Why Good Pitches Don’t Get Funded: Leadership presence workshop

You can have a solid product, decent traction and a clean deck. And still lose the room before slide one.

Because investors don’t just listen to what you say.
They read who you are — from how you enter, stand, pause, breathe, and respond under pressure.

This event is for founders who are tired of carrying everything with logic and numbers only, and want their body and voice to finally work for the deal, not against it.

🤔 Recognize yourself here?

• You freeze up when you need to pitch an investor or speak on stage
• You never know what to do with your hands or where to look
• You say smart things, but you don’t look like a confident CEO — more like someone apologizing for taking time
• You’re self-conscious about your accent or voice
• As SMM/marketing you push your founder into lives and events, then hate watching the recordings

If you speak for the company, this room is for you.

🎙 About the Speaker

Joe Hudson

Co-Founder, Art of Accomplishment
Executive Coach to Founders & Leaders

Joe Hudson is a renowned executive coach who has worked with founders, CEOs, and senior leaders from high-growth startups to Fortune-level companies.

His work focuses on what most pitch training ignores:
alignment between your thinking, emotions, and body — especially in high-stakes moments like fundraising, negotiations, and public speaking.

Joe doesn’t teach performance or theatrics.
He helps leaders remove internal friction so confidence becomes natural, grounded, and credible — even under pressure.

In this session, Joe will work live for 90–120 minutes, breaking down pitching from:

• an intellectual perspective (clarity, intention, signal vs noise),
• an emotional perspective (fear, self-trust, nervous system),
• and a physical perspective (presence, posture, voice, and embodied confidence).

No scripts. No fake personas. No “power poses.”
Just learning how to show up as someone people actually trust.

🚀 What will happen during the evening

You won’t sit and listen passively.

You will:

• Watch a real founder pitch live and see how trust is created or broken — moment by moment
• Learn how misalignment between mind, emotions, and body silently kills credibility
• Get a clear framework for presence that works in investor meetings, negotiations, and on camera
• Do short, grounded exercises from your seat — no humiliation, no forced performance
• See Hot Seat breakdowns, where founders pitch and receive live feedback from Joe and the room
• Finally understand how investors, partners, and teams actually experience you

🔥In the room you’ll see:

• founders and presenters across stages, from pre-seed to active raise
• CEOs and COOs who lead investor meetings and represent the company externally
• SMM / marketing leads who are responsible for putting faces and voices in front of the audience
• people who talk to investors regularly and understand how much strong delivery matters

This isn’t a random networking event. It’s a room full of people for whom pitching, negotiating and being in public is part of the job.

📈 Why this matters (beyond the event)

After this workshop, you will:

• Stop “asking for permission to exist” in high-stakes rooms
• Understand how to regulate yourself when fear or pressure hits
• Walk away with a practical presence checklist for pitches and meetings
• Feel more grounded on stage, on camera, and in investor conversations
• Waste less energy on self-doubt — and more on actually closing

Soft skill? Yes.
Direct impact on fundraising, leadership, and trust? Also yes.

🕒 Time

6:00 – 9:00 PM
Joe Hudson live session + Hot Seat work: 6:30 – 8:00 PM

Sponsors

👑 AngelList
AngelList builds the software investors use to fund world-changing startups.
Founders Cafe is our founder community and co-working space on the first floor of HQ. Apply here.