We told you earlier this week about Uber’s collaboration with investors across Canada to get them in front of aspiring entrepreneurs 15-minutes at a time, and on Thursday we’re hoping to bring you live coverage of an UberPitch ride.
To recap, Uber is giving entrepreneurs in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary the chance to order up a ride on their app and then get a car sent to them with a special “Uber Pool” buddy – a high-profile investor. Entrepreneurs will get a total of 15 minutes to give their pitch and listen to feedback from whatever entrepreneur they happen to get. A range of well-known Canadian business people are involved – from current and former investors on CBC’s Dragon’s Den to HootSuite founder Ryan Holmes to executives at venture capital firms.
On Thursday, we’re planning to bring you the live experience of riding along for UberPitch. Editor Brian Jackson (that’s me!) will be diligently requesting Uber rides to try and get a car with an investor to his apartment doorstep. When he does, he’ll start live-streaming on Periscope. Watch this page for when the stream begins – sometime between 11 AM and 3 PM ET on Thursday – and look for this Periscope button to turn red when we’re live.
You can also follow us on Twitter to get the update of when Brian will be broadcasting.
There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to get our 15 minutes with the investor – demand for the rides is sure to be high – or if we do get a ride, which investor we’ll be interviewing. Since we’re in Toronto, we at least know the possibilities:
- Scott Bowman, senior director of Futurepreneur.
- Michael Hyatt, executive chairman at Bluecat.
- Tim Jackson, executive vice-president at MaRS Discovery District.
- Brian Kobus, director of OMERS Ventures.
- Victoria Lennox, co-founder of Startup Canada.
- Joe Mimran, entrepreneur.
- Matt Roberts, associated director, BDC IT Venture Fund.
- Michelle Romanow, dragon on CBC Dragon’s Den and was co-founder of Buytopia.ca.