Getting Over Stage Fright
Released on 05/14/2014
[Group] Ohhh yeah!
[Jake] I'm Jake, one of 40 finalists competing
for the $100,000 Thiel Grant.
It all comes down to a two-minute pitch,
and one life-changing decision:
to drop out of school and pursue our dreams.
This is Teen Technorati.
(soft music)
If you're one of the three million people who watched
me ask Kate Upton to my prom on YouTube,
then you already know I'm not exactly shy.
But in this competition, the lightning round is
so crucial that we all needed coaching
to make our pitches as compelling as possible.
The point of this game is about being in the moment.
When you have your lightning round,
you wanna be sending your message with intention.
[Group] Whoosh! (clapping)
Whoosh!
Whoa!
Then you, it bounces like I'm a wall,
and then you turn around and send it to Lucy.
Whoa!
No, you send a whoosh.
Whoosh!
Whoa!
You're gonna share two truths about yourself,
and a lie, but in any order that you want.
Hi, I'm Andrew, I have been chased by a police helicopter.
I like to watch B movies.
I have seen the ghost of Elvis Presley.
My name's Ryan Orbuch, my dad is 6'2 and my mom
is 5'2, they're like this.
What we've been working on is this app called Finish.
It's the to-do list for procrastinators.
It works because we split your stuff into short,
mid, and long-term time frames.
You add stuff just based on the due date,
and we slide it up over time.
We did 50,000 downloads in the first 48 hours,
which was just super freaking crazy.
For the two-minute pitch tomorrow,
I've been trying to figure out how nervous I should be.
♫ I don't wanna die
♫ Back again this time tomorrow ♫
No I don't have a prom date.
Meet the Thiel finalist bachelors of this year, my God.
[Yana] If you make eye contact with someone,
that means you're dead.
(laughter) (upbeat music)
I have been on stage before,
in front of everybody it's a little scary.
The work that I've been doing on cancer,
it's probably been the biggest achievement I've done so far.
Kid who's 16 is gonna cure cancer,
that's pretty incredible, it's just awe-inspiring.
I'm using automated high-throughput drug screening
to test hundreds, even thousands of small molecules,
for drug candidates that could prevent cancer.
This is called the hula loop.
We wanted to see how they would work as teams,
and how they treated each other, because again,
that's a huge part of the fellowship is to be not a
competitive situation, but we want people to work
together and support each other.
(laughter)
Many people could really take advantage of their youth
by trying out new things, even if some people might
put you down by saying, You're too young,
or You should go to college first.
There you go.
Hey, buddy!
[Yana] Whoa, good technique!
I think the interesting thing about the fellowship is
you're surrounded by people that act very adult-like.
At the same time, these are people that can't by alcohol.
[Yana] We have our winners!
(cheering)
[Jack] So now we're all warmed up,
but as time runs out on the lightning pitches,
things are getting hotter in here.
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2014 Thiel Fellowship Documentary Series Teaser
Meet the 2014 Thiel Fellowship Finalists
The LEGO Challenge: Creative Problem-Solving
Getting Over Stage Fright
Tensions Rising: Final Run-Throughs & Pitch Preparations
The Two-Minute Lightning Pitch
The Thiel Fellowship Finalists Go One-on-One with the Mentors
The Thiel Fellowship Finalists Leave S.F. & Head Back to Reality
20 Teens Win $100K: Announcing the 2014 Thiel Fellows
Classical Toddler Music