Remember when pitching was fun? No battles or competitions, no celebrity VCs, no make-or-break stress.

We’re bringing back low-pressure pitch events for early-stage startups that just need to get their ideas out into the world and hear constructive feedback from fellow founders in the trenches. So join us for an afternoon of innovation, networking, and camaraderie with Pitches and Pints. 🍻

This is your chance to see the newest startups coming out of the NYC ecosystem. You’re getting a first look at fresh ideas, sometimes even before VCs have seen them!

Hosted in collaboration with The Yard coworking community, this event offers a platform for startups to share ideas, gather feedback, and connect with fellow founders.

📅 Date: Thursday, April 17th
🕓 Time: 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
📍 Venue: The Yard: Herald Square
🎫 Tickets: Only $5 (includes happy hour refreshments)
📑 Founders: Sign up here to pitch at an upcoming event

Begin with happy hour drinks while mingling with fellow founders and members of The Yard. The spotlight soon shifts to five emerging startups who will take the stage to pitch their visions.

AGENDA

5:00 PM: Happy Hour at The Yard
6:00 PM: Startup Pitches and Audience Q&A
7:00 PM: Networking with Founders

This is not a competition — it’s an opportunity for founders to showcase their projects, exchange insights, and receive constructive feedback from founder peers.

Whether you’re a startup enthusiast, an industry professional, or a curious mind, Pitches and Pints will be an engaging and inspiring afternoon to celebrate entrepreneurship, foster connections, and toast the spirit of innovation.

PITCH FORMAT

Pitch – 5 minutes
Audience Q&A – 5 minutes
Pitch deck is required

Longtime friend of Startup Grind Mike Wilner, previously from the Startup Team at AWS, shares advice below on the art of pitching and the deck:

Keep your narrative crisp
Be opinionated and non-obvious
Make sure there’s an “oh shit” moment, and convey that it will be a venture-scale business
Frame progress in terms of what you’ve actually figured out — don’t jump to arbitrary KPIs

Additionally, he advises that your fundraising narrative should be a concise, memorable explanation of what you’re building, why you’re fundraising, and why someone should invest. It should answer 5 questions:

What are you building?
Why will you win?
How have you de-risked your business so far?
How will you de-risk your business in the near future?
What will the future look like if you’re successful?

For examples of previously successful pitch decks referenced by Mike Wilner, click here and here.

Our hosts at The Yard are offering a free day pass for attendees who arrive early and want to cowork before the event. The Yard is a coworking space at the intersection of innovation, creativity, design, & play — with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Philly, and DC — with a variety of shared and private workspace options. If you are interested in learning more or scheduling a visit, you can do so here.

Agenda

5:00 PM: Happy Hour at The Yard

6:00 PM: Startup Pitches and Audience Q&A

7:00 PM: Networking with Founders

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Hosted By

Joshua Ness, Director, Startup Grind

Joshua Ness is the Manging Director at Startup Grind NYC and is a Director of Emerging Technologies with IEEE. He works with enterprise, startups, and academic teams to drive innovation. He also works to educate, inspire, and connect the dots for businesses interested in moving forward with emerging technology.

Tova Feldheim, Cofounder

Arjun Mehta, Co-founder

Arjun Mehta is a recent graduate of NYU, holding a degree in Business and Tech Management with a concentration in Finance. During his time in college, Arjun gained invaluable experience through internships at a VC firm, a startup, and his own passion project. At the VC firm, he evaluated the growth potential of numerous health tech startups, analyzed pitch decks, and contributed to investment strategy meetings. Arjun also hosted strategic advisory calls for over 30 startup teams, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the startup VC ecosystem.

His longest tenure was at Invincible Entertainment as a Business Development Associate, where he utilized CRM tools to engage over 100 leads, significantly boosting sales outreach. He also closed multiple licensing deals and developed no-code AI tools to enhance workplace efficiency. Recently, Arjun co-created a chatbot for NYU’s ambassador program, streamlining operations and reducing the need for on-shift counselors. Arjun is now seeking a role at a high-growth seed-stage startup to leverage his skills in sales, partnerships, and business strategy.

Jenny Sumeragi, CEO & Founder, JS Global Investment

Paul GUILLARD, Chief of Staff / BizOps / Project Manager / BD

I moved to NYC in April 24. I am currently coaching and advising early-stage founders on ideation, Business Model x Ideal Customer Profile x MVP, GTM and Fundraising.
Received my authorization to work in Nov so now also looking for a full time job as BizOps / Chief of Staff / Strategic Project Management for B2B SMB or Series A+
Before that, an Engineering Degree and 2 years of SMBs consulting in France, 10 years in APAC doing Strategic Project Management, Sales and BD; and 4 years in Spain for an MBA at IESE (consistently ranked Top10 in the world by FT) and working on some startups.

Prianka Ball,

Currently working in data at a early stage startup. Ex founder and looking for my next startup building adventure.

Benji Decker,

Monika Proffitt,

Monika Proffitt is a speaker, author of Blockchain 101, and a serial entrepreneur working at the nexus of fintech and social impact. She serves as an advisor to several small to medium sized startups, and in her spare time she speaks at conferences and universities on topics ranging from the future of money, sustainability in business, blockchain for social good, and the value of cultural capital.

Daniel Silver, Owner

Creative, Thoughtful and Results-Driven Product Marketing Strategist Focused on Building, Launching and Optimizing New and Existing Products Across Their Life Cycle.

Franziska Oschmannn,

studying at Columbia University – passionate about tech, startups & VC

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Global Partner

Google Cloud (https://cloud.google.com/resources/content/future-of-ai-report?utm_source=events-with-google&utm_medium=et&utm_campaign=FY25-Q1-NORTHAM-SMB31054-website-dl-AIThoughtLeader-52420&utm_content=startup-grind&utm_term=-&hl=en)

Golds

Redrob, Inc (https://bit.ly/redrob-sg-nyc-2025)
Redrob is a platform that provides early-stage startups access to world-class talent, streamlining the hiring process with tools like Talent Search GPT, Skill Test AI, and General Counsel GPT. Redrob Talent Search GPT employs AI agents to find and recruit exceptional candidates from the global talent pool. As an Employer of Record (EOR), Redrob enables seamless onboarding and management of international talent without the need for local entities—saving startups time, cost, and compliance risk.

Codewalla (https://www.codewalla.com/startup-grind-offer)
Codewalla is a small product development studio dedicated to helping startup founders launch products quickly. As founders ourselves, we understand the challenges of traditional development: high costs, long timelines, and risks. We are a CTO-led studio of developers, designers, and project managers dedicated to building exceptional products. With expertise in startups, SaaS, fintech, and more, we bring creativity and experience to every project.

SeedLegals (https://bit.ly/seedlegals-sg0325)
Raising investment? SeedLegals is the go-to platform to get investment ready, build your cap table, issue SAFEs or do a priced round. Includes all the help and support you need from our team of experts. Over 60,000 companies use SeedLegals, the new way to do the legals for your next fundraise—at a fraction of the cost of traditional lawyers. Book a call with our team to see how we can help you fundraise faster!

Patrick IP Law (https://bit.ly/patrick-sg0325)
Patrick IP Law provides patent & IP strategy for startups. We have a passion for empowering startups to protect their innovations strategically and cost-effectively. With over 15 years of experience in patent law and global IP strategy – particularly in high-tech and bio-tech industries – Patrick IP specializes in providing the highest quality IP services tailored to the unique needs and financial situations of emerging businesses.

Partner

The Yard (https://theyard.com/)
The Yard is a coworking space at the intersection of innovation, creativity, design, & play — with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Philly, and DC — with a variety of shared and private workspace options.

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Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind.
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Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-pitches-and-pints-startup-grind-happy-hour-showcase-april-1/.