Over the past 3 months, Pitch 08 has been making its way across certain states of Australia trying to help entrepreneurs get practice pitching as well as putting them in front of potential investors

In their words: -

Pitch ‘08 is a competition for entrepreneurs and business owners to “pitch” their idea, project or businesses to investors and receive feedback from a panel drawn from a variety of financial and business backgrounds.

We often think that we, as tech/web startups, have a monopoly on trying to perfect the investor pitch, but it’s not the case at all. In fact tech startups are under-represented in terms of the type of businesses that are seeking  and receiving actual investment in Australia. A perfect example of this are the winners from WA and Victoria.

In WA, it was Cocky Smart Pty Ltd  “an organically derived agricultural product which eradicates flies, ticks and lice infestation on livestock with no known side effects” who won the event

In Victoria it was Humanitee, who “produce high quality clothing using organic fabrics and fair trade business principles”.

In NSW, however, SMS Poll pulled one back for the home team by beating out Evolution Tankers and the Invisible Clothes Line.

SMS Poll is “an innovative mobile voting and live audience polling application that rivals sophisticated Audience Response Systems at one-tenth of the price” We recently did a story on charities and tech, which highlighted how SMS Poll has been used by a wide range of organisations.

For their efforts, the SMS Poll team has won a listing on Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB) and corporate multimedia package, valued at $40,000 (based on an average of $500,000 capital raising)

You can check out the winning SMS Poll pitch here.

Well done guys.