An Australian entrepreneur has been selected as one of just three start-ups handed the chance to pitch to a heavy-hitting panel of US investors this morning, in an event for leading business site CNNMoney.com.<\/p>\n
<\/span> <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The pitch sessions, which will be streamed to viewers, will feature Michael Giles, an Australian entrepreneur who is based in New York.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Giles, who blogs monthly for StartupSmart, is the founder of Roboinvest, a stock trading and investment website that allows people to follow and copy the decisions of some of the world\u2019s leading traders.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Giles\u2019 start-up, which hasn\u2019t yet officially launched, was picked out from more than 100 entries to pitch to a panel picked by CNNMoney.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Alongside Roboinvest, opinion polling site Qwanz and Visual Revenue, which advises websites on content lay-out, will pitch for the opportunity to work with CNNMoney, which is owned by entertainment giant Time Warner.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The trio will pitch to a high-profile panel, comprised of John Cantarella, president of digital at Time Inc. News Group, Charlie O\u2019Donnell, principal at First Round Capital, David Tisch, managing director of TechStars New York, Alexa Von Tobel, founder and CEO of LearnVest.com and Margaret Tuohy, director of product for CNNMoney.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Following a five minute pitch on what each start-up can do to enhance the CNNMoney brand, the judges will pick a winner, based on business model, fit with CNNMoney and product vision.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n With the winner getting the chance to do business with the Time Warner empire, Giles says he is well aware that the event could provide his start-up with a huge boost.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI came across the ad for the competition and at a whim decided to enter, I never thought we would be selected to pitch,\u201d Giles tells StartupSmart.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not too far off our official launch, so I hope this brings some visibility and more importantly validation for our start-up. It is definitely a great PR opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Giles says that similar pitches should be broadcast in Australia, which currently lacks a version of CNNMoney\u2019s format or BBC show Dragon\u2019s Den.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is a great concept, and large Australian companies should watch closely,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a great opportunity for start-ups to get access to large companies they ordinarily couldn’t, and in a roundabout way, it’s a great opportunity for large companies to outsource product development ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with Australian companies is they don’t seem to embrace entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Asked for his pitching tips for other start-ups, Giles says: \u201cDon’t be afraid to enter your start-up in competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPreparation is definitely key to your pitch, but it’s critical to understand and focus on what the pitch is for and who it’s to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis pitch is on how we can help enhance the CNNMoney brand, and that’s what I’ll be focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Australian entrepreneur has been selected as one of just three start-ups handed the chance to pitch to a heavy-hitting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}