Mastering the Pitch: How London's Demo Night Transforms Start-up Presentations

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy / There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti / He's nervous, but on the surface, he looks calm and ready / To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting...

There’s a reason that ‘Lose Yourself’, Eminem’s epic hymn to presentation nerves has been streamed nearly 3billion times and sold more than 13 million physical copies worldwide. We all know the feeling when your legs turn to jelly, mind goes blank, when you “open your mouth but the words won’t come out”.

And none know it as well as the start-up entrepreneur pitching their dream to a judging panel of sharp-eyed investors whose micro expressions – a narrowed, quizzical gaze or barely raised brow - magnify fear into your very soul.

Thankfully there are people who can help you get ready for the white-heat battle-rap of talking an investor into believing in you.

What’s it all about?

CityVentures is a free central London resource for entrepreneurs at all stages of the journey, from starting out to setting up, to running a growing business.

"free central London resource for entrepreneurs at all stages"

CityVentures works with Canopy, an unbelievably friendly collective of experienced entrepreneurs, business leaders and start-ups, to share knowledge, tips and best practice and together they host a regular monthly Demo Night.

On the second Wednesday of every month Demo Night showcases a handful of start-ups who get five minutes to present in front of an invited audience of fellow start-ups, scale-ups, investors and assorted entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-adjacent.

But this is not your standard pitch event. It is an opportunity to demonstrate your product and receive useful feedback from a diverse and supportive audience of peers, potential investors and those who’ve been there and done that.

From London to Lisbon, or bust!

CityVentures Demo Night kicked off in June 2024, at an event launched by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Michael Mainelli . Since then, every month without fail a handful of start-ups have demonstrated their baby businesses to a warm and supportive room buzzing with advice, insights and the ever-present hum of networking.

"a space for first time founders to gain experience"

I showed Business Sparks, a fledgling AI product for business leaders, at the June event, and as a result met a number of international investors who gave me some brilliant advice and introduced me to their networks. And not only that, Business Sparks was also chosen to represent London start ups at a very special Demo Night in Portugal.

In November the Demo Night gang re-located to Lisbon to hang out with the Tech-geeks, Entreprenerds and sharp-(A)eyed investors at Web Summit. For four days the Portuguese capital is taken over by the global tech community for their very own “Glastonbury for geeks”. Web Summit gathers 70,000 people from all over the world to showcase their tech start-ups, pitch for investment, discuss and debate ideas for the future.

Canopy, who have a strong Lisbon connection, brought the sell-out monthly London Demo Night to town for the Web Summit fringe, hosting a joyous crowd of 200 keen, curious and engaged from across the global tech start-up community.

Seasoned entrepreneur Stewart Noakes is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Canopy Community, an international organisation that he created in part, to combat the stress and loneliness that many founders experience.

"great feedback from leaders in their professions"

“For me” says Stewart, “the best thing about Demo Night was shown massively in Lisbon. It is specifically designed as a space for first time founders to gain experience. And there was so much feedback from those attending, both in the audience and the pitchers themselves, that showed how much it meant to people that they had been integrated and accepted into the community, as first time Founders who had maybe not been taken seriously in other places or had felt quite isolated before.

I had never shown Business Sparks to such a large room, but the vibe was so friendly and informal there was no spaghetti-legs for me, I did not feel nervous at all. I was given loads of support in the weeks before and great feedback from leaders in their professions on the night. Helga Saraiva-Stewart FF.ISP , Sales Director and board member of the Institute of Sales Professionals, focused my mind on end users. Pedro Guimarães former MD of a large sales and marketing company and now a business coach offered to help connect me with potential customers, and the best lead I got all night was an introduction to the London leadership of BNI (Business Network International), a global business networking club, to follow up when I got back.

So how do you get to pitch your business?

If you want to join in, there is a sign up page for businesses here, and there is also a selection process that Canopy undertake. “We try to minimise the number of people who take the stage without having done a demo night or event with us before - we like to make sure everyone is in good fettle” explains Stewart. “We also collaborate with many organisations, like 1000 Black Voices , G Camp Taiwan , Algarve Evolution , City, University of London as well as our own community. We look to pull those elements together into the signature evening”.

"we collaborate with many organisations"

In Lisbon two of the entrepreneurs on stage came through the CityVentures Demo Night route, Business Sparks and a brilliant dating advice app for men, Amigas. Other start-ups on stage included AI marketing plan builder AskCory.ai and decentralized medical testing tech coherencebio.com, who are currently raising seed funding.

A fascinating twist to the evening came when Mark P. Haaksman from angel investors COREangels gave a five minute reverse pitch, explaining what they look for in a start up and why the are a great investment partner.

Come and see what it’s all about

The next Demo Night is back in London on Wednesday 11th December, simply sign up and come along, you don’t have to join anything or become a member. Drop in and see what it’s all about.

If you’re a start-up or scale-up and would like to demo your product, or an investor who would like to do a reverse pitch to entrepreneurs then contact Canopy here.

"next year it might be you in Lisbon"

CityVentures is committed to financially supporting one Demo Night business to pitch at Lisbon during Tech Summit 2025, so next year it might be you in Lisbon. But no need to worry about sweaty palms or brain freeze, because with all the free help and support of CityVentures you will be a battle-ready start-up rap machine ready to confidently tell the world what your business is all about. Mic drop!

written by Sam Steele, MInnov

Sign up to Demo Night on Wed 11th December here

Apply to demo your start up business here

Find out more about CityVentures here

Leave a comment below about your pitch nerves and how you overcome them to make sure you get the message across to potential investors...