WaterCitizen 501(c)3 Presents...
WaterPitch!
A Water Startup Matching Extravaganza!
Tuesday-Thursday, February 18-20, 2025
DC Water HQO Waterside | Washington, DC
Where the Water Startups Are the Heroes!
Prep Day Clinic Registration
and Keynote/Coach/Clinic Presenter Bios
Meet Our Coaches and Clinic Leaders Below
and be sure to save your spot in the PREP DAY clinics
(spaces limited!)
Pitch Your Startup • More Info
WaterPitch! Prep Day
Water Entrepreneurship Clinic Descriptions
WaterPitch! is committed to helping Startup Founders and the entire Water Entrepreneurship Community to succeed ot only in rasing money and landing clients, but in becoming the leaders they want and need to be in order to move their companies forward with confidence, to create their own corporate cultures, and to be the leaders they want to be so they can have the impact they want to have. In addition to Presentation Coaching, we are providing Clinics during Prep Day (the afternoon before Pitch Day) for critical development of the knowledge and skills they need as Startup Founders!
Meet our Clinic Leaders Below - and Be Sure to SIGN UP to reserve your spot (limited spaces available)!
1:15-2:15pm
Shulman Rogers NEXT Startup Law Clinic
Anthony Millin Esq, NEXT Powered By Shulman Rogers
NEXT powered by Shulman Rogers is a national award-winning legal practice recognized by Legalweek in 2024 as the best law firm in the US for enabling startup success. NEXT founder Anthony Millin drew from his experience as an entrepreneur, partner in an early-stage VC Fund, and lawyer, to craft a platform that not only understands but speaks the language of entrepreneurs and sets a new standard for legal support in the dynamic world of startups from formation to exit.
To fulfill its mission of Empowering Startup Success, NEXT has launched several innovative platforms to support early-stage startup companies. These offerings include:
- StartupU, an educational resource for founders
- Pitchmasters, a safe environment for practicing investment pitches
- NEXT Partner Marketplace, connecting startups with over 100 service providers; monthly Founders Q&A Sessions
- A variety of startup-focused webinars (over 100 in 2023)
- My NEXT Raise (mynextraise.com), a new investor readiness platform launching Fall 2024. My NEXT Raise also includes events facilitating connections between founders and funders. These initiatives are part of NEXT’s comprehensive, customer-centric service offering, emphasizing our commitment to supporting the startup ecosystem.
Bring your questions on legal matters for your Startup from investment agreements to intellectual property to incorporation of your Startup and more!
2:30-3:30pm
Water Startup Storytelling & Sales: Strategic Systems
to Land Contracts, Secure Funding & Scale Your Impact
Kristen Noelle, CEO/Founder, KN Digital Marketing
You've developed groundbreaking water technology – but are you telling the right story to the right people? In this hands-on clinic, you'll learn how to transform complex technical innovations into compelling narratives that resonate with investors, enterprise clients, and government agencies. Stop jumping from "water crisis" straight to technical specs! While other startups struggle to speak the language of decision makers, you could be having value-driven discussions in the C-suite.
In this hands-on clinic, you'll master the art of crafting stories that make investors, clients, and agencies lean in. We'll focus on building clear frameworks to communicate your value (not just your features) and creating follow-up systems that actually turn conversations into contracts. You'll walk out with proven strategies you can use right away to land more meetings, close bigger deals, and scale your impact in the water industry.
What you'll walk away with:
- A framework for crafting different versions of your pitch for various stakeholders (no more jumping straight from "water crisis" to "batch processing"!)
- Strategic storytelling templates that help you communicate value, not just features
- Practical systems for following up after high-stakes meetings and events
- Clear strategies for navigating complex sales cycles with multiple decision-makers
This isn't theoretical – you'll actually work on your pitch during the session and get immediate feedback. Whether you're seeking funding, landing enterprise contracts, or building government partnerships, you'll learn how to position your innovation in a way that drives real results.
3:45-4:45pm
The Keys to Water in Congress
for the Water Entrepreneurship Community
Prepare for Policy Day Water Startups Briefing or your own Congressional or State Legislative Office Visits with WaterCitizen's Keys to Water in Congress Clinic, tailored to the Water Entrepreneurship Community
What you'll walk away with:
- A framework for developing your own Congressional and Federal Strategy, identifying Representatives and Senators for your home and office(s) or other company facilities, and finding their issues of interest
- A system for identifying Members of Congress and Committees with oversight of the Federal Programs that impact your company, technology and markets the most
- Preparation of a modified version of your Pitch to share with Congressional Staff during the Thursday, February 20th Congressional Briefing (for Pitch and Reverse Pitch Presenters Only)
- A plan for developing a one-pager
- Understanding of protocols for meetings with legislators and staff (what to say or do and what NOT to say or do)
- A strategy for accessing federal policymakers through upcoming water fly-ins e.g. Water Week.
Keynote:
Antoine Walter
About Our Keynote Speaker: Antoine Walter is a second-generation Water Professional – the legend says his dad traded excavator sessions for him in riverbanks against lunch invitations. He followed on from this early start by completing a Master’s in Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering and then winning the “Golden Mission” contest organised by ENGIE (GDF-SUEZ). This led him to travel the Asia-Pacific region for one year to explore, among other things, water treatment in Hong Kong, desalination facilities in Melbourne, water distribution management in Jakarta, water innovation in Singapore, and social water projects in New Delhi and Gujarat.
His next challenge led him to SUEZ in Switzerland to draw the ozone and UV products roadmap, facilitating the Global Innovation Team. He was then involved in process application development and sales management for the DACH and Nordic region, emphasising micropollutant removal. In 2017, Antoine took over GF Piping Systems’ business development for its services in Europe, then for all Water Treatment topics worldwide. As a fundamental brick in the Water Industry’s supply chain, GF supports the World’s water access, protection, treatment, quality, and sustainability efforts. In his various roles, he’s been a regular speaker at conferences on four continents and regularly hosts conference sessions. Since 2020, he has hosted the “(don’t) Waste Water” podcast where he regularly shares interviews with leading Water Startup Founders and other Innovators as well as Investors, along with in-depth analyses of the State of Water Entrepreneruship.
He’s married, soon to become a happy father of three, and he’s French (nobody’s perfect 😅).
Coach & Clinic Leader Bio
Virtual Pitch Prep Coach
Diane
Currie-Sam
Founder and President
Be A Better Story
Diane Currie Sam, BSc, MA, is an award-winning writer, a communications strategist, and a corporate educator who is on a mission to bring Hollywood-style compelling storytelling into the business world and help people communicate better.
As the CEO of Be a Better Story, she creates story-based marketing copy and persuasive presentations and speeches that have brought in millions of dollars in investments, sales, and new business opportunities. She specializes in support for climate-related startups and believes you can change the world through the power of a good story, strategically told.
Presentation Coach
Karen
Zuccardi
Ecosystem Director, Venture Development
TEDCO
As the Ecosystem Director of Venture Development
at TEDCO, Karen oversees the development and growth of entrepreneurs in Maryland's Northern region. She helps connect rural innovators with the statewide entrepreneurial ecosystem while providing meaningful support to early-stage startups. Karen has a strong background working with Rural entrepreneurs in Arkansas and other states in the South.
She is passionate about economic, social, and environmental sustainability; pursuant to those interests, she served on the City of Little Rock Sustainability Commission in Arkansas for over five years, two of which she served as Chair of the Commission. Karen is bilingual (Spanish) and uses her bilingual skills to connect with sectors of the community that are often overlooked. She loves to travel and has had the opportunity to visit many countries around the world.
Karen holds an undergraduate degree in International Economics from Lafayette College, and a master’s degree in Public Service from the University of Arkansas, the Clinton School of Public Service. Her areas of focus during her master’s degree program were sustainable economic development and social entrepreneurship.
Presentation Coach
Nadine
Zerrini
Associate Innovation Director
DC Water
Nadine recently joined DC Water as the Office of Innovation's Associate Director after several years of leadership with startups in the Boston-Cambridge area.
As a Director at the Founder Institute Boston Accelerator, she helped aspiring and seasoned founders develop and launch their new businesses, using the best practices of corporate innovation, entrepreneurship, and design thinking.
Prior to that, she had over 5 years of experience in leading innovation and learning and development programs at Harvard University, where she also served as a Teaching Fellow.
Nadine's mission is to empower entrepreneurs with the skills, knowledge, and network they need to create impactful and scalable solutions for the world's most pressing challenges. She speaks four languages and is passionate about traveling and exploring new cultures and opportunities.
Prep Day
Clinic Leaders
WaterPitch! is dedicated to having the BEST support for all our Water Startup Pitch and Reverse Presentersto ensure that everyone has a fantastic WaterPitch! Experience - whether they are in the audience or at the podium! This includes our Virtual Pitch Prep & Practice Sessions in the weeks leading up to the event as well as our "Prep Day" Presentation Coaches!
Meet our Pitch and Presentation Coaches Below!
Clinic Leader
Anthony
Millin Esq
Founder and Co-Chair
NEXT Startup Law
Powered by Shulman Rogers
Anthony Millin is a trusted legal and business advisor to startup and emerging growth companies. As a startup attorney, a serial entrepreneur, a former seed stage venture partner, and the Founder and Co-Chair of NEXT powered by Shulman Rogers, named in 2024 as the nation's top law firm for "Enabling Startup Success" by LegalWeek, Anthony brings his unique legal and business perspective to advising his clients.
Anthony understands firsthand what it takes to start, scale and manage a company, to successfully prepare for and run a fund raising process, and to address the legal issues faced by a startup. This background provides him with valuable insights into the legal and business needs of his clients. Within Shulman Rogers, his unique skill set has earned him an appointment as Chair of the Shulman Rogers' Strategic Advisory Committee.
A creative problem solver and strong advocate dedicated to the success of his clients, Anthony frequently serves as his clients’ “outside general counsel, taking a leadership role in managing the full range of their legal needs from formation and financings to growth and exit.
Anthony is a frequent public speaker on topics impacting startup and emerging growth companies.
Anthony is also a Co-founder and CEO of My NEXT Raise, an investor readiness platform, Co-Founder and Senior Strategic Advisor of RT Energy.
Clinic Leader
Kristen
Noelle
CEO and Founder
KN Digital Marketing
Kristen Noelle runs her own digital marketing agency, KN Digital, which focuses on empowering organizations to leverage content through all the digital mechanisms available to us today. She provides practical strategies to approach this without being overwhelmed or blown out by budget demands. It's all about finding an authentic voice and connect with people in a way that markets will demand from anybody selling anything.
Kristen is a copywriter and digital agency owner, helping companies bring LIFE to their online presence — by showing up with a strategy, systems, and soul. She believes the best small business marketing centers on human-to-human storytelling and never losing sight of a brand’s essence.
Kristen partners with CEOs, startup execs, and solopreneurs to help them grow businesses that feel fulfilling and freeing. At KN Digital, she enjoys leading workshops around content marketing and customer acquisition through story-based sales funnels. An ex-digital nomad, Kristen is currently based in Maryland (just outside Washington, DC) and enjoys working with clients all around the world.
Clinic Leader
Dr. Cat
Shrier
Founder/CEO
WaterCItizen
When DrCat Shrier first founded WaterCitizen to provide online media, education, and "WaterTainment(TM)" for water professionals,entrepreneurs and otheer "people passionate about water," her very first online launch was for a program called The Keys to Water in Congress.
This course came from 3 decades of experience as a legislative advisor and staff member for both the US Congress and state legislators in 3 states (New Jersey, Virginia, and Colorado). Throughout her career in Water Planning, she worked at the intersection of science, technology, and public policy.
When she moved back to Washington, DC in 2009, having served on a National Academy of Sciences Study Committee, she was frequently called into offices of Members of Congress and the Congressional Research Service to provide objective and understandable explanation of the science and history behind issues that were being debated in Congress. Dr. Cat was also invited to serve on the Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) Sustinable Water Resources Roundtable (SWRR) and the Federal Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Freshwater Subcommittee (the only non-Fed).
Dr. Cat holds bachelor's degrees in Government (Dartmouth) and Geology (NC State), Masters in Environmental Science & Engineering / Environmental Management & Policy (UNC), PhD in Civil Engineering / Water Resources Planning & Management (CSU), and Multimedia Journalism (UMD). She aso has completed several years of certifications
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