The news that our Seedcamp application had succeeded was something of a mixed blessing.
Certainly the congratulatory email began promisingly enough:
Congratulations on being one of the 40 teams selected to come to London for the Seedcamp shortlistings!
But then:
Each team has 10 minutes with the judging panel: 3 minutes for the presentation and the rest for Q&A.
Three minutes to explain the beauty, elegance and power of what we had built followed by a grilling from a judgement panel.
Handily though, not only had they provided us with an example Powerpoint deck but also a conference call where we could talk to Seedcamp co-founder Reshma Sohoni and ask questions about the format of the presentation and the sorts of questions that will be asked. It was here that I made a potentially critical error of judgement.
Having studied the six slide example I noted that nowhere did the example company (previous winners I might add) mention how they planned to make money from their venture. I toyed with the idea of keeping my mouth shut but as is typically the case I could hold my tongue no longer:
JS – Hi, Jonathan from Advertag here, just a quick observation; nowhere in the example presentation did they mention how they planned to uhh… make money. I was under the impression that potential founders were rather fond of that part.
SC – Yes, that’s very important! Please put in how you plan to make money!
The sense of a competitive advantage dissolving away was affirmed no more than an hour later when a dedicated email emphasising the absolute importance of monetisation was received.
Nevertheless, we were quietly confident that we could deliver something concise and engaging. The questions might be tough but we felt we had answers. After all, Jon and I had spend the last two years ruminating over Advertag, the technology and it’s ramifications.
Still, to make Advertag’s first outing a room full of VC judges would certainly be termed ’straight in at the deep end’.
Our key learnings were:
- Showing that you have at least thought about how you will make money is every bit as important as you might think.
- Presentations don’t have to follow a set structure as long as you cover the important points; who you are, what you’ve got, the market, competitors and how you plan to make money.
- Conveying the essence of something in 3 minutes when it took a year to build is a great exercise.
Next up: Part 3 – The First Round Presentation
Ever been in a situation when you know you should say something, you don’t want to say it but end up saying it anyway? The comments are for debating such things and more!
