Special thanks to Titan Fast Pitch Platinum Sponsor MUFG Union Bank, N.A. for their tremendous support of the next generation of entrepreneurs and creators!

Pitch your startup concept! Win Scholarships! Get Funding!

Now is the best time to start being the entrepreneur that you were meant to be!

We earnestly believe that there is a successful business concept in the heart of every student and we know that you agree. So, if you are a current middle school, high school, or community college/university student we challenge you to take the first step towards making that belief into a reality by submitting a 90 second pitch to the Titan Fast Pitch competition.

What follows is everything that you need to know about the Titan Fast Pitch and how you can get the opportunity to pitch your business concept live on Zoom to our panel of judges!

Important Dates

October 17 by 11:59pm – All 90 second video submissions are due

There is more information below on how to give an effective 90 second business pitch along with information on how to set up a YouTube channel and upload a video.

October 24 – Finalists are notified

October 31 – Titan Fast Pitch competition Finals

The competition will be held on Zoom and will be live streamed on YouTube.

At the finals we will:

• Have powerful keynote speakers who are entrepreneurs, executives, and past winners from the Titan Fast Pitch
• Watch all the pitches from our finalists and the finalists will field questions from our panel of judges
• The winners will be announced!

The 90 Second Business Pitch

Why 90 seconds?

It’s simple, really. 90 seconds is about the amount of time that you have when you first meet someone to get them interested in your concept. Your concept could be for a business or a nonprofit, that doesn’t matter, but what does matter is that your concept is addressing something that can have a positive impact on the world.

What is included in the 90 second business pitch?

Once you start putting together your pitch you will quickly realize that 90 seconds is not a lot of time because you have so much information that you need to communicate. For an effective business pitch, we recommend including three sections: The problem that you are addressing, what your solution is, and what is the overall business opportunity.

The problem that you are addressing

When we review pitches (and we review a lot of them), the first thing we look for from an entrepreneur is that they have identified a real problem that needs to be addressed. Ideally, the entrepreneur who is pitching us will have talked about this issue with many people or, at least, the entrepreneur has experienced the problem personally. Problems can come in all shapes and sizes.

One of the successful pitches we have seen come out of a previous Titan Fast Pitch competition addressed a simple problem: There weren’t any hair accessories for horses. You might be thinking that this isn’t really a problem, horses, after all, don’t really need to have clips adorned with plastic butterflies in their manes. And that is strictly true, however, many horsemen and women like to adorn their horses with pretty hair clips and before this entrepreneur came along there was no way for those riders to properly attire their horses.

Perhaps the best way to identify a problem that needs addressing is to simply notice what bothers you in your day-to-day life.

Your solution for that problem

Once you have identified a problem then you need to come up with a solution and be able to explain it clearly and simply. Your solution should adequately address the problem you have identified and be doable.

The opportunity

Now that you have explained the problem and what your solution is for that problem you need to communicate to your listeners what the overall opportunity is. If you are proposing a business then talk about the number of people you think would buy your product or service. If your concept is for a nonprofit then talk about how many people you can reasonably have a positive impact on.

From there, you should explain why you are the right fit for this opportunity and how you plan on leveraging the resources that you currently have to start this business and grow it.

General tips

In general, the pitches that do better in these competitions are done by people who are confident and passionate about their concepts. Since this is a virtual competition, you have the opportunity to record your pitch as many times as you like in order to get the perfect delivery (You will still only submit one video, the best one).

Titan Fast Pitch Boot Camp Video

For notes from the Titan Fast Pitch Boot Camp, please go here: https://csufentrepreneurship.com/titan-fast-pitch-boot-camp-resources-to-help-you-give-a-winning-business-pitch/

Rules for 90 second pitch

• 90 second maximum for pitches
• No PowerPoint slides, poster boards, CGI, music, or other editing are allowed
• If you are pitching as a team then your teammates can participate in the video. Teams can have a maximum of five people in them.
• Handheld and wearable props and prototypes are acceptable
• All participants must be current students and should be able to produce a valid student ID or prove in some other way that they are currently a student (this will be checked for all finalists)
• The competition is open to all current university (including community college and masters/PhD students), high school, and middle school students
• There is no age restriction, however, any student 19 years or older on the day of the finals must compete in the University Tract

Uploading 90 Second Business Pitches to YouTube

Why YouTube?

We anticipate a large number of competitors in this competition and in order to create as level a playing field as possible for all competitors we decided to standardize the application process. Plus, YouTube is the most popular video platform in the world and we made the determination that this would be the most straightforward way to accept video submissions.

How do I create a YouTube channel to upload my video to?

Here’s a quick tutorial that we found that should help.

How do I upload a video on YouTube?

Here’s a quick video about how to do this on your desktop or your phone (you will need to download the YouTube app in order to upload on your phone).

Public versus Unlisted versus Private Videos on YouTube

In order for us to view your video when clicking your link you need to set your video as either Public (which means that your video can be found on YouTube by anyone) or Unlisted (which means that only people with the link can view your video). If you list your video as private we will not be able to view your video and your submission will be rejected.

Under 13 years old? Here are some resources for you to learn how to submit via YouTube

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802272?hl=en

https://support.google.com/families/answer/7101025

Finals Judges

Karl Freels

Dan Black Family Trust

Karl is a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship and STEM education. As a member of the Dan Black Family Trust, he has helped direct activities towards enriching the lives of students at Cal State Fullerton and beyond. Karl is excited to be a Final Round judge at the Titan Fast Pitch competition this year.

Natalia Razeghi

Sr. Credit Executive, Vice President at MUFG Union Bank

Natalia Razeghi is a commercial loan underwriter with 18 years of experience including Citigroup, being a co-founder of a start-up lending company, 11 years at MUFG Union Bank, N.A. and counting. She is currently a Credit Executive, Vice President, underwriting law firms, medical groups and other professional segment borrowers of Wealth, Private Bank, and Business Banking. Natalia came to this country as a foreign student from Russia at CSUF.

Upon completion of her Bachelor degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, she joined Citigroup’s paid internship which lead to a full time career in banking. The internship was sourced via a fully-employed banking executive who was teaching evening classes at CSUF. You can say Natalia owes much of her success to the foundation and professional contacts that CSUF provided her early on.

Dr. Cathleen Greiner, PhD

Regional Director, Business and Entrepreneurship, Orange County, California Community Colleges

Dr. Greiner is a long-time educator in higher education and the community colleges as a teacher, dean, and vice president, with expertise and responsibility in leadership, online learning, equity and inclusion, and networking with employers and community/ educational partners to respond to a disruptive economy and changing learning needs while building enduring bridges between business and education. As a small business owner, she also bridges real work application and educational responsiveness.

In leading the California Community Colleges’ Business & Entrepreneurship Sector in Orange County–which is the largest employment sector in the county–she is focused on student equity, diversity and inclusion, career and workforce preparation, college transfer, and internships and work-based learning. She networks and creates linkages with employers across the region to gain and/or upskill a diverse workforce and collaborates with public and private partners to support workforce readiness and college opportunities. Most recently, she is joining forces with OC industry to emphasize economic reactivation, entrepreneurship, and transitioning and standing up a “new” marketplace and business ecosystem in the region.

As a strategic, long-range planner with an entrepreneurial spirit, she is a sought-after expert on organizational growth, the gig economy, the new world of work, the impact of AI, automation and technology, and on the need to prepare students and individuals for academic and workplace success. She is a faculty member for the Western Association of College and University Business Officers (strategic planning and case studies), as well as at the Online Teaching Conference and DET/CHE.

Connect with her https://www.linkedin.com/in/acathleengreinerphd/

David Morris

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Royal Business Bank

David is a financial executive with experience in all aspects of accounting, treasury and financial management. He has spent most of his career in the financial institutions industry as a Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer. Over the past year, he was the President of a troubled bank, which was an experience of a life time. David is interested in all aspects of financial management whether the organization is on solid footing or in trouble and he has a passion for strategic and tactical planning.

Bryan Ruef

Founder, 10-8 Systems

With almost 10 years of experience in public safety, Bryan saw the shortcomings in public safety software and created 10-8 Systems, a cutting edge, cloud-based dispatch software company.  Since its inception in 2019, his software has handled over 165,000 incidents in 48 states, used by city police, state constables, fire departments, and more.  10-8 was also attributed to saving over 650 lives in Hurricane Dorian.  Bryan is a student at Cal State Fullerton, studying computer science.

Sponsors

Diamond Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Dan Black Family Foundation

Ashok Patel

Bob Godlasky

Hosts

Scholarships

University Scholarships

1st Place: $1,500 + One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value) + Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)

2nd Place: $1,000 + One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value) + Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)

3rd Place: $500 + One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value) + Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)

4th Place: $250 + One Hour with patent attorney Justin Sanders ($300 value) + Residency at CSUF Startup Incubator ($5,000 value)

High School Scholarships

1st Place: $400

2nd Place: $300

3rd Place: $200

4th Place: $100

Middle School Scholarships

1st Place: $400

2nd Place: $300

3rd Place: $200

4th Place: $100

Miscellaneous

All registered student participants in attendance are eligible for opportunity prize drawings that may include items such as: gift certificates, tablets, and entrepreneurial books.

The finals for this event will be recorded. Film, Pictures, Audio, and All participants, audience members, judges, and hosts may end up in video or still media.

[Note: This page is subject to change without notice. Please check back to make sure that you are getting the most up to date information on the Titan Fast Pitch competition. All rules are subject to change without notification at the discretion of the Titan Fast Pitch hosts.]

CSUF Entrepreneurship

We are dedicated to helping the next generation of entrepreneurs develop the skills that they need to compete locally and globally. The CSUF Entrepreneurship program does many things, including: consulting projects where students serve up fresh strategies to actual businesses, competitions for students from middle school to grad school, helping entrepreneurs go from concept to launch, frequent seminars and office hours for entrepreneurs and professionals, and much more. Interested in becoming a part of the CSUF Entrepreneurship community? Reach out to us at csufentrepreneurship@fullerton.edu for more information! CSUF Entrepreneurship depends on the support of the community, please go here to donate.