NEW YORK: New York internet investment firm KAYWEB Angels held an event called The Pitch Sweatshop at WeWork Labs in SoHo last month.

The Pitch Sweatshop's aim was to bring in quality Venture Capital and Media guests to deliver KAYWEB Angels Portfolio founders some advice on pitching for money and pitching for press coverage.

Jay Levy of Zelkova Ventures (invested in startups like Fab and Klout) and Robert Setrakian of Helios Group (invested in startups like Etsy and Jump Ramp Games) were the VC guests, while Romy Ribitzky of Portfolio (previously CNN Business and ABC Business) was the media guest.

Levy and Setrakian delivered their best-practice pitching advice to those in the room, both stressing the need for passion and knowledge by founders. Both also expressed the importance of having a 'ready' presentation and the importance of being prepared to answer questions.

The two also answered several questions.

Ribitzky gave a great rundown on media pitching and explained that the press looks for different things to what VCs look for. For example, if the founder/CEO is not the best communicator, a VC would still want to be pitched by him/her. Whereas the press would be comfortable with a spokesperson, as communication is key.

She then held workshop sessions with some of our founders, listening to their ideas and giving them press pitching pointers, which was very insightful.

Saluggi's in SoHo provided the pizza for the event, as the keg at WeWork was flowing with beer for those few hours.

See pictures from the event at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.514500825249046.120530.121806044518528&type=1.

KAYWEB Angels CEO Haig Kayserian, who was in New York for the event and started proceedings by delivering an update on behalf of all eight of his portfolio companies, said: "The event achieved what we wished. Our guests were great and those who attended found it very insightful considering where they are at with their startups!"

"I thank our GM John Buckman for helping us put it together, our guests for accepting our invitation, and all those who attended and participated."

Kayserian and Buckman also witnessed around 20 pitches in person for KAYWEB Angels investment in November.

Kayserian said: "The Board is hard at work assessing the entries to determine who is fit to join our portfolio."

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