Last week I was looking for a graduation internship, so I spent most of my time on some companies’ websites to find good opportunities, especially in consultancies. And I eventually got to speak about it with a friend, also trying to find an internship. It turns out that he’s been reached by a start-up for a 6 months job in Paris, plus 6 months in San Francisco about this web-customer data analysis. I think he’s been so lucky to receive such an amazing offer, even if I’ve not so much interest for that specific topic, and I start thinking “why not doing an internship in a start-up myself ?” It’s something I’d never really thought about before, but as I’m interested by the start-up world and because I think I would enjoy this peculiar and exiting kind of job, I start looking around for some opportunities. So I check out some career/job websites without finding any topic that I’d be really interested in, and I ask to myself what I would really be exited about in a job like that. In fact, I’m exited about creation, about giving birth to something, and thus I would be more interested by an early-stage start-up. Finally I remember I have a friend in a business school who’s told me once that many of her friends were planning to found a start-up at the end of their studies. I get back in touch with her and it turns out that she’s looking for a co-founder with technological knowledge to help her build her start-up. I personally have a profound technical background, and she’s planning to join a business incubator next January, when I’ll be back in France. She pitches me her idea and it seems quite cool (something about urban bicycles, roughly speaking), so it sounds like a perfect opportunity for me to experience the birth of a start-up. I eventually start doing the procedures with my school and the person in charge of internships reaches me to tell me that I won’t be authorized to do this because the company doesn’t exist yet so they can’t make any contract. Moreover it seems to risky for them because if the start-up fails I will have to do another 6 month internship in order to graduate, which I can understand. So I get back to my friend, a bit disappointed, and I remember that there is an entrepreneurship section back in my school, with people probably looking for this kind of projects for next year. So I propose to make an announcement about her project and her research for a co-founder on my school’s Facebook page, which she accepts. So far she’s been contacted by at least three people interested in her idea so I hope it will work !

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Eventually we’ve got to talk about pitches and I told her that I’ve been to some start-up events that were very interesting on the topic. Especially, what I’ve learned from STHLM Tech event is that you really need20161010_184106 to practice your pitch. And going to this kind of meet-ups can definitely help start-up founders because you can get some tips about what to say, how to be on the stage, etc. For instance, I found that the first pitcher reacted quite badly towards provocative invectives of the host. Of course the goal of this event was to criticize pitches so everybody can learn, and the host may seem a bit harsh but you shouldn’t take it personal in my opinion. The objective of this is to get a feedback on your pitch, even if it can make you feel dreadful, it is done on purpose to make you want to change what didn’t work in your speech. Well, in the end I hope she’ll manage to find a co-founder and I also strongly advised her to practice her pitch a lot, and get inspiration from this kind of events.

This little experience really taught me that sometimes network can be crucial. So if you want to build your own start-up, you should definitely talk about it around you because you don’t always know where help can come from. And obviously, going to specific start-up events for networking is an excellent way to start. For that matter I recommand to read Kevin’s article, if you’re still not convinced about that. And finally, the more you talk about your idea to people with different backgrounds, the more you’ll feel easy about it and I think it will help you to improve your pitch in the end.

So Alycia, ceo of ACE, invited all the team to this event. As you can see on the previous posts, big part of the class went also. So… I will just let here the tips I found about the 3 pitches to avoid saying what the others have already said:

  • Sometimes you know so well your idea, you can´t really explain it.

So this happened most with the second start-up. She was struggling to communicate her idea, because for her it was so easy to say one sentence to understand her start-up. But when I saw the faces of the others, there was confusion in almost all the faces. The communication was bad, so the host said “I think you know so good your idea that for you is easy to understand, but for us is not”. If you are going to explain your idea to an audience, maybe more practice with random persons can help to improve your communication.


  • More simple please

So this happened more with the last speakers, they were talking about so many different things, it was just too many data to understand even the basic concept. For example, I know the third start-up wants to talk about the endless possibilities, but. sometimes less is more.


  • Innovative Business Models 

I have seen this trend in many articles, places, blogs, etc. A need of new ways of managing the companies, so maybe you can satisfy this need.


Image result for peace

  • Chill out!

I don´t know if it´s because I am more emotional for being Latino-American, but for me the first start-up speaker was really aggressive in his answers to the hosts. I think that he was so passionate about his start-up that he felt attacked when the hosts criticized him or the start-up. I think you have to be passionate about your idea, but you have to be able to control yourself and be open to constructive critics.

 

 

I have been to the STHLM Tech Meetup yesterday in Slussen.

Was a great event with interesting Startups:

  1. Looklet: Photographing model and dresses at different times and places being able to combine everything with the software. Being dynamic and scalable.
  2. MinaTjänster: My favourite. Having all your subscritions clearly in an app and being able to unsubscribe e.g. phone contracts by swiping a finger. The next market they want to enter is Germany, I am looking forward to that.
  3. Smart Classroom Manager: A software to control everything in pre-school: attendance, learning activities, …..Pitch MinaTjänster @STHLMTech Meetup

Also theinvestors for startups Vinnova and ALMI  talked about their work.

Looking forward to the next one in May!