​SESSION 8

​Pitch Practice

​The liner, 1-min, 3-min & 5-min pitch — deliberate repetition and the investor Q&A

​The only way to get better at pitching is to pitch. Repeatedly. In front of people. With structured feedback.

​Session 8 of The Psychology of Startups: Building Something Meaningful is the most high-energy, high-stakes, and ultimately most transformative session in the series. Every participant pitches — in four formats — and receives rubric-based feedback from their peers and the facilitator. There are no passengers. Everyone performs.

​This session is grounded in the psychology of high-performance communication: how to hold a room in 10 seconds, how to structure a story that works at 1 minute and still works at 5, how to handle the 8 most common investor pressure questions with composure, and how to make your pitch memorable long after the Zoom call ends.

​Led by Morné Maritz, a former professional athlete who knows what deliberate practice actually looks like — and a coach who has helped founders go from stumbling through their slides to closing rooms.

​✅ What You'll Learn

• ​How to craft a 10-second liner pitch (the "elevator in 3 floors" challenge) that creates genuine curiosity

• ​The structure of the 1-minute, 3-minute, and 5-minute pitch — what changes across formats and what stays fixed

• ​How to use the ARC Framework (Attention, Relevance, Call to Action) to anchor every pitch format

• ​Body language, vocal pacing, and narrative arc principles for both live and virtual delivery

• ​How to handle the 8 most common investor questions without losing your thread or your confidence

• ​How to use the Pitch Rubric for self-assessment and give structured peer feedback that actually improves decks

​🎤 Your Facilitator: Morné Maritz — Founder & CEO, Cogniate | Author, The Leadership Balance Triangle (endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith) | Former Professional Athlete | Organisational Psychologist | Neurodivergent founder and advocate for diverse founding teams. He's been asked the hard questions in live investor rooms. Now he helps founders prepare for them.

​🎤 Your Host: Diane Gogoleva — [Networking Expert & Events Curator | Founder of ________ | The person in the room who makes nervous founders feel like they belong — and then holds them to their best.]

​This is not a spectator sport. Come ready to pitch. Liner challenge begins within the first 5 minutes.

​Session 8 of 9.