4 Ways to Dominate a Pitch Competition

For Ash Kumra, winning a pitch competition yielded much more than the $30,000 in cash and professional services he received. "Contests offer instant validation," Kumra says. "That tells an investor or a sponsor that this business isn't going to disappear."

In 2010 Kumra won the Irvine Entrepreneur Forum, a pitch contest held by the Chamber of Commerce in Irvine, Calif. The win helped, an online personal growth community with more than 50,000 members and sponsors such as Microsoft and HR provider TriNet.