Dressed in his scrubs after a day in the clinic, four-time startup co-founder Peter Santa Maria shared insights on “The Art of the Pitch” at the most recent gathering of Pitt’s Community of Innovators.
Santa Maria, who is a professor of otolaryngology, is also the OIE’s director of faculty innovation.
He told the full room at the Murdoch Building that pitching an innovation is akin to speed dating, in that the goal is to build trust and a relationship with potential partners or investors.
He said that pitch presenters must have a clear understanding of who is in the room and what they are most interested in hearing, have a clear ask, whether it’s an investment or partnership, and be able to adapt the pitch on the fly based on the setting and feedback from their audience.
Santa Maria, who has launched multiple startups and is presently pitching to raise a Series A venture capital financing for another, gave some tips on structuring a pitch:
- Because investors sometimes invest in the team behind an innovation as much as the innovation itself, make sure to present the team members and their credentials.
- Clearly state the problem your innovation is trying to solve.
- Define the scope of the opportunity of your innovation and the value that your innovation will deliver for a specific segment of the market you are targeting.
- Clearly outline your solution, but without getting too deep into scientific data.
- Define your competition and how you plan to solve the problem better and/or cheaper.
- Present the risks your innovation faces – technical, regulatory, financial, etc., and how you are mitigating those risks.
He said the goal of a pitch is to either get to a definitive “no”, or a second meeting.
The Community of Innovators meets weekly on Wednesdays during each semester, exploring different topics in innovation commercialization and sharing pitfalls and best practices.
Next up on April 1, 2026, Pitt innovation team Lexi Medical gives an update on its progress as a PittSPARK grant recipient. Register here.