How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you wish you had communicated your ideas in a clearer, more effective way? Whether you’re looking for a new job, buying a house, founding a startup, or interacting with people in the day-to-day, life constantly requires you to pitch.
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than delivering the eulogy.”
– Jerry Seinfeld
Everyone, from every walk of life, can benefit from improving their communication skills, and developing this has been a priority at Mijiba from day one. That’s how and why Pitch Club was born.
Pitch Club is an event and a community—of like-minded individuals who are passionate about stories, ideas, and self-improvement. We provide a safe and honest forum of peers where anyone can learn to better express their ideas.
It was first launched by serial entrepreneur James LaLonde, co-founder and co-CEO of Mijiba Games, in Beijing, China. The impetus for starting Pitch Club was to provide a forum where people can get actionable feedback on their pitches in real time,so they can practice and make rapid improvement in their pitching and communication skills.
What started as a small face-to-face gathering has now grown into a global event, uniting participants from around the world over video conferencing.
The event has become so successful that we are launching a new chapter today! Starting on May 20, Pitch Club Chapter 2 will be hosted every Thursday from 5:30 to 7 pm GMT, making the event more accessible to those in Europe, Africa, and the USA.
No one said pitching effectively was easy. Only by deliberate practice and in-the-moment peer feedback can we improve our public speaking skills. Pitch Club exists to remove the fear and encourage pitchers to grow strong and confident, able to effectively share ideas for better outcomes in work and life.
Put quite simply, at Pitch Club our mission is to empower everyone to become the best communicator they can be—and have a great time in the process!
We believe in deliberate learning. By receiving real-time, honest feedback about your pitch, you will be able to iterate and improve on your communication skills. We give feedback in three ways:
1. Written Feedback. An anonymous online survey completed by the audience immediately after your pitch.
2. Video Recording. A recording of your pitch, delivered personally to you online so you can analyze and evaluate your own performance.
3. Realtime Feedback. The “Pitch Club Feedback Loop” session after the pitches are completed is a highlight of every event. This interactive, face-to-face finale is where you get open and honest feedback and encouragement from your peers.
Since it was established in June 2019, Pitch Club has hosted over 150 events with participants from all seven continents and pitches by everyone from high schoolers to top executives. Altogether, over 750 pitches have been presented!
Alex Olthoff on what he’s learned from pitching: “On a fundamental level, Pitch Club is about communication and ideas. For me that’s such an essential skill: to be able to convey ideas in terms of structure, and convey emotion in a way to persuade others—which are the objectives of communication. It ties into what I value for my own personal identity, which is to be a leader and entrepreneur. Pitching is critical if you want to be one or both of those things, and there’s no better place to practice conveying structure and emotion than in Pitch Club. There’s definitely a sense of community at Pitch Club. You want to be the best and push yourself. At the same time, you get to be appreciated and seen by others for expressing who you are and how you think.”
Kai Liang is also an enthusiastic pitcher: “I have thoroughly enjoyed the participation of a lot of other wonderful and improving pitchers in the club, the positivity and spirit from the Pitch Club organizers, and the community. Life’s a pitch and pitching is required everywhere in life. I have been a very confident speaker at international conferences, but more as a matter of necessity than as a result of formal training. So it was amazing to be involved in this living school of speaking where I can improve with everyone else while learning so much about other cultures, other ideas and most wonderfully, other lives. Over a short space of time, I have gained friends I can trust and share everything with. This is far more valuable and rewarding than business deals.”
By joining Pitch Club, which costs nothing but your time, you will see visible improvements in the way you communicate your ideas in every part of your life.
“Wow wow wow! Pitch Club has been an amazing learning ground to test and improve many startup pitches; helped hundreds of people to improve their pitching and communication skills, and is a beautiful community. Our growth mindsets and the joy we feel giving others feedback, thus helping them improve, is what unites us at Pitch Club.”
Jonas Wolf – Current Host of APAC Pitch Club @TheGrowthWolf
With more people joining Pitch Club every day, we continue to find new ways to learn and grow together, building on our vision that being a good communicator is a valuable skill that everyone can achieve! We are expanding into new realms and we’d love for you to come on the journey with us! Find out more about Pitch Club on LinkedIn and we hope to see you there next time!
