Day 5: Pitch day
Bring it all together and present with confidence.
Today's goal
By the end of today you can deliver a 3-minute pitch with a one-page plan, take questions and review your work honestly against a rubric.
Agenda
The session
Voice and presence
A calm body and a clear voice help any pitch.
- Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and shoulders relaxed.
- Breathe in for four counts and out for six, three times.
- Say your opening line three times: quietly, too loudly, then just right.
- Smile, pause and say your venture's name as if you are proud of it.
Solo
Do it in front of a mirror.
Group
Do it together in a circle, then each person says their opening line once. Anyone may pass.
Related lessons: Standing and walking with presence, Public speaking and presentations
What the judges look for
Read the rubric together so there are no surprises.
- Problem and evidence: a real problem backed by what people said and did.
- Customer: a specific first group you can reach.
- Solution and prototype: tested, and improved after feedback.
- Numbers: correct break-even, with assumptions labelled.
- Honesty and responsibility: provable claims, clear disclosure and the rules to check named.
- Delivery: on time, clear and calm under questions. Judges reward learning, including ideas that changed or were dropped.
Related lessons: Public speaking and presentations
Finish your one-page plan
Pull your week onto a single page that someone could understand without you there.
- Use these headings: customer, problem (point of view), evidence, solution and prototype, price and costs, break-even, marketing approach, rules to check, next three steps.
- Keep every section to one to three lines.
- Mark assumptions with 'guess' and evidence with 'checked'.
- Under 'rules to check', list licence, guardian involvement, consumer protection and any advertising rules that would apply before real selling.
- Add your prototype photo.
- Produce: the finished one-page plan.
Solo
Write it neatly or type it, then read it aloud to check it makes sense.
Group
Each team member drafts two sections, then the team edits together. One person checks the numbers again.
Related lessons: The numbers on one page: price, costs, margin and break-even, Doing it properly: business structures, licences and visa rules
Rehearsal rounds
Two rehearsals with feedback make a big difference.
- Round 1: pitch to a partner or small audience with a strict 3-minute timer.
- Listeners give feedback using the rubric: one strength and one improvement, specific and kind.
- Fix the single most important thing.
- Round 2: pitch again and practise answering two likely questions, such as 'How do you know people want this?' and 'What would you do with AED 500 of support?'
- Produce: a final pitch under 3 minutes and answers to two questions.
Solo
Record two takes and compare them. Ask a family member for one strength and one improvement.
Group
Pairs of teams rehearse for each other. The facilitator floats and times.
Related lessons: Feedback: giving and receiving it well
Break
Rest, drink water and get your visuals ready.
- Rest for 15 minutes.
- Set up your prototype and one-page plan where you will present.
Pitch day
The main event. Present, listen to others and learn from every pitch.
- Each pitch: 3 minutes, then up to 2 minutes of questions.
- Judges score each criterion from 1 to 4 and write one sentence of feedback.
- Audience members write one thing they learned from each pitch.
- After all pitches, judges share general strengths and one common improvement.
- Recognise more than one winner: best evidence, most honest, best prototype, best numbers, most improved idea.
- Produce: your delivered pitch and your rubric scores.
Solo
Record your final pitch as a video and play it to your family at a set time. Give each person the rubric to score you, then hold a 2-minute question time.
Group
With more than eight teams, run parallel rooms, each with an adult judge and a timekeeper. Judges should know the rubric in advance. Recording is optional and only with everyone's consent.
Self-review against the rubric
Honest self-review is how founders improve.
- Score yourself on each rubric criterion before reading the judges' scores.
- Compare your scores with theirs. Where do they differ, and why?
- Write the most important thing you learned this week about people, not about your product.
- Complete the journal prompts.
Solo
Write your self-review, then compare it with your family's scores.
Group
Write alone for 10 minutes, then share one learning per person in a quick round.
Related lessons: Failure, learning and keeping going
Your next 30 days
Decide what happens to your idea after the camp, safely and realistically.
- Choose a path: keep testing, pause and keep notes, join a club or competition, or drop it and start a new problem diary.
- Write three small next steps with dates.
- If you want to sell for real one day: write down who your guardian contact is and which rules you will check first (licensing, consumer protection, advertising).
- Note one support option to explore, such as a school enterprise club or a programme from lesson en-04.
- Produce: a 30-day plan signed by you and, if you are under 18, seen by a parent or guardian.
Solo
Share your plan with a parent or guardian and agree a check-in date.
Group
Teams decide whether to continue together; if so, they use the agreement checklist in en-07. The facilitator closes the camp by thanking everyone.
Related lessons: Getting support: university incubators, competitions and UAE programmes, Starting with friends: partners, roles and agreements in writing, Failure, learning and keeping going
Day 5 quiz
A final check across the whole camp.
- Answer the questions below.
- Revisit any day where you dropped a mark.
Block timer
Your journal
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Day 5 quiz
Score 80% or more to complete Day 5.
1. In the camp's pitch structure, what should come straight after the problem?
2. A team discovered during the week that nobody had the problem it assumed. How should that be seen?
3. Under the SBA formula, what happens to break-even if you raise your price and costs stay the same?
4. What should a 16-year-old do before selling a product for real in the UAE?
5. Which d.school mindset does a live demonstration of your prototype show?
Overnight challenge
Over the next week, show your one-page plan to one adult you respect, such as a teacher, relative or family friend who runs a business, and ask them one question you still cannot answer.
Sources
- Stanford d.school: Bootcamp Bootleg, design thinking methods guide (copy hosted by the University of Kent)
- Paul Graham (Y Combinator co-founder): How to Get Startup Ideas (November 2012)
- US Small Business Administration: Break-even point
- UAE Government portal (u.ae): eCommerce
- UAE Government portal (u.ae): Consumer protection law