It’s 8.20 am in London. At 2 pm we make our last pitch of the week to the Seedcamp board of investors. We have five minutes to present, followed by ten minutes of Q&A. In that time, we have to condense years of thinking, building and selling into the few brief points that really matter – the points that conjure the vision of a truly great business.
Regardless of the outcome, this has been a fantastic opportunity. We have discussed potential partnerships with three other Seedcamp companies, including Sparkeo, Wordy and Publisha. We have met with mentors who have already connected us with two of the top CEOs in world publishing. And we have met face t0 face with investors from at least ten different firms.
We also had a master class with Dave McClure on pitching to VCs. Another with Ryan Carson on simple ways to analyse powerful metrics. And another with Jos and Ben White, the entrepreneurs behind MessageLabs and Notion Capital who recently achieved a $700 million dollar exit.
The mentor sessions have probably been the most valuable part, but also the most exhausting. Each session is between 30 and 40 minutes. You begin with a short pitch and then you ask for feedback around specific topics. Frequently you’ll have a group that will be adamant that you must do X, Y and Z. And the very next group will insist that no matter what happens, you must not do X, Y and Z. It’s confusing, daunting and draining. But also inspiring, compelling and exhilarating. It requires thick skin and a calm head so you can sift through the conflicting advice and think about it objectively.
We’ve learned a ton of new stuff at Seedcamp. Gareth, Gavin, Barry and I will be bringing it all home and we have a plan for getting what’s in our heads into yours. It’s all part of a fantastic new project that Cognician is working on with Old Mutual and I’ll be telling you all about it very soon.
Good luck to all the Seedcamp teams today! Every one of you guys is brilliant and it’s been a pleasure sharing this experience with you. Let’s stay in touch and do great things!
It’s important that we get good and detailed feedback on how mentoring sessions should be run as we also need to “train” mentors to be better.
Was great talking to you guys at Seedcamp will be watching closely