My First Investor’s Pitch and The Inspiration it Gave Me
On this day 6 years ago, I pitched for the first time in front of a panel that comprised of an Angel Investor, 2 govt funds and a banking executive.
The pitch was part of a month long entrepreneurship accelerator for Emiratis.
Our task: Develop a concept or prototype that addresses a challenge in the market and pitch it in front of a panel to win support or funding.
Our concept was called ‘The UAE Catalysts Initiative.
This was a ‘talent accelerator’ aimed at developing not only top local talent, but also ensure through our process that these talent deliver measurable impact to the economy and their communities. Ultimately turning them to catalysts for growth.
The initiative would address a problem I personally, and so many others like me faced: UNEMPLOYMENT and UNDEREMPLOYMENT.
Two things I’ve faced as a jobseeker, then as an employee and later on as an entrepreneur after the first financial crisis hit in 2009.
You see at the time we were pitching our concept, the UAE was confronted with a number of challenges when it came to unemployment. These were:
- Around 42% of the UAE national population were considered youth.
- Estimates showed that anything between 100,000 – 150,000 young Emiratis were due to enter the job market in the next 10 years.
- Unemployment was (and I believe it still is) highest between the ages of 15 – 24 years old
- Majority of nationals were still looking for work in the public sector which was expected to reach saturation. (fast forward, the public sector has reached saturation point)
- This meant majority of Emiratis were not participating in the private sector that contributes significantly to the GDP.
You might be able to tell from the video that I was nervous, but I turned that nervous energy to the energy I needed to connect with the audience and the judges in the 3 minutes allowed to pitch.
We ultimately won 1st place. The irony however was we only took away a certificate to show for it. Me, my partner Dr. Petar Stojanov were dissapointed.
Watch the video here
