Practice Pitches with StartX



The Learning Design Challenge & StartX hosted a Practice Pitch session for students, featuring Kyle Wong, the incoming CEO of StartX, alongside his team's staff and alumni. This event provided a platform for entrepreneurs to refine their pitching skills and business strategies in front of experienced panelists.

Kyle brought his extensive startup leadership and venture capital experience, offering critical insights on investor expectations and effective communication of business value. Before becoming CEO ofStartX, Kyle was the founder & CEO of Pixlee, a UGC and Influencer Marketing company.

StartX alumni shared their entrepreneurial experiences, providing current participants with practical advice, refinement, and live feedback and coaching. Alumni included:

Fang Cheng | CEO & Founder at Linc
John (J) Provine | Co-Founder and CEO at Aligned Carbon
Stephen Torres | Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Ellerra
Adam Sparks | Co-Founder & CEO at Short Answer

StartX is a non-profit accelerator that takes pride in its commitment not to take equity the companies it supports. Its primary goal is to provide the resources, mentorship, and support needed to succeed, while preserving the equity and optionality of founders. The StartX experience was developed through $7M+ in grant funding from Stanford University & Stanford Health Care to support the Stanford entrepreneurship ecosystem. To date, Stanford University and Stanford Health Care have deployed a combined $200M to ensure the StartX community and StartX organization will be self-sufficient in perpetuity.

Key Takeaways:

  • The importance of clear communication in pitching
  • Effective strategies for highlighting a startup’s unique value
  • Understanding the elements that attract venture capital investments

This session was an integral part of StartX and the Learning Design’s Challenge’s mission to nurture entrepreneurial talent amongst EdTech founders, offering participants valuable feedback and the opportunity to engage with a supportive community.


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