Pitching for a Sustainable Future

How do you create the perfect pitch as a tourism SME?

How do you create the perfect pitch as a tourism SME?

Over the summer, SMEs from the Tourban acceleration programme met up again. This time in Copenhagen during The Creative Business Cup. Here they not only had the chance to meet and continue the already flourishing networking of the project, they came with a purpose to learn and perfect their pitching.

During two days the Tourban SMEs were guided through the ins and outs of what makes a great pitch and a fantastic pitch deck. To guide them through the minefield of dos and don’ts was facilitator and entrepreneur Lasse Chor. Lasse founded his first company at the age of 13 and has since then been heavily involved in the Danish and global entrepreneurship ecosystem. Lasse is a mentor for a number of startups around the world, and advisor to a handful of large corporations including some Fortune 500 companies. He’s also active as an angel investor in a handful of tech companies and has worked with many tourism projects and actors for the past five years.

On day one the SMEs got a full day of knowledge on understanding the investment game, what lies ahead once you start the investment journey and a crash course in creating a top-notch pitch deck. Filled to the brim with new knowledge and an abundance of feedback best practices each team got to spend the afternoon and evening preparing for the big pitching day.

Day two started out with a focus on sustainability as Wonderful Copenhagens Sustainability manager gave a presentation on the efforts of creating a more sustainable city and news of their upcoming strategy launch.

The day overall was packed with pitching in front of a selected investor and expert panel and for one lucky company this day also held the promise of pitching on the big global stage during the award show of Creative Business Cup. Together with Lasse the investor and expert panel would choose one winner of the day to pitch their finetuned idea for a global audience. But first it was all about convincing the panel consisting of:

  • Claus Hyttel Skrubbeltrang – Experienced Executive Investment Manager with a demonstrated history of working in both commercial and political organizations, Hospitality, Investments, Business Development, Real Estate & Tourism.
  • Indrek Peenmaa – Business Development Manager & Co-founder of Tour Operator Nordic Experience which is offering private and small group tours in 10 countries in Northern Europe.
  • Per Beck Hansen – Project Manager at Copenhagen Travel Lab (Wonderful Copenhagen) that has worked with project management, business development and fundraising in relation to tourism for more than 7 years.
  • Brian Marrinan – General Partner at Team ABC, a venture capital firm that invests in a future with efficient and sustainable transportation and travel.

Using the great feedback from their peers and Lasse the SMEs took the stage one by one to pitch their unique business idea. The panel gave feedback and ask questions following each presentation allowing the SMEs to get different perspectives on their businesses.

In the end there could be only one winner. With the prospect of having the main stage and attention of a global audience, not just in the room, but also livestreamed to the world, the nerves were visible among the pitching teams as it was time for the announcement of the winner. This was done on the main stage by representatives of the investor and expert panel, who in the end named Woodah Boutique Hostel the winner of Tourbans Investor Pitch.

If you want to know more about access to funding, go watch our dedicated webinar on the topic in the Tourban community.