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.

ignite session at web2.0expo berlin

there is not only a slot about "how to pitch" as recently reported at this years web2.0expo berlin. also a "start.up ignite web2.0 epxo europe" (this name is a bit long, but well...) session is announced. the time line is rather tight though: 10th of oct. to apply.

pitching "how to" session at web2.0expo berlin

events coming in at a steady pace now: web2.0epxo berlin pitch camp x.0 - how to pitch your company for fame and fortune. 21. oct. 2008, berlin. techcrunch moderated.

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.

three things to consider when pitching. impressions from the ESTC business idea contest

the winners of this year's ESTC business idea contest 2008 are: innoraise (3.), D.O.O.M (2) & sindice (1.). congratulations! three things to take away from this year's contest: 1) prepare for your audience, 2) choose your name carefully & 3) show a demo.

innoraise' focused presentation made people following their lines. they explained the problem, market size, business model and the like. the audience feelt respected and taken serious. that always arrives well, regardless if it is a jury, a vc, a customer or a new employee. some competitors tried to reuse presentations that they had produced for other events. That did not work.

D.O.O.M. gave a good presentation. they made it on the 2nd place by a focused business idea and through actually showing screenshots of their software. not insisting on taking the world over instantly helps. but simply showing what they did, made the point instantly. the name however, should be worth a reconsidertion.

sindice made their point - and to sell a kind of semantic meta api is not an easy job from the beginning - by showing a live demo. that's risky however briought involvement of the audience. showing what they did or can do with their project, simply transported the message.


standing up, presenting your ideas in front of colleauges, scientists, potential consumers & competitors and venture capitalists clearly payed off well.



pictures courtesy of wolfram anderle.

start.up resources bonanza

starting a high tech business is an outstanding challenge. the amount of internet start.up ressources can be overwhelming for novices. while one type of entrepreneur prefers to jump in the cold water, some try to avoid common mistakes. books are an alternative. they are structured, but can take some time to get through.

googling "start up rules" on the other hand gives some 9.300.000 results. separating the relevant "signals" out of this noise is time consuming. scanning the steady stream of blogposts of the start.up blog blogroll resulted in the following qualified linklist:

financing

half-assed startup: how do i start my company and keep my day job

how to save money running a start up

hot to get a vc: greg msadoo, partner at sequoia capital (podcast)

general

how not to start your start.up

10 rules for startups

sequoia elements of sustainable companies & writing a business plan

lessons of ycombinator: things i´d do differently after 2 startups

sales

hot to ask for the order

four words: make big promises; over-deliver

vc

what´s the best material for the pre-pitch introduction to a vc

what not to wear, when you see the vc (not so serious link)

management

management trinity one on ones (podcast)

how to fire someone (well, almost) (podcast)

personal

17 tips to help you get leaner and fitter

a guide to cutting back when you feel overwhelmed

pr
pr secrets for startups

challenge your start.up idea before pitching investors

venture and business angels money for web start.ups is scare around vienna. thus, when approaching them, there is just this "one" first chance to leave a good impression. meeting other entrepreneurs and discussing your start.up idea before can be crucial therefore. there are three different approaches to that. work up from step three to one.

one, compete and challenge on an international or european level.
participipate at seedcamp, pitch at library house or apply for the upcoming demo in munich (if you can afford so). find more on those competitions on the start.up mindmap. this international exposure gives a good indicator on the competitiveness of the start.up sector.
there are plenty of good ideas, smart brains and enthusiastic people out there, all fighting for investments, staff, customers and media attention. fearing to compete against them is no different then to hide one´s head in the sand. like last years bootcamp finalist, zemanta, funding can get a lot easier.

two, go out an present at the national level. look out for the barcamps around. there are plenty around. spending 30 minutes to present and discuss your start.up in from of a smart bunch can not only be challenging, but as well inspiring. do not mind to present more then once, showing your progress every time. there you can expect to get feedback from hardcore tech topics, user interface desing to grafical ideas, depending on the crowd present. barcamps are no one way story though. just trying to "get" something will not work. share your insights, give opinions and trying to help out others with what you already learned is an imperative.

three, again one scale smaller, visit even more casual community events. visit webmontag or open coffe club. for the webmontag @ werkzeugH or metalab in vienna, be prepared for a five minute pitch, no more. open coffe club is more casual. just sit down and talk with people. at the 6th open coffe club vienna for example, there were around 20 people. star.ups in every stage, bloggers, people which just came back from international engagements or just moved from london to vienna. willingness to share information is required, such that events like these work.

this three steps require little in funds but a lot in willingess to take feedback and give it back tho the community. they can substantially increase the likelyness to succeed.

6 minutes to tell your story: demo08

again, demo2008, a launchpad for new high tech start.ups in the u.s. is running.
the idea of demo is, that around 70 start.ups unveil their companies in front of broad a venture and press audience. everyone gets around 6 minutes on the stage to tell their message.
besides all the press-fuzz, attending demo does not at all guarantee you bringing home plenty of vc money and it´s pricy.

however, there is a great thing about demo for every start.up.
all the pitches can be followed live (no firefox on windows though) or offline. that gives plenty of examples, how others present their company. something you normally would not get a chance to, because that happens in the closed offices of VCs.
there are good and bad examples, sure. but what a resource to learn to focus. to bring across the message in 6 minutes, how to present and make anyone want know more about you and your start.up.

for anyone who likes to search the archives, system one, an outstanding austrian high tech start.up, was there in 2006.