I spoke into my microphone for the first time and a surge of happiness overtook me as I realized that we were talking about our vision, our company, our product that we had been tediously crafting for over a year, in front of a group of successful people from all over the country - and they appeared to be listening.
Then our names were called and my ease vanished with a rush of adrenaline that hit me as I walked up the stairs while looking out at the thousands of people in the audience. I took a sip of water and a couple deep breaths and was surprisingly relaxed. This was our last moment to ourselves before show time. We sat down separately on the edge of the mini black stage set up for the reception to be held immediately after Daniel and I, the last of the 3 teams, were finished. Late Date, the first team to pitch, was about to be called up. We made our way behind the black curtains to the back of the stage and took a few long paces in the dark to do a speed run-through of our pitch one final time.
I glanced across the stage and then down at my watch. Daniel Swiecki ’14 (left) and Josh Lasker ’14 pitch Sapling Advisory to the panel, including Tony Bates and Ashton Kutcher, during Entrepreneur Weekend.
