Applications for Cohort 3 of the Commonwealth Startup Fellowship (CSF) run by Imperial Enterprise Lab in partnership with the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission opened on 3 August 2026 and close 1 September 2026.
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As part of the application, every founder must submit a one minute video elevator pitch explaining the problem their business solves, the solution, progress so far, and what taking part in the programme would do for them.
Most advice you will come across online on elevator pitch videos are be confident, make sure you are in a well lit surrounding, and speak clearly. That is not wrong, but it also isn’t specific to Commonwealth Startup Fellowship (CSF).
The angle nobody writes about is that CSF publishes an unusually detailed eligibility and assessment criteria, and your one minute video is being watched by reviewers who are actively screening against that criteria, not scoring you on charisma alone.
The advice below built around that criteria will stand you out.
How to Record and Excel at the Commonwealth Startup Fellowship’s One Minute Video Elevator Pitch (Cohort 3, 2026/2027)
1. Understand what the Committees are actually checking for
Before you write a single word of your script, know that CSF is explicit that this fellowship is not for idea stage founders. Their own FAQ states the programme is unsuitable for ventures still validating an idea, still testing a prototype, or without paying customers. That single fact should shape almost every sentence of your pitch.
This means your one minute has a hidden fifth requirement beyond the four they listed (problem, solution, progress, impact of participating): proof that you are already past the idea stage. Committees watching dozens of these videos back-to-back is unconsciously running a checklist:
- Is this a registered, operating business and not a concept?
- Is there evidence of paying customers or repeat usage, not just interest?
- Is the founder talking about scaling an existing model, or discovering one?
- Does the ask (what difference will this programme make) describe growth and not survival?
If your pitch reads like a business plan competition entry with these sentences “we plan to, we will build, our idea is.” It signals the wrong stage before the reviewer even reaches your solution. Swap every future tense idea statement for a past tense proof statement.
2. Build your script against the exact four part brief, not a generic pitch template
CSF asks for four specific things inside 60 seconds. Most applicants borrow a Y Combinator or Shark Tank pitch structure, which is built for investors deciding whether to fund an idea and not for a fellowship deciding whether to invest training time in an already running business. Use this script timestamp instead, aimed specifically at what CSF says it wants:
| Time | Content | What to prove |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:12 | The problem | Name the specific customer and the specific pain and not a market size statistic |
| 0:12–0:27 | The solution | What you built and why it’s different, in plain language that a non expert reviewer can follow |
| 0:27–0:42 | Progress so far | A hard number: revenue, customers, retention, partnerships, growth rate . This is the section that separates funded applicants from rejected ones |
| 0:42–0:60 | What the Fellowship changes | Name the specific gap CSF closes for you — access to Ghana/UK ecosystem, coaching, the £2,000 equity-free Fellows Fund, or peer network — not a generic “this would help us grow” |
Notice progress gets the largest or second-largest share of your time. Founders instinctively over invest in explaining the problem (because it feels persuasive) and under invest in proof of traction (because it feels like bragging). For this specific fellowship, traction is the single most scrutinised eligibility criterion, so it deserves the most concrete, number heavy sentence in your script.
3. Write for the ear, not the eye then cut 15%
A one minute spoken script is roughly 130–150 words at a natural, unhurried pace. Most first time applicants write 200+ words, then either speed talk to fit the limit (which reads as nervous) or get cut off mid sentence by the platform’s recorder. Two things almost nobody mentions:
- Write your script, read it aloud, time it, then cut 15% of the words. Every script sounds faster in your head than out loud, and CSF committees are known to mark down videos that clearly exceed the limit.
- Avoid sentence structures that require a build up. “What if I told you that millions of farmers across East Africa struggle every single day with…” this sentence burns 8 seconds before you have said anything concrete. Instead Open cold, for example “Two million smallholder farmers in Kenya lose 30% of their harvest to poor storage. We built this product to fix that.”
4. The recording setup that actually matters (and the parts that don’t)
Committees also assess founders from farms, market stalls, and small offices across 40+ Commonwealth countries and are not expecting a studio production, and evidence of a scrappy but functioning business often reads better than a slick video. Here are where to spend your effort:
- Audio over video, every time. A reviewer will forgive a slightly grainy phone camera but they will not forgive a pitch they had to strain to hear. Record somewhere with no fan, traffic, or market noise in the background, even a spare bedroom with the door closed beats an office with an open window.
- Film horizontally (landscape), not vertically. Application portals commonly embed videos in a widescreen player; vertical phone video gets pillar boxed with black bars on both sides, which looks unpolished on review.
- Frame yourself from the chest up, not a full body shot from across the room. They need to see your face and expression, since this is also implicitly assessing whether you’re a credible, capable communicator to represent your venture at an in-person bootcamp.
- Show one product/traction visual if you can, but don’t over-produce it. A five-second cutaway to your actual product, a screenshot of order volume, or your storefront can do more evidentiary work than a sentence of narration — but only if it’s real and quick. Slick B-roll with stock footage reads as compensating for weak substance.
5. Avoid these five mistakes that quietly sink strong applicants
- Leading with the founder’s personal story instead of the business. Your origin story in this video does not matter, save that for the written “why you’re the right team” section elsewhere in the application. Using pitch seconds on your backstory instead of traction is the single most common time misallocation.
- Vague traction language — Do not make the mistake of using vague stats. If you only have one number to share, this is the sentence to spend it on.
- Describing the ask as generic instead of specific. The committee can tell within a sentence whether you have actually read what the programme offers (bootcamp in Accra, Capstone in London, the £2,000 Fellows Fund, coaching) versus applying to every fellowship with a copy and paste ask.
- Going over time and getting cut off mid-sentence. This isn’t just a technical error but also signals to a the committee that you didn’t rehearse or respect the constraints of the program, which undercuts the operational discipline impression you want a growth stage founder to project.
- Treating it as a video assignment instead of evidence. The strongest pitches functions as a compressed proof-of-eligibility, not a persuasive sales pitch. Remember, you are not trying to convince a customer to buy but trying to show a fellowship committee, in 60 seconds, that you already clear the bar the fellowship has publicly set.
6. A rehearsal method that beats reciting from memory
One of the major tips you should take from this article is the avoidance of memorization technique. Do not memorize a script word for word. Founders who do this sound stiff, and losing a word mid recitation causes visible panic on camera. Instead, follow these steps:
- Write out full bullet points (not full sentences) for each of the four sections.
- Practice explaining each bullet conversationally, out loud, five or six times, letting the wording vary slightly each time.
- Record a few practice takes and watch them back muted first. You will notice pacing and body language issues faster without being distracted by your own words.
- Do your final take once you can hit all four sections comfortably under 58 seconds without looking at notes. Leaving 2 seconds of buffer protects you from being cut off by the platform’s autostop.
7. Before you submit
- Confirm the video plays back correctly in the exact file format and size the application portal requests. Broken uploads are a real and entirely avoidable rejection reason.
- Watch it once more specifically considering these questions “does a stranger who knows nothing about your industry understand the problem, solution, proof, and ask by the end?” If the committee has to pause and rewind to understand any one section, that section needs simplifying, not lengthening.
- Remember that CSF explicitly states applications cannot be edited once submitted. Treat your final video the same way you would treat the rest of the form: locked and checked.
GoodLuck!
