6th
Innovate!Europe workshop in Bern
On monday March 31st 09, I’ve been sent off to Bern in order to present Minsh at innovate!Europe’s workshop. Innovate!Europe is a contest organized for european technology, media, and telecom startups. The winner in the end gets a spot to spend 3 months in Guidewire Group’s studio program in the silicon valley this summer!
The atmosphere in Bern was great, thanks to the analysts from the Guidewire Group: Chris Shipley, Carl Thompson, and Mike Sigal. You did a great job, guys, thank you for the comments! But also thanks to all the startupers that have pitched, given feedback, and discussed, including Amazee, Sobees, Arimaz, Mixin, Hyperweek, Gbanga, Doodle, and others. Thank you all for this great day!
Below, a few pictures (courtesy of Amazee Gregory) from the pitches and also some take-home messages about slides and pitches.
- Present your slides with 3 important points to remember, 3 things to think about, no more.
- It’s important to have a general overview of the product, but you have to drill down into some specific points to show how far it has been thought through.
- Team slide: show why these people are qualified to work this business.
- Never say there are no competitors. There are always competitors, even if not directly doing the exact same things as you.
- Show that you have a plan, not necessarily the details, but show that you know where you are going
- Think about what are the risks, including, but not only, the competition. Show how to mitigate them.
- Follow up at the end of the pitch: “we are looking for this and that”, and make a sexy statement at the end so that people you are looking for will come to you afterwards.
Matthias from Gbanga!
Pierre and his deskfriend :)
Paul or “Doodle guy” as we liked to call him ;)
Barbara and Minsh
