five things for startups to expect from mentors & the other way round

the estc2009 innovation seed camp will introduce mentoring sessions for the pitching startups. the diverse spectrum of mentors present at estc covers founders, investors & the industry - laying the ground for interesting feedback sessions. so what can startups expect from those mentors? and the other way round, what do the mentors expect from startups?

let´s break it down into two sets of five :

5 things startups can expect from mentors
1) critical questions - no answers, no solutions.
2) instant feedback on how each and every startup gets its story across. if the pitch is bad, it will be made obvious instantly. that´s a good thing.
3) the impression a startup has on a mentor will be based 95% on pitch, 5% on executive summary et. al.
4) mentors have contacts (businesses, investors, lawyers,...) and some will help you with them - if they value the startup. if not, not more then polite friendliness can be expected.
5) not every mentor will be interesting for every project (and the other way round). that´s ok.

and now, let´s flip sides:

5 things mentors expect form startups
1) passionate, enthusiastic open entrepreneurs are welcome. self centered show-offs looking for adulation will not feel served well.
2) feedback can be direct & rather blunt - better from mentors then your customers, investors or potential employees. so startups must not be offended but take the feedback as is its & do with it what they think is best for them.
3) mentors will want to get ideas on what´s happening in the markets. some will search for investment.
4) mentors invest their energy for prepared teams. startups using the "next best" slide set available, preferring the check their tweets et al. rather then to get the most out of the sessions will receive what they seed.
5) and finally, mentors look forward to critical, even controversial discussions not yea-sayers. so let´s give them a good time!

for more on mentors see also the intersting interview of dave mcclure by mike butcher of techcrunch europe. for an overview of pitching opportunities head over to the finance mindmap. finally, to refresh the memories, find enclosed the start.upICT blog intro on start.up competitions.

startup competitions

View more documents from hannes.a.schwetz.

how to turn-off investors and what business plans & sausages have in common: best of web2.0 expo belin 2008

the second incarnation of o‘ reillys web2.0 conference took place at the bcc - well placed at the center of berlin, next to alexanderplatz.

the new location was a welcomed change to last years 60ies-bunker style berliner messe facilites like a „community lounge“ promoted interaction between attendees and with last year‘s food problems solved people were happy to focus on the topics at hand.

besides the „big pictures“ keynotes for tim o‘ reilly, john lily (mozilla), martin varsavsky (fon) et al., the show brought a wide range of in depth topics , ranging from business to marketing and design to development.

the collective presentations of the show can be found on slideshare, respectively on the conference website . going through the (until now) uploaded 42 presentations on slideshare is too much noise, so let‘s setup up best of the show. start with the five best events of the show:

1) pitch camp
pitch camp was a driving event. 12 companies were selected to pitch for two minutes each, in front of a 200+ crowd and a grand jury (ranging from techcrunch and venturebeart to accel and index ventures, see here).

the short intro giving on the art of pitching can be reduced to 3 points:
1) clear view of business
this is necessary to be able to communicate the start.up (business objectives, market segments, problems solved)
2) understand your audience and what they care about
who are they, what do they want, why would they care about you.
3) build 3 month, 9-12 mont and long term business objective

there were book recommendations as well, crossing the chasm (again!) & blue ocean strategy, chan kim, renee mauborgne, understand the problems of your market.

also interesting to note were comments by the jury what turns them OFF, when the listen to pitches.

investors

• lack of ambition displayed
• lack of character and leadership
• homework not done (not knowing the background of people start.ups pitch to, not done the business metrics, not having market figures, competitor ignorance, lack of execution plan, ...)
• lack of understanding potential customers, investors, partners

media

• old stories
• no potential to bring journalist on techmeme/digg for x weeks
• clones of anything
• no magic sauce begin

potential partners

• telling the potential partner how cool the start.up is
• not telling or not being able to tell what the partner will exactly (=cash) gain from partnership, when and how.
• unfulfillable expectations from partners (like: just put my link on the google landing page...“)

how to get in contact?

• through references
• email (keep it short, send a compelling 2 sentence pitching email)

not just also judging on the start.ups at pitch camp but also discussing on stage was:

2) keynote speaker yossi vardi

being a serial entrepreneur himself and a rather successful venture capitalists, yossi vardi gave some interesting statements at the discussion with tim o‘ reilly.
that at the end of the days successful vc just have luck, is quite a open statement.
also that it is very important to check the vc a start.up is interested in. is he friendly? do entrepreneurs work repeatedly with him?
and that business plans and sausages have one thing in common: only people who do not know how they are made eat them.

this made the 2nd of the best web2.0expo berlin events. read more about moo, user interfaces and user action through design in the 2nd part of the upcoming web2.0expo roundup.

upcoming european pitching events

a brief roundup of upcoming events to present start.ups:

FOWA
TechCrunch UK has a contest for startups in the field of Future of Web Apps coming up. location london, 8-10. oct. 2008.
a 60 second video is required. there are plenty of examples up here. this one is especially worthwhile looking at.

leWeb
already mentioned here, now they just posted their participants as of 25th of Sept, 375 people coming form 19 nations. application is open until the 10th of oct. details see here. high praises about the event with detailed program here.

Venture Lounge
...is coming to vienna on the 21st of november. apply here until the 10th of nov. 2008. detailed program can be found here.
update (01/10/08): and there is their technology and media event coming up as well, munich is the location and the 28th oct. 2008 the day. applications until the 20th of oct. 2008 possible.