Get the context right
Understand how pitching inside an organisation differs from a startup funding pitch or a TED talk. Work out what decision you need, who needs to support it, and the priorities and constraints your pitch must address.
The real challenge
“Interesting. Let’s revisit it next quarter.”
You have explained the idea. They have asked for more data. Nothing has moved. Inside an organisation, a pitch has to work across different priorities, responsibilities, and fears about what might change. Let's build a better understanding of what a successful process looks like, and let's work on the proposal and the conversation around it: who needs to support it, what concerns them, and what you are asking them to do.
Practical skills with real stakes.
Prepare the case.
Practise the conversation.
Make the benefit concrete
Who is this for? What problem does it solve? What improves—and what evidence supports that? Work backwards from the customer or colleague who benefits to build a clear, credible case.
Respond without getting defensive
Prepare for objections, delay, and confusing discussions. Integrate your critics in the process, practise concise, respectful answers that help the whole room understand your proposal, then keep the next step moving.
Put it into practice
In the live workshop, learn two different proven approaches to building your presentation, each with a template to guide you. Choose the approach that works best for you and your case, then use it to build your presentation. Present your real case, practise handling resistance and pushback, and get expert feedback on your argument, delivery, and replies. Work through what needs improving before the meeting that matters. Turn the frameworks into practical skills you can use in real conversations and decisions.
What makes this different?
The proposal, the people,
the presentation, and the process.
Pitching to investors & stakeholders
Understand the different pitch formats, what each needs to contain, and how to build a plausible and convincing narrative. Shape your case around the audience and the decision you want them to make, whether you are seeking investment, approval, or customer commitment.
Building support
The Pitching Masterclass - Corporate & Organisation Edition goes even further: learn to handle resistance and build support using a buy-in framework as developed at Harvard Business School. Assess the situation, prepare for objections, respond constructively, and keep momentum. Apply it to a project, change, or customer proposition, before, during, and after the pitch.
Pitch performance & preparation
Confidence starts before you stand up to present. Map your stakeholders, gather supporting data, and prepare replies to likely objections. Then practise your delivery and answers with feedback, so you arrive prepared to make your case and improve your chances of a green light.
Value for your people and your organisation
Building new life-long skills. Improving outcomes.
A stronger proposal, ready for the next difficult conversation
For participants
Develop your real case, improve your presentation, and rehearse difficult questions with individual feedback.
For decision makers
Participants develop actual business proposals (if applicable) during the workshop, so the work directly supports current priorities. They leave with stronger presentations, clearer arguments, and preparation they can use in upcoming stakeholder meetings.
Identifying and dealing with objections before they become roadblocks
For participants
Understand competing priorities, individual agendas, and concerns. Practise responding without getting defensive, personal, or giving up.
For decision makers
Better preparation reduces avoidable early failures, time wasted in repeated meetings, and late surprises that can sabotage worthwhile proposals.
Template for a repeatable process
For participants
Leave with easy-to-use presentation templates and a repeatable process to build support and momentum also for future projects.
For decision makers
Build capability across teams, with a shared approach to preparing proposals with clearer benefits, requests that need decisions, and next steps.
Experience that gets invited back
Built and improved through a long-running relationship with employees and decision makers in the field.
Long customer relationships and repeat bookings speak for themselves. Bertelsmann and DigitalHub Aachen have booked the Masterclass repeatedly over ten years. Other repeat customers include RWTH Aachen and the University of Cologne’s Gateway ESC.
“A cornerstone of our program for years - a testament to its unparalleled excellent quality. Both we as organizers and our participants rely on the exceptional high quality results it consistently delivers!”
Senior Director Strategy Campus
“Thank you very much for a mind opening Masterclass! I can't remember the last time I learned so much - and I have participated in over sixty other programs of this kind over the years. Interesting, helpful, no boring parts!”
Head of Zentis Research
“It was fantastic! Thank you!”
University of Cologne · live workshop on-site
“It was magnificent! We're doing this again!”
Technology & Innovation Manager · live workshop on-site
The available formats
One person, a single team, a group of teams, a department, single roles, or the whole organisation?
Individual
Pitching Masterclass - Video Course
Build a clear proposal and prepare for stakeholder and customer objections, at your own pace.
The course gives you the flexibility to learn independently. While this online course teaches you the theoretical part of the Pitching Masterclass, see our live workshop options for providing individual feedback and coaching too.
€199*
*Includes 19% German VAT
Individual video-course licence.
Watch it nowFor everyone or select groups
Learning on demand as a subscription
Bulk subscription access for your employees or participants. Make learning available across your organisation or program - hosted by our platform or yours. The video course is available in our self-service e-learning platform or as a white-label solution to integrate in your existing learning platforms.
Let's discuss your needs.
Inquire about subscriptionsHands-on
A full day of workshop - together!
A live workshop at your premises, off-site, or remotely. 20% theory, 80% hands-on action.
Start with the decision you need and the people whose support matters. Map stakeholder interests, corporate politics, and individual agendas, then build a clear proposal with credible benefits, a concrete request, and workable next steps.
Work on actual business proposals (if applicable), present, receive honest individual feedback, and improve in iterations. Practise inviting challenge and responding to objections without getting defensive, personal, or giving up. Leave with a stronger proposal, easy-to-use presentation templates, and a repeatable process for building support.
Let's discuss your needs.
Inquire about a workshopOptional extras are also available, like one-to-one follow-up sessions, group follow-up or refreshing sessions, additional video-course access to reinforce learning after a live workshop, and more. Let's discuss what works best for your needs.
Make it fit
Adapted to your context, creating meaningful outputs
For learning and development teams, innovation heads, innovation teams and departments, department heads, and program managers in companies, public bodies, and NGOs. Bring the proposals your people actually need to present. In the full-day workshop, they develop their case, receive coaching, rehearse the pitch, and practise answering questions. Optional follow-up can focus on an upcoming customer meeting, internal approval, or tender presentation.
Pricing depends on the number of participants, remote or on-premise delivery, and optional add-ons desired. We offer governmental organisations special discounts because we think not only private enterprises should have access to the Pitching Masterclass.
Who’s teaching?
Experience makes the difference
I’m Vidar Andersen. My experience includes 30 years of pitching for money and attention, winning corporate contracts and public-sector tenders, overcoming resistance to make changes happen on the inside, pitching my own startups to famous investors, and teaching over 3,000 startups how to pitch. The Pitching Masterclass is forged from these experiences. I'll help participants develop a credible case, better understand the people and roles involved in making the decision, and prepare for the questions and resistance that can stop a proposal dead in its tracks.
My own pitches have won awards internationally, and my educational work on pitching has been featured and recognised internationally by leading business publications.
I created the original Pitching Masterclass in early 2013 as a co-founder of Rheinland Pitch, Germany's largest startup pitch event. Since then, my Pitching Masterclass has earned repeat bookings from corporations such as Bertelsmann and public-private support programs such as Digital Hub Aachen—both for over ten years—as well as highly regarded educational institutions such as RWTH Aachen and the University of Cologne’s Gateway ESC.
More about meOnline video course
Learning on demand
Our self-service online course option helps people build convincing pitches at their own pace - with or without our live workshops.
Get individual access instantly and without having to ask your boss for approval first, or give everyone in your organisation who needs it access to our video course. Our learning as a service subscription prices are based on user numbers and capped at reasonable levels. You can even integrate our course into your own learning platform with our white-label option (pricing on request).
Get answers
Questions we often get
How is pitching in a corporation different from pitching as a startup?
A startup funding pitch asks investors to back a business and its growth potential. Inside a corporation, you are often asking for approval, budget, resources, or support within an existing organisation. Funding options may be narrower, risk expectations are different, and your proposal must fit internal priorities, rules, and planning requirements. You may need support across several levels of stakeholders, each with their own interests, responsibilities, and agendas. Negotiation, organisational politics, and the impact on existing teams can matter as much as the presentation itself. Simply reusing a startup investor deck will not address all of this. The central thing they have in common is telling and communicating a convincing story: what needs to change, why it matters, what you propose, and why people should support it. The story needs credible evidence, but the case and the process for winning support must fit the context.
How can we assess the return on this training?
Start with the proposals your people need to move forward. Agree what improvement would look like: a clearer case, better stakeholder preparation, fewer unresolved objections, or a concrete next step. After the workshop, review the revised proposals and follow their progress in real meetings. The immediate value is usable work on current priorities; the longer-term value is a process participants can apply again.
Where can the live workshop take place?
At your premises, at an off-site venue of your choice, or remotely. We can help find and organise a suitable venue, taking participant travel, practical requirements, and the atmosphere into account. Getting away from daily routines can give people more room to focus and engage.
Can we choose a more unusual workshop setting?
Yes. A meeting room is just one option: a gallery, a repurposed industrial space, or a retreat venue can make the day more memorable. We can discuss a setting that fits your people, goals, and budget.
What is the live workshop format?
A full-day, hands-on workshop built around the proposals your people actually need to pitch. Participants learn two proven presentation approaches, choose a template, develop their case, practise presenting and handling objections, and receive individual feedback and coaching. We adapt the day to your group and context. Remote delivery is also available through familiar tools such as Zoom or Teams.
Is this just for innovation teams?
No, it also applies to new initiatives, change management, customer propositions, and internal proposals whenever you need other people’s support - wherever you depend on somebody else's YES to proceed.
Why include follow-up coaching sessions?
Our optional follow-up sessions are value-adds that help participants apply what they have learned to a real proposal or upcoming meeting. As things move forward, new questions arise, new data becomes available, and bottlenecks emerge. The sessions help participants work through these developments and incorporate the changes into their proposal and preparation before the important event, pitch, or meeting. They can refine their case, rehearse answers to likely objections, and get feedback. One-to-one sessions give focused attention to individual situations; group sessions let teams practise and learn together. Let's talk about what works best for you.
How can we retain learning after the workshop?
Keep the learning useful long after the workshop. Give participants video-course access so they can revisit the frameworks, refresh key lessons, and prepare for their next real pitch or important meeting at their own pace. Your team gets a shared reference they can return to as new proposals and challenges arise. Subscriptions to the self-service online course are also available without a live workshop. Let's talk about what works best for you.
What about using AI? Does the Pitching Masterclass cover this?
Yes. The Pitching Masterclass covers how to use AI—and how NOT to use it—in depth, with up-to-date guidance for preparing your pitch. Learn where AI can help, where its limitations matter, and how to avoid relying on generic output, invented facts, or claims you cannot defend. The content is regularly updated as AI tools and capabilities develop.
We are based in another country. Does it make sense for us to book your workshop?
Yes. We are based in Germany and serve customers worldwide. We can deliver a live workshop at your premises, at an off-site venue, or remotely via Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or another agreed platform. We’ll discuss your location, time zone, participants, and preferred format to find a practical arrangement. The online video course is also available for learning on demand, with or without a live workshop.
Let’s find the right fit
Tell us what your people need.
Your audience, the number of teams or participants, your preferred format, and any important dates are a useful start. No need to send a perfect brief up front - we can work it out together.
Inquire now