Editor’s note, Nov. 1, 8:30 p.m.: This story has been updated throughout.
The Pitching Like a Pro event on Oct. 23 featured Trey Bowles, SMU adjunct professor for entrepreneurship and CEO of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center (DEC), as the guest lecturer. He talked business plans and elevator pitches to ten students who hope to master the art of pitching their ideas.
During Big iDeas’ second Pitching Like a Pro event of the fall, Bowles discussed in-depth about the different components of executive summaries and how the members of the audience planning to compete at the Big iDeas Pitch Contest on Oct. 30 could take home the grand prize.
“Before you can pitch something, you have to really understand what it is that you are pitching. What is your idea?” Bowles said. “You would be amazed by how many people go out and launch companies because they think it’s just going to be really successful.”
Susan Kress, executive director of Engaged Learning, explained that students partaking in the Big iDeas Pitch contest will have one minute to sell their idea and then two minutes for a Q&A session with the panel of eight judges.
“Big iDeas is taking your big idea, challenging you to put together the right talent that you need to make the idea happen and convincing us that it’s doable,” Kress said. “Then we give you $1,000 and three months to show us what you can do with it.”
Bowles said building a business boils down to three main points: having a product or service, selling that product or service and managing the people who buy that product or service. The key lies in pitching.
“Your elevator pitch is literally the idea that you see somebody that you really want to talk to getting onto an elevator,” Bowles said. “You run and jump into the elevator before it closes because they can’t go anywhere for 15 to 20 seconds.
Pitching Like a Pro took place in the CUBE located in Expressway Tower from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
CUBE manager and SMU junior Megan Kohner described the CUBE, which is open to all students, as a community focused on connecting students with resources across campus to help them turn their ideas into start-ups.
“Essentially, the CUBE is SMU’s in-house start-up incubator that is run by students for students,” Kohner said.
After Bowles’s lecture, the attending students were spontaneously encouraged to practice their pitches on him, with little to no preparation. They were the ultimate elevator pitches.
“My three favorite things about entrepreneurs is that, one, they are extremely courageous, two, they are persistent and, three, they are a little crazy,” Bowles said.
