Why Your Pitch Loses the Room in the First 60 Seconds
Most founders prepare what they are going to say.
The best founders prepare to listen first.
There is a gap between a founder who delivers a pitch and a founder who reads a room, adapts in real time, and makes every person they speak to feel genuinely understood. That gap is not talent. It is a set of learnable skills. And this workshop covers all four of them.
What we cover:
Active listening - the skill that makes everything else work. Most founders in a pitch or sales conversation are thinking about what to say next rather than hearing what is actually being said. This session starts with a live listening exercise in pairs - because the fastest way to understand how poorly most of us listen is to try it deliberately and feel the difference.
Persuasion skills - how humans actually make decisions and how to use that knowledge in any conversation. Emotion before logic. Problem before solution. Human before data. Specific before general. These are not tactics. They are the principles that separate a pitch that informs from one that moves people to act.
The elevator pitch - built using the Before After Bridge structure and the five sentence framework that makes a room lean forward. You will bring your homework, rewrite it live, test it in pairs, and leave with a version that actually works.
The case study story - and where to use it - most founders think the case study belongs in a pitch deck. It does not stop there. The same Before After Bridge structure that makes your elevator pitch land is the engine behind your best social posts, your most persuasive client conversations, your homepage copy, and your marketing collateral. This section shows you how to use it everywhere.
What to do before you arrive:
You will receive a short homework before the event - walking you through it and a simple written template to complete. It takes about 15 minutes.
You will write two things: a one-line version of what you do and a short paragraph version. Bring both to the session. Rough is fine. That is exactly what we will work on together.
This workshop is for you if:
You are a founder, entrepreneur, or operator who pitches your business regularly and feels like it is not landing the way it should.
You are a non-native English speaker who wants to communicate more clearly and confidently in a professional context.
You are a native English speaker who has never been taught how to structure a pitch and suspects that is the problem.
You want a communication framework you can use beyond the pitch - in content, in client conversations, and in your marketing.
About the facilitators:
Matt Ainsworth - With over 20 years across finance, sales, product, and BD in Australia and Japan, Matt works with founders navigating the early stages of building, pitching, and growing across borders.
He has mentored through accelerator programs, worked VC-adjacent in Japan, and runs a weekly founder newsletter followed by operators and investors across the APAC region.
David Castillo - David has over 20 years of business management experience and provides customised training solutions for Fortune 500 companies in Japan - including financial institutions, consulting firms, startups, and entrepreneurs.
He delivers a combination of business communication and language skills training, bringing real-world corporate experience directly into the Founder Stage programs.
How to sign up:
Price: $27
Includes: Workshop session, live exercises, peer feedback, AI Case Study Builder access
We look forward to having you with us - sign up now!