Herb Sih’s Fire Up: How to Get S*#! Done Fast (Plus a Recap of iKC’s Fire Ups)

iKC hosted Kansas City’s first Fearless Innovators and Ruthless Entrepreneurs’ Unconventional Pitch (also known as Fire Up). Fire Up is an intense 5 minute, 15 seconds-per-slide pitch contest. Understanding what these entrepreneurs were saying during their speedy spiels was the hardest part of these lightning-fast pitches. Here are some details I can recall from the pitching whirlwind.

Kevin Payne, Joel Stephens, Adam Coomes, Doug Richards and Kathy Pate were the entrepreneurs of “Fire Up: The Next Disruptive Innovation”. Five entrepreneurs gave their pitches about products or ideas that should be in the marketplace. The groundbreaking ideas ranged from “non-sexy stuff” to 7-Eleven’s gross profit split to re-engineered human data systems. The presentations and presenters couldn’t have been more different if they had planned it.

The winner of the this Fire Up contest was Doug Richards. His idea was Gamification. The next disruptive innovation that he proposed was a way for a game to produce work-like results. This program is based on experiential psychology. Users will choose an adventure and then receive results based on their performance. Richards believes this new program will replace social media and render the term obsolete.  

This process of super-quick pitches is mind-blowing and bound to boost creativity and innovation. I know I’m motivated to think outside the box, but I’d never be able to pitch anything at Fire Up speed! Kathy Pate let out a huge sigh when she was finished and said, “That was the most stressful 5 minutes of my life!” The entrepreneurs kept the crowd engaged throughout the presentations and we all left Fired Up!

To catch a glimpse of Herb Sih’s Fire Up called How to Get S*#! Done Fast (he participated in Fire Up: The Answers to Questions You Didn’t Know You Had), take a look at this video below (it’s bound to make your mind race!): 


(We apologize—this isn’t the FULL presentation and it also doesn’t have the best quality!  Also, please ignore Allison Way’s random giggles and high pitched shouts at the end).