Room for improvement – 13 lessons learned!
Room for improvement –
13 lessons learned!
I moved to London with two of my co-founders. We are members of a team of 6, who got started in Szeged about a year ago. The invitation to London was the icing on the cake, on top of the initial funding we received from Seedcamp (Europe’s best seed investment and mentoring program) in Tel Aviv earlier in 2012.
Doesn’t this sound terrific?
To us it does, and we want to take advantage of being around the Silicon Roundabout. But how did we get from Szeged into the global startup community? You may think that one is spoiled for choice as a startuper in Budapest. And indeed, an increasing number of people talk about startups, venture capital; more and more events are taking place. In rural Hungary, this is not so evident.
We had big dreams when we formed our team, and we knew that we want to build a technology company for global markets. So I Googled “startup”, and “entrepreneurship”. That’s how I found the European Entrepreneurship Foundation’s website. (Later in the course we discovered that everybody have heard about this course from a friend or a newsletter, we were the only team who came by Googling it)
Applying to participate in EEF’s Venture Accelerator Course was the best decision in that phase of our business development. We were very happy to be selected among the lucky teams who got into the course. The course was in English and that forced us to go out of our comfort zone. It certainly took us to the next level, as they promised. Thank you EEF, for organizing and hosting such a program.
Here are our lessons learned!
1. Being criticised is good
After class we felt lousy, not having been good enough. Later we discovered that this “not good enough” feeling is normal; actually you will never be ready to launch a business. You must learn to handle criticism as helpful feedback (and you’ll get a car load of it, if the course is hosted by Peter Zaboji), fix as you can and move on.
2. Talk easy
There is a great difference between talking to your customers (who know what you talk about) and talking to dummies (like friends, potential investors, other entrepreneurs and so on). They have no idea what you do. When I first presented my pitch about our business idea nobody got it. It took us 5 weeks to discover, that what we are building is actually marketing software. (We thank you David) It got much easier thereafter …
3. Craft a better presentation.
Use bigger letters on your slides; even when you think that classy, grey, well designed small letters look good. You must make sure that your pitch is understandable because it’s your fault if they don’t get it. You will tell your pitch in 3 minutes, then 60 seconds in front of the class, and in 5 minutes in front of businessmen and investors.
4. Keep asking questions
…but don’t ask too silly questions like what a pitch is. If there is a networking opportunity, you should turn yourself into social mode. Follow up on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or email.
5. Write a decent executive summary
…and rewrite it because it is still not good enough. We rewrote ours 20 times, and it still keeps changing.
6. Improve your English
If you think you speak English (like I thought I speak), you are wrong.
7. Be concise
The people you talk to are very busy, and you are honoured if they answer the letter you send them. Write short, and make it easy to understand what are you talking about, and emphasize clearly what answer you expect.
8. People are different
If you use the professional words like ROI, target customers and monetisation, you will be told to not to use buzzwords. If you speak in plain language afterwards, you will be told to “speak business”!
9. Nobody will solve it for you
If you ask for advice then, whoever you talk to, that answer will be only a general answer to your specific question. Those entrepreneurs will never be able to answer your question in the deepness as you expect.
10. Value is what you provide for your customers
We had the business idea before the Venture Accelerator course; we just didn’t know how to talk about it. I had a great moment when I talked to Zoli Piroska. He asked me what the benefit is for our customers if they use our solution. “If they use our platform, they can make coupons to their Facebook Page and their website.” – I gave a very technical explanation. “Yes, but what is the value you give them?” –he asked again, and I answered, that “well, they can get email addresses and data about people who may be customers later.” (Gosh, still too technical!) “So you help businesses to get more customers, right?” – It sounded just so simple! He was right of course. It took me a whole week to absorb it.
11. Pick that cherry!
Once you made it to the Venture Accelerator, consider other participants as potential team mates. We attracted a great guy as co-founder from another startup team!
12. Make your homework
Attending a 10 week course must be a conversation, instead of a monologue. You have the opportunity to learn what you really want out of school, plus you pay for it. If you deliver well, you not only craft the essential things for your business (pitch, executive summary), but you also earn trust, which is one of the most valuable assets.
13. Role models
I left the best for last. Meeting those people who made it already is a great thing. You can ask them whatever you want. And you should ask them to introduce you to other people who may help your business.
Over to you
Are you convinced you have the potential? At what phase are you with your business development? What do you need to get to the next level? Have you tried to tell your business idea to your grandmother or a 7 year old? They will tell you straight if your pitch is good or not…
