Pitch Lab: Mastering Your Business Pitch

​Great ideas don’t win funding. Great pitches do.

​Pitch Lab: Mastering Your Business Pitch is a focused session during 517 Entrepreneurship & Innovation Week designed to help founders, entrepreneurs, and aspiring business owners strengthen how they communicate their ideas in competitive settings.

​This session features Nikki Thompson Frazier, founder of Sweet Encounter; Paul Reiss, CEO of Protein Pints; Tanvi Gadamsetti, co-founder of BRCĒ; and Jillian Whitley, founder of J. Margaret. Each speaker brings firsthand experience pitching in high-stakes environments and building ventures across different stages.

​The session will open with a moderated panel where speakers will break down how they structured their winning pitches, what judges paid attention to, how they prepared, and what they would do differently. The conversation will offer real insight into what actually separates average pitches from winning ones.

​Following the panel, Nikki Thompson Frazier will deliver a keynote on pitching under pressure, drawing from her experience competing in the Shark Tank/Clover pitch competition. She will share practical strategies around storytelling, clarity, confidence, and anticipating judge questions in short, high-stakes formats.

​The session will close with an audience Q&A and a concise set of takeaways to help attendees approach their next pitch with more clarity and confidence.

​This event is especially valuable for anyone planning to participate in upcoming pitch competitions, including the Hatching Pitch Contest hosted by LEAP. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what judges look for and how to position their ideas to stand out.

​Pitch Lab is designed to help you turn a strong idea into a pitch that can actually win.