That stoked fears among international federations that Rio's ambitious pitch to hold the Games entirely within the confines of a city that looks spectacular but requires urgent infrastructure upgrades would be a bold legacy vision too far.
In what was probably the most ambitious pitch of his young life, Marat Karatov asked President Medvedev for 1 million euros (~$1.39 million) to fund the open-source ReactOS project after a brief presentation.
The following April, I made an even more ambitious pitch.
Spirited performances from the young cast keep things buoyant even when the script overstretches itself (which it does, frequently), and there's something admirably ambitious about pitching one housemate as being troubled by visions of St Francis who won't tell him whether God exists or not.
For some participants, the gathering offered an opportunity to pitch ambitious projects to a potential patron.
Even if they don't get the rich prices that ambitious bankers might pitch them (or that their VCs assigned them before that), they can always grow into the valuations their investors want to see.
"ConHome", as it is known in Tory circles, offers punditry, gossip, political philosophy, policy wonkery, a comprehensive roundup of Westminster news, appeals for help with Conservative causes, sales pitches from ambitious MPs, and sometimes raw contributions from party members and supporters.
When Bill Rauch applied to become the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, in 2007, he pitched an ambitious ten-year project: the festival would commission thirty-seven new plays about moments of change in American history, on the model of Shakespeare's thirty-seven-play canon.
Sam's Town, the second album by the Killers, from Las Vegas, is an alluring collection of ambitious anthem-rock originals pitched in a style mid-way between Bowiesque arch theatricality and Springsteen-style heart-on-sleeve sincerity, which also handily doubles as the world's first Mormon rock concept album.
During a presentation for Heinz, Peggy pitches an ambitious, cutting-edge "ballet of beans" ad, which does not impress the Heinz executives.
Lahiru Thirimanne edged to second slip and Sangakkara, who has two centuries and six fifties against England, got a thin edge behind after an ambitious drive to a similarly pitched delivery moving away outside off-stump.
