I pitched to a seed fund… I loved it!
It all started earlier this week. I had some crazy unrealistic ideas and wanted to share them with my mates on Skype. Just to hear they're crazy and unrealistic. Reality check, you know how it goes.
They said they're seeking funding with their new project and would gladly introduce me so I could get some opinions on my projects as well.
Next day I've got an email: You're pitching to a seed fund manager tomorrow. Via Skype. Prepare something.
Yeah. Awesome! No…wait, WHAT? What the hell should I show them?
Took me about 15 hours and a few episodes of Breaking Bad to find out what I really want to do. Then I created a nice presentation 100% compatible with Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule, made another cup of coffee, checked the presentation once again, decided it sucked badly, started doing an Excel spreadsheet, got scared how much money do I really need, and finally decided to go with a super-simplistic 2 pages-long .pdf that outlined my concept. More or less.
About 5 minutes before my pitch I felt fairy confident, knowing what I'm gonna say. Focused like Scrat on his acorn.
Then the conference call started and I noticed I was speaking to the whole office. It was supposed to be just one guy. Not cool. I started slowly introducing myself and making long stupid pauses because I honestly didn't know what to say.
Then, obviously bored to death, they asked me to discuss my ideas. I could feel they didn't like them …at first.
At some point, just when I felt that the discussion is slowly going to an end, something clicked in my brain and I went into attack mode. And I stayed like that for the next hour. Everything was crystal clear, my listeners appeared to be much more supportive, I found my groove. I'd hazard a guess that I wasn't the only one liking what I had to say. I passed to the next stage.
I've got only one advice, here it is: listen to that inner voice, it won't screw you.
Whatever happens now will be fine. I don't care. I just want more!
And hey, thanks!
*My audience probably was much nicer than I thought at the beginning, like 32534523 times nicer.
