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Titan Fast Pitch 2021 – Everything you need to know

Titan Fast Pitch Everyone

Special thanks to Titan Fast Pitch Platinum Sponsor MUFG Union Bank, N.A. for their tremendous support of the next generation of entrepreneurs and creators!

Union Bank

Entry Window for CSUF Titan Fast Pitch is now closed.

Thank you to all the students who submitted entries.

Submit Your Entry for Titan Fast Pitch Below

CSUF Titan Fast Pitch – The premiere startup pitch event for university, college, high school, and middle school students!

Click the blue box below to submit your Titan Fast Pitch entry before 9am, Friday October 1. 3pm, Monday, Oct 4. (Deadline extended.)

CSUF Titan Fast Pitch – Everything You Need to Know to Compete and Win!

Pitch your startup concept! Win Scholarships!

Now is the best time to start being the entrepreneur that you were meant to be!

We earnestly believe that there is a successful business concept in the heart of every student and we know that you agree. So, if you are a current middle school, high school, or community college/university student we challenge you to take the first step towards making that belief into a reality by submitting a 90 second pitch to the Titan Fast Pitch competition.

What follows is everything that you need to know about the Titan Fast Pitch and how you can get the opportunity to pitch your business concept to our panel of judges!

Scholarships

College/University Scholarships

1st Place: $1,500 Cash Scholarship

  • One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value)
  • Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)
  • One Month 24/6 marketing consulting and Five Session “CWM Mentor Secrets to Success” mentee coaching course with College Web Mentor CEO Rudy Chavarria ($4500 value)
  • Three Hour consultation with entity formation attorney Anthony J. Dispoto ($750 value)

2nd Place: $1,000 Cash Scholarship

  • One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value)
  • Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)
  • One Month 24/6 marketing consulting and Five Session “CWM Mentor Secrets to Success” mentee coaching course with College Web Mentor CEO Rudy Chavarria ($4500 value)
  • Three Hour consultation with entity formation attorney Anthony J. Dispoto ($750 value)

3rd Place: $500 Cash Scholarship

  • One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value)
  • Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)
  • One Month 24/6 marketing consulting and Five Session “CWM Mentor Secrets to Success” mentee coaching course with College Web Mentor CEO Rudy Chavarria ($4500 value)
  • Three Hour consultation with entity formation attorney Anthony J. Dispoto ($750 value)

4th Place: $250 Cash Scholarship

  • One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value)
  • Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)
  • One Month 24/6 marketing consulting and Five Session “CWM Mentor Secrets to Success” mentee coaching course with College Web Mentor CEO Rudy Chavarria ($4500 value)
  • Three Hour consultation with entity formation attorney Anthony J. Dispoto ($750 value)

Honorable Mention – $250 Cash Scholarship

High School Scholarships

1st Place: $400 Cash Scholarship

2nd Place: $300 Cash Scholarship

3rd Place: $200 Cash Scholarship

4th Place: $100 Cash Scholarship

Middle School Scholarships

1st Place: $400 Cash Scholarship

2nd Place: $300 Cash Scholarship

3rd Place: $200 Cash Scholarship

4th Place: $100 Cash Scholarship

Important Dates

9am, Friday, October 01, 2021 – Bullpen Round: 90 Second Video Submissions Due

  • Submit your entry for CSUF Titan Fast Pitch 2021: https://bit.ly/TFP2021Submissions

12pm, Saturday, October 09, 2021 Finalists Notified

  • If a finalist cannot attend, alternates will be notified asap.

10am, Saturday, October 16, 2021 – Finals Round: In-person Live Pitch

  • 9am Doors Open
  • 10am Competition Begins

Where: CSUF Titan Student Union Pavilion

  • The Titan Student Union (TSU) Pavilion is easy to find from State College Blvd.
  • ( https://asi.fullerton.edu/about#Maps)

Parking: State College Structure

  • Parking in the State College Structure (adjacent to TSU) is free on Saturdays.
  • (https://parking.fullerton.edu/ParkingLotCounts/mobile.aspx)

At the finals we will:

  • Finalists will present live to our panel of judges.
  • High School and University/College finalists will field questions by the judges.
  • We will hear a keynote from former CSUF Titan Fast Pitch Finalist, Bryan Ruef (Director of Technology at 10-8 Systems).
  • The winners will be announced!

Keynote Speaker – Bryan Ruef, Founder 10-8 Systems

Bryan Ruef is the Founder and Director of Technology at 10-8 Systems.

As a CSUF computer science student and volunteer with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Bryan realized that current dispatching systems were using outdated technology. He designed and built 10-8 Systems to be more affordable and effective than current products. The software has already been put to the test and used to rescue hundreds of people during Hurricane Dorian. CSUF Startup 10-8 Systems Saving Hundreds of Lives in wake of Hurricane Dorian – CSUF Entrepreneurship

Bryan won 1st place in the 2019 CSUF Titan Fast Pitch competition. CSUF Startup Competition Results – CSUF Entrepreneurship

Resources

Titan Fast Pitch Flyer…https://bit.ly/TFP2021Flyer

Titan Fast Pitch Bootcamp Video (College/High School version)…Titan Fast Pitch Boot Camp with Dr Atul Teckchandani – YouTube

Titan Fast Pitch Bootcamp Video (Middle School version)…FastPitchBootCampVideo – Google Drive

Titan Fast Pitch Bootcamp Worksheet…Workshop_FastPitchCompetitionBootcamp_09032021_handout.docx

The 90 Second Business Pitch

Why 90 seconds?

It’s simple, really. 90 seconds is about the amount of time that you have when you first meet someone to get them interested in your concept. Your concept could be for a business or a nonprofit, that doesn’t matter, but what does matter is that your concept is addressing something that can have a positive impact on the world.

What is included in the 90 second business pitch?

Once you start putting together your pitch you will quickly realize that 90 seconds is not a lot of time because you have so much information that you need to communicate. For an effective business pitch, we recommend including three sections: The problem that you are addressing, what your solution is, and what is the overall business opportunity.

The problem that you are addressing

When we review pitches (and we review a lot of them), the first thing we look for from an entrepreneur is that they have identified a real problem that needs to be addressed. Ideally, the entrepreneur who is pitching us will have talked about this issue with many people or, at least, the entrepreneur has experienced the problem personally. Problems can come in all shapes and sizes.

One of the successful pitches we have seen come out of a previous Titan Fast Pitch competition addressed a simple problem: There weren’t any hair accessories for horses. You might be thinking that this isn’t really a problem, horses, after all, don’t really need to have clips adorned with plastic butterflies in their manes. And that is strictly true, however, many horsemen and women like to adorn their horses with pretty hair clips and before this entrepreneur came along there was no way for those riders to properly attire their horses.

Perhaps the best way to identify a problem that needs addressing is to simply notice what bothers you in your day-to-day life.

Your solution for that problem

Once you have identified a problem then you need to come up with a solution and be able to explain it clearly and simply. Your solution should adequately address the problem you have identified and be doable.

The opportunity

Now that you have explained the problem and what your solution is for that problem you need to communicate to your listeners what the overall opportunity is. If you are proposing a business then talk about the number of people you think would buy your product or service. If your concept is for a nonprofit then talk about how many people you can reasonably have a positive impact on.

From there, you should explain why you are the right fit for this opportunity and how you plan on leveraging the resources that you currently have to start this business and grow it.

General tips

In general, the pitches that do better in these competitions are done by people who are confident and passionate about their concepts.

Since the Preliminary Round is a virtual competition, you have the opportunity to record your pitch as many times as you like in order to get the perfect delivery (You will still only submit one video, the best one).

For the Finals Round, practice, practice, practice. The more often you practice your pitch, the more relaxed, natural, and confident it will sound in person.

2020 Titan Fast Pitch Boot Camp Video

For notes from the Titan Fast Pitch Boot Camp, please go here: https://csufentrepreneurship.com/titan-fast-pitch-boot-camp-resources-to-help-you-give-a-winning-business-pitch/

Rules for 90 second pitch

  • Pitches should be in the format of a face-to-face pitch.
  • 90 second maximum for pitches
  • No PowerPoint slides, poster boards, white boards, CGI, music, screengrabs, etc.
  • One continuous take, no editing
  • If you are pitching as a team (max of 2) then you and your teammate can participate in the video and presentation.
  • Handheld and wearable props and prototypes are acceptable
  • All participants must be current students and should be able to produce a valid student ID or prove in some other way that they are currently a student (this will be checked for all finalists)
  • The competition is open to all current university (including community college and masters/PhD students), high school, and middle school students
  • There is no age restriction, however, any student 19 years or older on the day of the finals must compete in the University Tract

Finals Judges

Natalia Razeghi

Sr. Credit Executive, Vice President at MUFG Union Bank

Natalia Razeghi

Natalia Razeghi is a commercial loan underwriter with over 20 years of lending experience, including co-founding a start-up lending company. She is currently an expert on underwriting law firms, medical groups and other professional segment borrowers of Wealth, Private Bank, and Business Banking at MUFG Union Bank. Natalia came to this country as a foreign student from Russia at CSUF.

Upon completion of her Bachelor degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, she joined Citigroupโ€™s paid internship which lead to a full time career in banking. The internship was sourced via a fully-employed banking executive who was teaching evening classes at CSUF. You can say Natalia owes much of her success to the foundation and professional contacts that CSUF provided her early on.

Natalia Razeghi | LinkedIn

Dr. Cathleen Greiner

Regional Director, Business and Entrepreneurship, Orange County, California Community Colleges

Dr. Cathleen Greiner, Ph.D.

Dr. Greiner is a long-time educator in higher education and the community colleges as a teacher, dean, and vice president, with expertise and responsibility in leadership, online learning, equity and inclusion, and networking with employers and community/ educational partners to respond to a disruptive economy and changing learning needs while building enduring bridges between business and education. As a small business owner, she also bridges real work application and educational responsiveness.

In leading the California Community Collegesโ€™ Business & Entrepreneurship Sector in Orange County–which is the largest employment sector in the county–she is focused on student equity, diversity and inclusion, career and workforce preparation, college transfer, and internships and work-based learning. She networks and creates linkages with employers across the region to gain and/or upskill a diverse workforce and collaborates with public and private partners to support workforce readiness and college opportunities. Most recently, she is joining forces with OC industry to emphasize economic reactivation, entrepreneurship, and transitioning and standing up a โ€œnewโ€ marketplace and business ecosystem in the region.

As a strategic, long-range planner with an entrepreneurial spirit, she is a sought-after expert on organizational growth, the gig economy, the new world of work, the impact of AI, automation and technology, and on the need to prepare students and individuals for academic and workplace success. She is a faculty member for the Western Association of College and University Business Officers (strategic planning and case studies), as well as at the Online Teaching Conference and DET/CHE.

A. Cathleen Greiner, PhD | LinkedIn

David Morris

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Royal Business Bank

David Morris

David is a financial executive with experience in all aspects of accounting, treasury and financial management. He has spent most of his career in the financial institutions industry as a Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer. David is interested in all aspects of financial management and he has a passion for strategic and tactical planning.

Karl Freels

Director, Black Family Trust

Karl is a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship and STEM education. As a Director of the Black Family Trust, he has helped direct activities towards enriching the lives of students at Cal State Fullerton and beyond. Karl has 3 degrees from CSUF including an Ed.D (Doctor of Education) and many years of higher education fundraising experience with expertise in donor engagement and stewardship strategies.

William Purpura

Managing Partner at Dargon Development

William Purpura is a polymath. He is the Managing Partner of Dargon Development (RIA) managing multi-million dollar Financial Limited Partnerships with an emphasis on analysis/trading of index options; a retired Boeing Senior Systems/Project Engineer; and an expert in Intellectual Property development; awarded 20 US patents with 2 more pending. Mr. Purpura is a multi-degree graduate from CSUF – BS Mechanical Engineering, MS Mechanical Engineering, & MBA, as well as an active supporter of many campus programs.

Maryam Edah-Tally

Ernst & Young Teen Entrepreneur of the Year; Founder – Fleur A Cheval

Maryam Edah-Tally is Ernst & Young’s 2017 Teen Entrepreneur Of The Year, and best known for founding Fleur A Cheval. She is now 20 years old and host of the “Quit Horsing Around” podcast. Maryam started as an entrepreneur at age 13 when she competed in the TYE (Tie Young Entrepreneurs) program at Chapman University.

Maryam placed First in the 2020 CSUF Titan Fast Pitch competition, Titan Fast Pitch 2020 | The Finals in Full – CSUF Entrepreneurship and third in the 2019 CSUF Titan Fast Pitch competition. Titan Fast Pitch 2019 Recap – CSUF Entrepreneurship

Uploading 90 Second Business Pitches to YouTube

Why YouTube?

We anticipate a large number of competitors in this competition and in order to create as level a playing field as possible for all competitors we decided to standardize the application process. Plus, YouTube is the most popular video platform in the world and we made the determination that this would be the most straightforward way to accept video submissions.

How do I create a YouTube channel to upload my video to?

How do I upload a video on YouTube?

Public versus Unlisted versus Private Videos on YouTube

In order for us to view your video when clicking your link you need to set your video as either Public (which means that your video can be found on YouTube by anyone) or Unlisted (which means that only people with the link can view your video). If you list your video as private we will not be able to view your video and your submission will be rejected.

Under 13 years old? Here are some resources for you to learn how to submit via YouTube

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802272?hl=en

https://support.google.com/families/answer/7101025

Sponsors

CSUF Titan Fast Pitch Diamond Sponsor

CSUF Titan Fast Pitch Gold Sponsors

Royal Business Bank

Black Family Trust

Black Family Trust - Dan Black

North Orange County Community College District

CSUF Titan Fast Pitch Silver Sponsors

VK Family Foundation

Vas Arora VK Family Foundatiion

CSUF Titan Fast Pitch Champion Sponsors

Justin Sanders – Intellectual Property Attorney

CSUF Startup Incubator

Rudy Chavarria, Jr. – College Web Mentor

Anthony J. Dispoto, Esq. – The Contracts Attorney

Jake Kochiss – JakePhoto.com

JakePhoto.com

Hosts

Miscellaneous

The finals for this event will be recorded. Film, Pictures, Audio, and All participants, audience members, judges, and hosts may end up in video or still media.

[Note: This page is subject to change without notice. Please check back to make sure that you are getting the most up to date information on the Titan Fast Pitch competition. All rules are subject to change without notification at the discretion of the Titan Fast Pitch hosts.]

CSUF Entrepreneurship

We are dedicated to helping the next generation of entrepreneurs develop the skills that they need to compete locally and globally. The CSUF Entrepreneurship program does many things, including: consulting projects where students serve up fresh strategies to actual businesses, competitions for students from middle school to grad school, helping entrepreneurs go from concept to launch, frequent seminars and office hours for entrepreneurs and professionals, and much more. Interested in becoming a part of the CSUF Entrepreneurship community? Reach out to us at csufentrepreneurship@fullerton.edu for more information! CSUF Entrepreneurship depends on the support of the community, please go here to donate.