A Letter For Kent Richeson & ShitPitch

The most fun start-up event on the planet

A warm intro last week led me to an event yesterday at a comedy club. The intro was to Kent Richeson - the founder of ShitPitch (great name). We had such a nice first convo that he invited me to his ShitPitch event and I have to say… I had a blast.

What is ShitPitch, you might ask?

It’s a spin on the old “sell me this pen” routine except the pen is replaced with “please give me your money” startup pitches to VC’s.

The real twist is that the founders pitching have to pitch a completely outrageous business idea first, before they can pitch their real company/idea.

It was soooo much fun. It really breaks you out of serious mode and makes the whole thing more light hearted. It’s fun to laugh and break down that wall and not take things so serious all the time. Even the tag line is great:

Pitch. Laugh. Pitch. Fund.

The Shit Pitches (I think I just love saying that) yesterday were excellent:

ChewChat - gum that translates speech (Performed brilliantly by Kreg Peeler)

Excuse SaaS - automated excuse generation (Thomas Clardy crushed it)

Emocouch - emotional support furniture (Bryant Solomon really embraced the concept)

I think we forget sometimes that humor is a higher level of communication. In order to make it work you have to embrace uncomfortableness, push boundaries, be vulnerable. It’s really hard.

One of a founders’ key jobs, maybe THE key job, is communicating. They have to paint a picture of the future in which their idea wins and wins big.

And then they have to SELL other people on that picture, take money from them, and then execute on it with that money. It’s about positioning, objection handling, math, complex reasoning, and convincing.

So getting some reps in and using humor as a communication tool is actually EXTREMELY valuable, and Kent realized that and built ShitPitch around that.

It’s an accomplishment in and of itself.

Kent does such a good job of creating good vibes and a positive environment too. He sets the stage for the magic to happen and that’s a beautiful thing.

So glad I could go and experience it and for that, I thank you Kent. Good job by you, keep it up. I have no doubts you’ll crush it with your ambitious plans to do 20+ ShitPitch events around the world next year.

With love and deep appreciation,

-Andrew