Pace University Pitch Contest - Keynote Gurbaksh Chahal, who sold his biz for $300 million to Yahoo December 4, 2008

The Pace Pitch Contest is being presented in association with the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City. It is based on the elevator pitch concept, popular in the venture capital community.

Application deadline: November 21.

The Keynote Speaker will be Gurbaksh Chahal.

Gurbaksh, or “G”, started his first venture, ClickAgents, at the age of 16 and sold it two years later to ValueClick for $40 million. In 2004, he formed Blue Lithium, another Internet advertising network, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million. There will also be a book signing for G’s new book, The Dream. G will also star on the new prime-time network show “Secret Millionaire” on Fox, which will premiere the night before the Pace Pitch Contest. Read more about G - http://www.chahal.com

The pitch is an extremely concise presentation of an entrepreneur's idea, business model, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, and financial plan, which is delivered to potential investors. The premise is that it could be made in a few minutes, should the entrepreneur spot a potential investor on an elevator and have the opportunity to pitch his/her idea during the brief ride.

The basic format is that ten contestants, five in the New Business Concept category and five in the Social Venture category, will each have three minutes to make his/her pitch and may use up to 5 PowerPoint® slides. The format of the event is as follows:

5:00 – 5:30 Registration and Reception
5:30 – 6:00 Introductions and Keynote Speaker
6:00 – 6:45 Ten Finalists make their Pitch (target: 5 commercial and 5 social)
6:45 – 7:00 Break (Judges select the winning pitches in private)
7:00– 7:30 Judging Panel Discussion and Critique
7:30 – 7:45 Awards Ceremony

Official Website: http://www.pace.edu/pitch