EN.663.618 Chap.7 Pitching an App as a Team
Pitching an App as a Team
The hackathon scenario
The group speech asks a team of 2-3 students to design a game-changing app and pitch it at an imagined hackathon co-sponsored by Apple and Johns Hopkins University. The audience plays venture capital executives. Slides are required, and the slot lasts 10 minutes, of which only 90 seconds are the pitch itself; the remaining time is a conversation with the room.
The syllabus weights the assignment at 5% and summarises the goal as strong market rationale, a unique selling proposition and a clear path to profit.
What investors need to hear
The assignment packet sets a demanding standard.
The app must be a novel and compelling idea, make logical business sense, give customers clear value, carry a strong USP, stand apart from every competitor even in a Blue Ocean space, describe its potential market share and project a return for investors. To show that apps are big business, the packet cites a 2018 Deloitte study valuing the app economy at $568.47 billion.
The rubric's speech-specific section checks a compelling and feasible app, a clear need for a unique group of users, a comparison with competitors, financial projections or ROI, and the ability to handle audience questions.
Sounding like one team
Most of the packet's advice is about people rather than product.
Teams should blend personalities, manage their interpersonal dynamics and share the speaking time evenly without making the handoffs mechanical. Every member needs to know the other parts well enough to present the whole pitch if something goes wrong, while playing to individual strengths.
Slides are built together and then edited into a single visual style, and the packet stresses rehearsing as a group because the grade is shared.
How the grade is split
The group rubric divides the grade into equal sections of 25% each: delivery for the whole group, slides, story and content, and the speech-specific criteria. The required time on the rubric is 1:30 for the pitch.
Because the team is marked collectively, the weakest handoff or the least prepared answer in the conversation affects everyone's result.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The hackathon brief and the investor audience
- 02
Fitting a whole pitch into 90 seconds
- 03
USP, market share and ROI as the investor checklist
- 04
Comparing competitors, even in a Blue Ocean market
- 05
Splitting time evenly without sounding robotic
- 06
Editing shared slides into one aesthetic
- 07
Handling the conversation after the pitch
Worked example · free
Plan the closing and the first question for a team pitch
- 2Send a clear closing signal and recap the one message.
- 2Restate the USP in terms of users and competitors.
- 2Answer the question directly and hand the conversation back.
Key terms
- Unique Selling Proposition
- The single benefit that makes a product different from every competitor and gives customers a reason to choose it.
- Blue Ocean App
- An app aimed at a market space with few or no direct competitors, which still has to explain how it differs from alternatives.
- Return on Investment
- A projection of what investors gain relative to what they put in, expected in the financial part of the pitch.
- Market Share
- The portion of a target market an app expects to capture, stated to show investors the size of the opportunity.
Pitching an App as a Team FAQ
How long is the hackathon pitch itself?
The rubric sets 1:30 for the pitch, and the packet describes a 10-minute slot in which the remaining time goes to conversation with the audience. Plan the speaking parts to finish inside 90 seconds, then prepare for questions, because answering them well is one of the graded criteria.
Can we make up the group pitch if a teammate is sick?
The syllabus allows one speech to be made up during the reading-week session, and for a group speech that is only possible when every member of the group agrees. Because the grade is shared, talk it through as a team before anyone requests it.
Which reading goes with the app pitch week?
The calendar lists Everyday Business Storytelling chapters 17 to 19 for that week, plus a podcast episode titled How Not to Pitch a Billionaire. Canvas also holds the recorded elevator pitch examples shown in class, which are useful for timing a short, persuasive opening.
Assessment move
Write your app's pitch spine on one card: need, users, competitors, USP, market share, ROI, recap. Time the team reading it aloud; cut until it fits 90 seconds. Then have each member ask the hardest investor question they can think of, and answer it without looking at the slides.
