeragi, CEO & Founder, JS Global Investment

Prianka Ball,

Currently working in data at a early stage startup. Ex founder and looking for my next startup building adventure.

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Global Partner

Brex (https://www.brex.com/solutions/startups?partnerId=startupgrind2024)
Runway is life for startups, so why do most banks chip away at it with fees, minimums, and delays? Founders deserve better—that’s why Brex built a banking solution that helps startups take every dollar further. With Brex, you get the best of checking, treasury, and FDIC protection in one account. Send and receive money fast worldwide. Earn industry-leading yield from your first dollar—while being able to access your funds anytime. And protect your cash with up to $6M in FDIC coverage through program banks. Ready to join the 1 in 3 startups using Brex and take every dollar further? Learn more.

Gold

Redrob, Inc (https://bit.ly/redrob-sg-nyc)
Redrob is a platform that provides early-stage startups access to world-class talent, streamlining the hiring process with tools like Talent Search GPT, Skill Test AI, and General Counsel GPT. Redrob Talent Search GPT employs AI agents to find and recruit exceptional candidates from the global talent pool. As an Employer of Record (EOR), Redrob enables seamless onboarding and management of international talent without the need for local entities—saving startups time, cost, and compliance risk.

Partner

The Yard (https://theyard.com/)
The Yard is a coworking space at the intersection of innovation, creativity, design, & play -- with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Philly, and DC -- with a variety of shared and private workspace options.

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Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind.

Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-pitches-and-pints-startup-grind-happy-hour-showcase-december/.