Wednesday at 11:58am, our Zoom link went live. On the other side: Kevin Harrington, one of the original Sharks from Shark Tank, and his investment team.

We had 2 minutes to convince him Forge Ahead Services was worth his time.

My co-founder's palms were sweating, my knees weak, last minute recitation a headache (take that Eminem). But I'd literally rehearsed our pitch so many times the night before that my wife asked me to please, for the love of god, stop talking about SOP architecture and go to sleep.

Here's what actually happened: We got about 30 seconds before Kevin’s team cut us off and asked us to frame it differently. All that preparation? Out the window.

But… that's exactly why the preparation mattered.

Let me back up.

Kevin Harrington's team routinely meets with selective founders. They're looking for businesses with traction, with a clear market opportunity, and—let's be honest—with folks who won't waste their time.

We got selected because we'd already done the hard work. Not the pitch work. The business work.

The hurdles to "legitimacy" are often surface-level at the beginning.

Good website? Check

Clear go-to-market? Check

Actually delivering results to clients? Check (this is the hard one).

Pitching isn't really about what you do. It's about weaving the opportunity in front of you into a vision people can get behind. That means you need to know:

We'd done our 2026 planning a month prior, which meant we had all this research fresh. Market analysis. Competitive positioning. We’ve even gone ahead to make Financial projections that weren’t delusional.

We spent hours building our pitch deck. Six slides. Clean visuals. Every word chosen deliberately.

We scripted it. Timed it. 2 minutes, 14 seconds. Perfect.

Here's what our ideal flow looked like:

Slide 1: The Hook — Open with the problem. Make it visceral.
Slide 2: The Opportunity — Market size, trends, why now.
Slide 3: Our Solution — What we do, who we serve, why it works.
Slide 4: Traction — The numbers that prove people actually want this.
Slide 5: The Team — Why we're the ones to execute.
Slide 6: The Ask — What we need and what you get.

We never got to share our screen.

They asked us to cut to the chase: "What's the concrete ask here? What do you need from us?"

Suddenly, we weren't presenting a pitch deck. We were having a conversation.

Here's a fun prompt for your next leadership offsite:

"Never have I ever finished a presentation and had things go exactly to plan."

Nobody's hand stays down. Because it never goes to plan.

In our case, we prepared for 2 minutes. We got 30 seconds and a curveball question.

But that's the game, isn't it? The ability to pivot is what separates founders who fumble from founders who thrive.

We didn't panic. We adjusted. We framed our answer around the question Kevin actually asked, not the question we wished he'd asked.

Robotic delivery.

I've sat through presentations where the founder clearly memorized every word. They recited it like a middle schooler performing a book report. Their body language screamed "Get me off this stage!!!"

And you know what? The audience was too busy hoping they didn’t projectile vomit rather than listening to their great business. 

Here's the truth: People don't invest in pitches. They invest in founders.

So when you're in the room (or on the Zoom), your job isn't to perform your script. It's to be present.

Read the room. If they’re nodding, lean into that point. If their eyes glaze over, pivot. If they ask a question, answer it directly and inject your research to prove your claims. 

The best pitches feel like conversations. Because that's what they should be.

Did Kevin Harrington write us a check on the spot? No.

Did he offer us some magical piece of wisdom that completely transformed our business overnight? Also no.

But here's what we did get: Clarity.

When you're forced to distill your entire business into 30 seconds, you learn what actually matters. You see which parts of your story land and which parts fall flat. You get to view your business through the eyes of someone who doesn't care about your internal jargon or the features you're proud of but can't quite explain.

It's like doing reps at the gym. The more you articulate your vision, the sharper it becomes.

And honestly? That's more valuable than a check.

The thing I love about pitch competitions is that they’re laboratories for exposure. You think the investor is your sole audience, but it’s also about the other founders and the community you build through the experience. If you’re clear on your own story, others won’t hesitate to get behind you. 

Every founder should put themselves in the hot seat like this. Not because you need funding. Not because you're trying to get on TV. But because the discipline of pitching forces you to think clearly about what you're actually building.

So here's my challenge to you:

What's the one aspect of your business you struggle to explain concisely?

Your ICP? Your pricing model? Your competitive advantage?

Shoot us a message at [email protected] and tell me. I might just tackle it in a future newsletter.

Until then, keep forging ahead.

—James

P.S. Want the full pitch script + deck framework we used? I'll drop it in next week's issue. Stay tuned.