Practice Pitch Session with StartX CEO, Team & Alumni

The Learning Design Challenge & StartX will host a Practice Pitch session for students, featuring Shannon McClenaghan, the incoming CEO of StartX, along with her team and several alumni. This event will provide a platform for students to refine their pitching skills and business strategies in front of experienced panelists.

Shannon and her team will bring their extensive startup leadership and venture capital experience, and offer critical insights on investor expectations and effective communication of business value. Along with her position as CEO of StartX, Shannon is a board member, advisor, and C-suite leader for many branded consumer companies. she has helped numerous consumer tech companies achieve high growth while employing her agile leadership and software expertise, including in AI. The team and alumni will share their entrepreneurial experiences, providing current students with practical advice, refinement,  live feedback, and coaching.

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 over $7M in grant funding from Stanford University & Stanford Health Care to support Stanford's flourishing entrepreneurship ecosystem. To date, Stanford University and Stanford Health Care have deployed a combined $200M to ensure the StartX organization and its community will be self-sufficient in perpetuity.

Key Takeaways to Anticipate:

• 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 is 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.