Pitchsmiths

Born from an opportunity where tech innovation lacked human insight & impact

Born from an excitement about the possibility of innovation to solve some of our worlds biggest challenges mixed with a frustration at how little innovators value people over product, knowing that products that really understand and care about people, do best and have the most impact. I decided to turn my experience in product innovation and my natural curiosity towards understanding humanness into a consultancy to support ambitious founders build better products and tell better stories about them. What started as a proposition development and pitch-building service, grew into a consultancy and training company which has supported over 150 startups and social innovators from accelerator programmes.

Context

Based on the research, I created wireframes to map out the new website's layout and navigation. These wireframes were then reviewed and refined with the company's stakeholders to ensure they aligned with the company's goals and objectives.

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Activities: Human Centred-Design & Storytelling for Tech & Social Impact Innovations

Over the lifecycle of Pitchsmiths I created and delivered a variety of service both directly to founders and in partnership with accelerator programmes, aimed at supporting founders and innovation teams to develop impactful products and tell stories about them that resonate on a human level and lead to successful participation, sales, partnerships and investments.

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Storytelling for social change workshop & team coaching sessions

Turning a vision for social innovation into a story that moves people to act is a craft. Through workshop design & delivery, pitch training and coaching, I worked with tech and social startup teams to find the narrative at the heart of their innovation and deliver it with the clarity and conviction that makes investors want to fund it, partners want to back it and audiences believe in it. I was mostly hired by the infrastructure organisations, such as accelerator programmes that ran cohorts of investment, training and support for a group (usually 15-20) of innovation teams.

Some of my clients includes: 

• WFP Innovation Accelerator - United Nations World Food Programme's innovation accelerator, that aims to source, support and scale high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide.
• UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Innovation  - UNFPA uses innovation to equalize opportunities, rights, and choices for women, girls, and young people — driving systemic shifts towards gender equality and equity.
• Nesta - Set up originally by the UK Government, Nesta is the UK's innovation agency for social good — designing, testing, and scaling new solutions to society's biggest problem.
• Creating Hope in Conflict: Humanitarian Grand Challenge - a partnership between UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and Government of Canada setup to accelerate life-saving innovation for the most vulnerable people affected by conflict and humanitarian crisis
• OneTech - OneTech builds pathways into the startup ecosystem for underserved communities — providing the network, skills, and confidence to start and sustain a business.

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5-part human-centred design course

I designed and delivered a 5-part human-centered design course covering:

- defining your audience: finding a market niche

- gathering and sense-making insights: qualitative user research

- defining the problem: insights analysis, development and problem definition

- building solutions: product prototyping and development

- finding product-market fit: testing and iteration

Some of my clients includes: CIEE's eLab, YSYS Accelerator Programme

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Pitch Design and Narrative Development Service

A bespoke pitch design and narrative development service for pre-seed startups. Through two client consultation sessions, I work across story architecture, business case development, brand identity, and visual design — building a narrative that translates across every element of your pitch. The core of the work is taking your idea and vision and shaping it into a clear, compelling story and business case that investors understand, believe in, and want to fund.

Some of my clients includes: Robin AI, Mentor Dojo, Whazzo, Statmetrix and many more

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Value Proposition Development Workshops

A deep strategy consulting service for early-stage founders. Through focused one-on-one sessions, I work to uncover the core problem the business is solving, define where the value truly lies for each stakeholder, and translate that into a clear and compelling value proposition, and messaging that lands with potential clients, partners and the people whose support makes growth possible.

Some of my clients includes: Tutorbloc, Robin AI

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Innovation Training & Facilitation Workshops

Through training and facilitation workshops, I work with teams and organisations to build their innovation muscle — introducing methods, frameworks, and ways of thinking that help them move from problem to possibility with more clarity, creativity, and confidence.

Some of my clients includes: Oxford University, Bobab

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Impact

Over 150 tech and social innovation founders and startups. Each one working on something that mattered and needing the story, the strategy and the tools to make others believe in it too. Through coaching, training, and narrative development, I helped them find the clarity and conviction to pitch, position, and build with purpose. Some went on to raise multi-million dollar philanthropic or venture capital investments. All of them left with a deeper understanding of the problem they were solving and why it mattered.

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