About

Our Practice Pitch Breakfast is not a competition. It is a time for entrepreneurs and investors to fellowship, learn from each other and build  relationships with one another no matter where we are located. We come in as strangers and leave as family. 

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Practice Pitch Companies

Imani Collective started in a small village outside of Mombasa, Kenya. Our founder, Jenny Nuccio, traveled there looking to help fund education projects for kids. As she got to know the families she realized that the children who were struggling the most came from single income homes where their mother’s did not have many job opportunities and often sold fruit for mere pennies a day. Jenny fell in love with the people and decided to move to Kenya full time to learn from and invest in the community. Through broken English and Swahili, she and the sixteen women awkwardly laughed their way into deep friendship and mutual partnership. They taught her how to cook over an open fire, how to wash her clothes, and of course, how to carry her water like a local. In return, Jenny taught them how to sew. Through creating this collective, she realized they were not just better together, they are their best together.

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TRAXyL is making optical data connectivity affordable and accessible to everyone and providing a new pathway for 5G backhaul, bringing data from the antenna to the edge. TRAXyL has developed FiberTRAX, a simple solution to extend last-mile telecommunications into hard to reach areas by essentially painting optical fiber onto the road surface. FiberTRAX quickly bonds a very tiny cable to any hardened surface, like a road or sidewalk, using a combination of very durable protective coatings. The final solution is very low profile and resembles a paint line on the road. TRAXyL is currently installing FiberTRAX for customers and is in the process of developing commercial machines. The machines will be leased to installers who will buy the tiny cable and protective coatings from TRAXyL, like a printer-ink manufacturer.

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Investor Pitch Feedback

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Imani Collective​

1. We have had a couple companies that have a similar model (Akola & ABLE), how would you compete with them? They are much larger than you are. How do you gain traction the way that they have gained traction in the market? What is unique about your product?
2. When you give a pitch to investors, remember the investor’s mindset/mentality. So, I will see a company that has an initial positive presentation reaction. I want to see pretty quickly how you differentiate yourself, because I am going to immediately drop you into one of several buckets (like an African bucket, and there are pros and cons to that, or a retail bucket or an online sales bucket)… 
3. How do you really compete? Everyone knows that there are others out there. I would get there really quickly.
4. I would term your presentation as a 60/40 with emotional or ministry focus and then your background. But I am putting money into it, so I am going to have half of my foot in the marketplace and have of my foot in the temple (New Testament)..
5. I need a slide that tells me how much you are going to raise. 70? That is a really low number, right? I think you ought to look at having a higher number because raising money is a full-time job. You need to frame around your use of funds and how you would have a much larger number.
6. Have a slide that tells me the number you want, what is the valuation, what are use of funds and things like that.
7. It is great. You have really proven a concept. You are over the first major hurdle, frankly, because you are making money. You are selling stuff! I would talk about the things you are selling.
8. Good progress!
9. I wanted to ask about distribution channels. How are you selling the product? I am assuming e-comm., and maybe Amazon? Which stores are you selling to and how many?
10. Do you happen to know some of the trends? It sounds like you bumped up in your sales. Do you have the “compared to last year, this is where we are this year?”. Or maybe where you hope to be next year?
11. Great job! It is exciting to see the traction you all are getting!​​​

TRAXyL​

1. I remember seeing you at another contest. I just love the idea and love the company.
2. One question I have, so now you have a lot of experience… What is a major negative? What is the impediment for someone buying the service or to put the cable in, or cable alternative in?
3. It relates to who is the buyer in this? Like you mentioned internet service providers. Is your buyer a rural telecom company or resellers or service providers?  
4. It is really innovative and a gamechanger in the cable industry!
5. Great presentation!
6. I just saw an article last week about the last mile problem, so you are solving something real.
7. The faith-based element. Does the CEO really want to integrate his faith? Do you have plans to do things like corporate chaplains? How does the faith play in?
8. What is patentable about what you are doing?
9. Love the idea and I see the potential! It is definitely exciting! A very exciting idea!
10. The questions that came to mind – you are making a model pivot from doing laboring and materials to machinery and materials. What is your limiting factor in that? It seems to me as though you are building to create capital to have those machines available for lease. That is a fairly capital-intensive move. Tell me about what the potential margins? And how much capital are you going to need to get to scale in the next 1 1/2 years?
11. What is your go-to-market strategy? Are there commissions sales reps? Are you pairing up with civil engineering firms? Trade shows? Tell me a little bit about how you are out there presenting your product and the marketplace?
12. You have done a great job explaining the position.
13. What is your exit strategy? Do you want to be bought out? Tell me about what possible exit strategies are out there?

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Guest Speakers

Best-selling author and international speaker Janet Perez Eckles was infected by the virus of adversity—physical blindness at 30 years of age, the murder of her son and the abandonment of her husband.

But her life is not one of misery. Rather, through God’s grace, Janet’s lack of sight gave her the insight to empower thousands nationally and internationally to conquer adversity, overcome fear and reach personal and professional success.
As President of JC Empowerment Ministries, Janet continues to inspire English and Spanish-speaking audiences. She’s been honored by sharing the stage with John C. Maxwell, Lee Strobel, Nick Vijorcec, Governor Mike Huckabee, and other respected speakers. Her writings appear in 32 Chicken Soup for the Soul best-selling titles, dozens of anthologies, and hundreds of magazine articles.

Her profound experiences have captured the media. In addition to being featured on the cover of Hispanic Woman Magazine, her story appeared in regional, national, and international radio and television programs including Fox 35 News affiliate, the Spanish version of Good Morning America, 700 Club, Focus on the Family, Univision and Telemundo networks.

Janet’s work has been recognized by numerous awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award for business leaders in Central Florida. But her richest reward is empowering you to recognize that when perseverance, faith, and creativity come alive, you don’t have to look for success, success will find you.
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www.janetperezeckles.com


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Chris has always had a passion for understanding how things work and their practical application. This passion led to a successful and challenging 17-year career with Texas Instruments, where he managed an advanced engineering group that developed processes to manufacture TI’s most sophisticated IC designs. Here, he got his first exposure to technical sales, presenting reliability data on these new technologies to TI’s major customers in North America and Europe. Impressed with his work and potential, TI sponsored Chris in their management development program culminating with an MBA with Honors from UT Austin.
When TI closed its manufacturing facility, Chris transitioned to GE Capital, supporting leasing and sales of high-tech manufacturing equipment for the US Southwest and Eastern Mexico. At GE, Chris crafted skills in direct sales and sales rep management. After three years at GE, he went into business for himself, traveling internationally, helping manufacturing companies reposition their global assets.
As global manufacturing stabilized, Chris looked for a new challenge. Sponsored by Texas A&M, he helped found a spin-out medical diagnostic company that utilized patented technologies from A&M and Stanford University. Here, Chris and his team raised $6 million and worked eight years attempting to develop an affordable $2 Tuberculosis test. The strategic objective was to enable a BAM-focused company to impact China, India, and the Middle East with a product they desperately needed. While the technology was promising, it did not meet specifications to move into production, and the next funding round was not possible.
After this humbling outcome, and knowing God does not waste anything we endure, Chris reflected on how he could use those experiences and life lessons moving forward. As such, he founded Open Path Digital in 2016. Over the past four + years, he’s successfully developed a team that combines business skills with cutting-edge technology to help companies move their sales and marketing onto a digital platform. After significant success supporting secular companies, Chris feels led to help Kingdom companies thrive, not just survive. 

Send Chris an email at cthornton@openpathdigital.com to get free resources and links mentioned in the video above or schedule a 30 minute growth strategy call. 

Your Thoughts

"I really enjoyed Lion's Den. It gave me a great opportunity to practice pitching our company and the audience and investor feedback was very useful. I hope to have an opportunity to discuss with many of the individuals again because there seem to be valuable information to share. Thank you again Michelle & Grace!"

"Good! I was impressed with the response that Janet had with the crowd. What a blessing she is!"

"Janet Settles was inspiring. Her message had so much relevance to our times, business and deep faith to persevere in all situations."

"I have sat in on several of the breakfast events and continue to learn in all of them. So grateful that you host them. The commitment to your craft and passion are obvious in the professional quality of the sessions."

"I am so blessed by Janet's telling of her story. I could listen to her tell about how God has worked in her life for a very extended period of time."

"Janet Eckles made the event so special with her topic and delivery. We were all impacted so deeply by her sincerity, warmth and humor. Her advice was useful for everyone in the conference. It's impossible to tell that she is blind and she helps us see obstacles as God's opportunity for growth. Michelle and Grace did an excellent job with this conference. I'm in many conferences and this one flows so much better than any others."

"I appreciate the effort you are making to create networking opportunities."

"Helpful for me to hear what their input was and how I can reflect their input in our revised deck."

"Encouraging to see how everyone rallies to help small Kingdom Businesses grow."

"The investor feedback was good. It helped me understand the investor's perspective more."