It’s currently 12:03 AM on a Thursday and I’m writing this from seat 14C somewhere over the Midwest. Earlier today, my two co-founders and I walked into the headquarters of a major retail company in Minneapolis and pitched our company, Spacemilk. I’ve been building this company for three years. I can tell you every detail about our protein powder — the sourcing, the formulation, why it’s better than everything else on the shelf. But sitting in that room, none of that mattered if I couldn’t communicate who we are and why we’re better in a way that anyone in a grocery aisle could understand.
Meanwhile, 1,200 miles east, our student-founders spent yesterday doing the exact same thing — standing up in front of a room and trying to make people believe in what they’re building.
Pitching never stops. It doesn’t matter if you’re a student in a classroom or a founder walking into corporate headquarters halfway across the country. You’re always pitching someone — investors, customers, partners, press, your own team. It’s the one skill that shows up in everything you do as a founder, and it’s the one most people underestimate because they think it’s just talking. It’s the reason we describe Wesleyan Shark Tank as an accelerator course designed to teach founders how to pitch. Everything else we cover — customer personas, go-to-market strategy, marketing, fundraising — ultimately feeds into whether you can look someone in the eye and make them say yes.
Where We Are
Palmer led this week’s class while I was traveling. The entire session was dedicated to pitch workshops — everyone stood up, delivered their pitch, and got honest feedback from the room.
Two founders in particular are a good example of the challenge. Liam Farrell is building Planisphere, a platform that streamlines the acquisitions process for real estate private equity firms — sorting through emails and documents to determine whether a potential deal is worth pursuing. It’s a highly technical product in a category most people outside of real estate have never thought about. As Liam put it, he demos to real estate professionals all the time, people who already speak the language. Translating that into a pitch for a room of people who don’t live in that world is a completely different exercise.
Then there’s Cal. Cal McClary is building VitalPatch — a non-invasive adhesive patch that attaches to a patient’s arm and continuously sends vital signs to EMTs via Bluetooth. He came up with the idea while working as an EMT himself, watching paramedics manually retake vitals on stable patients over and over. He wears a Whoop. He can check his own vitals from his phone anytime. Why didn’t anything like that exist in an ambulance? That’s his pitch. It’s intuitive, it’s visual, and most people get it in ten seconds.
Two very different companies, two very different communication challenges. Liam has to take something complex and make it simple. Cal has to take something that sounds simple and prove it’s a real business. But both of them are working on the same fundamental skill — can you make someone understand and care about what you’re building in under a minute?
The Shark Tank Connection
The class is called Wesleyan Shark Tank for a reason. At its core, Shark Tank is the ultimate test of whether a founder can tell their story under pressure. That's the skill we're building toward. What started as a fun name ended up becoming a real connection to the show itself.
Last year, I noticed that Ken Fuchs — the director of Shark Tank — was a Wesleyan alum. I went to our athletic director (shoutout Coach Whalen), who happened to be in the same graduating class as Ken, and asked for an introduction. My co-lead at the time, Ben Carbeau, and I got on a call with Ken and his wife, Kate (former Executive Producer of Shark Tank) that was supposed to be quick and lasted over an hour. They were genuinely excited — Ken’s alma mater building a class around the show he runs. That relationship grew into me spending time as a production assistant on the actual Shark Tank set this past summer. The Wesleyan network at work.
Now Kate generously gives her time and coaches each one of our student founders on their pitches one-on-one. There is no one in the world better suited for this. Her entire career was built around evaluating whether a founder is pitch-worthy and then preparing them for that moment. Whether it’s a technical B2B platform or an adhesive patch for EMTs — it all comes down to the same thing. Can you tell a story?
That’s what we’re working on. From a Middletown classroom to a Minneapolis boardroom to the Shark Tank stage — it starts with the pitch.
Watch the Recap
🎥 Episode 5 HERE
Get Involved
🦈 Shark: Join our investor panel at the NYC event
🎤 Guest Speaker: Lead a session on your expertise
🤝 Mentor: Meet biweekly with a student founder (30 min, remote)
📈 Investor: Get connected with our founders
Interested? Email me: mastorino@wesleyan.edu
To infinity and beyond,
Michael Astorino