[creamyhorror]

> "He pitched to me a new startup idea"

That only sounds unnatural because of ordering (which is a little like old-style English). Reordered, it reads just fine:

"He pitched a new startup idea to me"

The "pitch [object] to [party]" usage is the older/more established, I think, although recent (American) usage has somewhat shifted to "pitch [party]".

It's not a big deal either way. Maybe ivix is from the UK or somewhere with different usage.