[UPDATE] The lessons I learnt from a startup event

I posted here 4 days ago asking whether or not I should attent a 24 hours start your own startup event. Link to the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/9wt6co/would_you_guys_attend_this_startup_event/?utm_source=reddit-android

Lessons learnt:

1) We had to pitch our idea to several entrepreneurs and investors (some were big guys) multiple times. The thing that is important when you're pitching to an investor is to try to blend in the vision of your startup. We just spewed out cold hard facts about the startup we came up with, but the investors also wanted to hear our the why (why do we do and want to do this), the vision and we should've brought them on a journey though the pitch.

2) The way you present yourself and the idea is very important. We saw pretty mediocore ideas with a great presentation which got the investors excited. Great ideas with shy and not so articulate presenters got less excitement from the investors. So basically: being socially skilled / charismatic really helps. I've heard this often, but you don't really realize this until you see it in real life (I didn't).

3) Networking is very important. One guy in my team already has a startup and has pitched a lot of times before investors. He got the chance to pitch in front of them through networking. Just at this event for example, he was always trying to talk to the investors and finance guys to build new connections. One big entrepreneur actually hooked up with him on LinkedIn. He said that he also cold emails investors but it is much easier to get in front of them if you've already met them / got referred to them by someone they know.

4) Before this event, I was trying to make money with selling t shirts, the stuff that everyone does. Right after the event I decided to stop with it because I actually got to realise how stupid it is. Don't do things like dropshipping, selling t shirts, etc. unless you absolutely can't otherwise. You have to get creative and find a way to bootstrap something real. Selling online today is also crazy hard. I for example talked to two big software entrepreneurs about customer acquisition costs for e-commerce stores. I basically said something along the lines of: if I start a new online store, my CAC can be €10 and they both started laughing. Marketing costs a heck ton of money. If you're going to do generic things like selling pillows, don't do it. Everyone else is doing it.

These are just some of the things I learned as a beginner. Just typed this quickly out on my phone. I'll later post more in the comments.

Edit: couple more

5) When starting something with others, make sure you and your co-founders are not the same. Meaning that each one should be unique and good in something different. For example: one whiz kid, one great sales person and someone with industry experience and connections.

6) Doing something highly ambitious isn't harder than doing something small. You can work a lot on a big ambition or work a lot on something way less ambitious. Example: someone can have an idea for a world changing app and work 80/hours on it. A lot of other entrepreneurs also work 80/hours but are doing way less ambitious things, like running a restaurant. Both work the same hours but there's a clear difference in goals.

submitted by /u/JamesBaltonbirg
[link] [comments]

from Entrepreneur https://ift.tt/2Fsy0Dl