There’s a lot to be gained from entering The Pitch. For the 2026 cohort, there’s two weeks of mentoring, a platform to pitch to a panel of active investors, and ample opportunities to network with future customers.
Naturally, the winner takes it all. Alongside the coveted The Pitch 2026 trophy, the winner will be taking home a prize package worth £25k, filled with founder perks that propel their business forward – The Pitch’s biggest prize yet.
But what happens when the stage is cleared and the audience has gone home? What does business as usual look like after winning The Pitch?
To answer this question, I sat down with The Pitch 2024 winner, Judith McMinn, to find out how being crowned champion shaped her as a founder and the trajectory of her business, Rezon.
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Key takeaways
About Rezon
Founded by Judith McMinn in 2021, Rezon (pronounced Ree-zon) is a sports headwear brand designed specifically to protect the brain. Its flagship product, Halos, is a headband made of nine protective rings that move over each other to reduce the transmission of damaging rotational forces to the brain, reducing not only the risk of concussion, but also the accumulated damage of smaller force impacts called “sub-concussions.”
These sub-concussions and rotational forces , incurred as a result of head impacts in sports such as netball, hockey, football and rugby, can lead to neurodegenerative disease. Yet despite being 500 times more frequent than concussions, Judith noticed there was no protective equipment out there that worked specifically to reduce the accumulated damage from subconcussions and rotational forces.
This led her to raise the question: why do we protect our teeth and shins in sport, but not our brains?
Since its conception, Rezon has been used in 19 sports and sold across 32 countries, gained B Corp certification and became the first non-helmeted headgear in the world to get the PPE CE Category 2 safety certification.
It’s no wonder this County Durham-founded company and Sheffield-manufactured product went on to win.
Rezon at The Pitch
Three years after founding Rezon, Judith came across The Pitch on LinkedIn. Having bootstrapped up until this point, Judith was eager to raise investment and scale the business, and compelled by the chance to meet investors and potential customers, she sent her submission off that evening.
Having mastered the art of pitching after two weeks of mentoring, Judith wowed the audience with her pitch at the Glasgow regional finals, securing the People’s Choice vote before heading down to London for The Pitch Final. There, her 90-second pitch on Rezon’s mission, values and marketability won over the judges, and she left the venue a champion.
Judith’s pitch didn’t just win her a trophy: it generated interest in Rezon and brought the importance of brain protection in sport to the forefront of buyers’ minds.
After winning, Rezon saw a 300% year-on-year growth, sparking conversations around the globe with distributors across South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The Halos also made a valuable impact close to home, with flagship schools across England adopting the headgear for PE lessons and extra-curricular activities.
Advice to pitchers: how to craft a killer pitch
While reflecting on her journey, Judith revealed what helped her deliver the perfect pitch on stage, and what advice she has for anyone considering applying to The Pitch.
1. Do it.
And do it now. Applications for The Pitch 2026 close on 1 December 2025.
Applying to The Pitch not only helped Judith get the brand awareness and traction Rezon needed, but also helped her hone her pitch and build the invaluable skills needed by every founder.
2. Think about what you want to get across
At The Pitch, you only have 90 seconds to convince the judges that your product is worth backing, so really think about what it is you want to get across. There may be hundreds of fascinating things about your product, but before you get on stage, you’ve got to choose what matters the most and tell it in a way that people understand.
3. Practice, practice, practice
Record yourself pitching, get friends and family to listen in, or even do a few open mic pitching nights to get a feel for going up on stage. Use these opportunities to find out what your audience is taking away from your pitch, what lands well and how to be as engaging as possible in such a short span of time.
Think you could follow in Judith’s footsteps and take home the 2026 trophy? Apply to The Pitch today.
