First VC Pitch Today

Wow. What a day today has been. It’s been half tiring and half exciting. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been drilling down on the business proposition we’re making here and preparing for the arduous task of raising capital from total strangers.

Here’s some background. I’ve started no less than 6 different companies in the last 10 years. I’m always seen as the one person who doesn’t just get ideas but who will slave away at nights and appear with a working prototype in due time. Programming is the one skill that I’m most grateful for having as it lets me bring the things I dream about to life when the itch is just right.

In all these years, I’ve managed to live in my office, go days without food (generally because I forgot, not because I was broke) and never really have to seek any capital from the outside world. Survival is just something I’ve gotten used to in all this time (another thing I am grateful for). I remember back in the DOT BOMB days hearing about all the money that was being spent left and right - honestly I could never relate to just WHAT you do with that much cash - I was making great progress with so much less.

Bootstrapping is not a fancy word here or a badge of entitlement, it’s a way of life plain and simple. Which is what has made the last couple of months so unique. This is the first time where I’ve not only thought about raising capital but I’m also seriously pursuing it. There are so many other things that are required for going this route, but for me, the most interesting challenge is moving past the lifestyle mindset.

As a serial, parallel entrepreneur, I was more interested in seeing IF I could make some things happen and then if I could support myself and my team off of it. It was never a concern to build a BIG company, just one that kept our bellies full and money in the bank. For a long time, that’s been more than enough and I don’t regret it (much).

Now, however, I’m getting a bit more aggressive in my demands on my work. It’s not that I think my ideas need to work harder or better, it’s that I need to work less. I used to be able to pull 100+ hour weeks like it was nothing. I used to not have to worry about anyone. That’s all different. I’ve got a family to take care of and my body’s finally putting up a fight and saying “Slow the f*ck down, allstar”. It’s starting to feel like the time to listen.

Naturally, this doesn’t mean working less. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s moved on to working SMARTER. It’s an adage that is thrown around quite a bit, but the reality is it’s hard as heck to live it. For someone like myself, generally overflowing with ideas and innovations, to focus down at this level is really, well, remarkable (and that’s just from my vantage point).

So, back to the pitch. I was up all night re-working the very ugly Power Point I threw together with my notes in preparation for this first pitch today. I found this useful PDF over at the eVenturing site and I went through it and tried to do it their way. That didn’t work out too much. Even though Nyla assured me “They won’t care what it looks like”, dammit, I do. I don’t have it in me to do a bad presentation - I’d rather just talk in that case.

We met in Soho to do the first full-fledged pitch. It was actually meant to be a practice run, but apparently our VC friend didn’t know that so he evaluated on the full. He had some excellent advice for me and I will be getting the answers to his questions in the next week at our first industry event.

All I can say is wow. It was just hard to describe being able to describe to someone what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and everything else and have them understand it. I’m proud I got it. Zak was surprised I hadn’t practiced, but I guess I’ve been practicing this for months, maybe even my whole life.

I’ll be twice as good the next time, I know that much. I can’t wait to hear my 10th. Ahh well, a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving.

I was going to annouce the new company today, but I’m going to wait until Monday. Our blog just might be up by then, but regardless, the secret won’t be so secret come Monday. I hope you’re all still with me, the journey is just beginning.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Go kill some Turkey.