Pitch Perfect, a spinoff from Halifax consultancy Headspace Design, will make its long-awaited debut in the autumn, after its developers conduct beta tests in the next few months.

The new company allows commercial design consultants and other professionals to improve the look of their proposals to potential clients, and enjoy more flexibility and ease-of-use when collaborating on pitches. The idea is that a professional submitting a visually appealing pitch with lots of design features will have a leg up over competitors who submit bland Word documents.

Headspace design director Kyle Racki said the company has been working on the Pitch Perfect product diligently for several months, a process that was accelerated by hiring dedicated developer Jonathan Down for the spinoff.

They will begin private one- to two-month beta tests (meaning they ask people they know to test it out) in about three weeks, and are planning a public beta (that is, inviting a broad range of people new to the company to give it a whirl) in June. The full launch is slated from August or September.

 “The product is shaping up quite nicely and we’ve begun executing our marketing strategy to generate sign-ups,” said Racki in an interview. “In March, we finalized our branding of the product and relaunched an updated website.” The enhanced website contains a blog, a sneak preview of the product interface, and a sign-up form for the beta.

Racki and his Headspace co-founder Kevin Springer first showcased Pitch Perfect at the first DemoCamp Halifax in September 2011, and set out to develop it as a separate business. Then they encountered a problem common to service companies trying to produce a product: they got really busy with their consulting business, and it was difficult to find the resources to develop the product.

The hiring of Down, which Headspace achieved with support from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, overcame this problem because his job is dedicated completely to getting Pitch Perfect out the door.

What they’ve come up with is a site that allows an individual or members of an agency to work on a number of proposals for various clients, collaborating easily to produce the best pitch possible. The system has “content buckets” where the user can place content that is used in more than one proposal. And it features design themes and templates, so that each proposal is custom designed for each client.

Agencies will soon be able to sign up for a 30-day trial, after which they can subscribe to a paid account — at a discounted price during the beta test — or use the limited free account.

Headspace has incorporated a shell company for Pitch Perfect and will transfer Down, Racki and Springer to the company in time, making sure that Headspace has all the supports needed to thrive. Springer said the company is considering raising capital for Pitch Perfect, but needs to find investors who would also bring industry expertise and contacts.

 “One thing is for sure, people are very excited about Pitch Perfect,” he said. “We already have many sign-ups from all over the world and do see hitting the 1,000 mark by year’s end, to be modest.”