Being Mark Cohen

I spent the day at the Tech23 event in Surry Hills today, seeing some of what the Australian startup scene has to offer.  There were a wide array of startups – some pitching to get started and some already off the ground, pitching to get equity to try fire up the business and take it to the next level.  One or two who didn’t need investors at all, who were looking for relationships.

The key take-aways for me were that (possibly a massive and cruel generalisation) the success indicators can really be summed up as two points:

1. The crew working on a project should have significant experience in the target market between them.
2. The team are led by someone who is at least a little charismatic, and is visibly passionate about their space.

If you can’t do an elevator pitch you’ll lose what little attention you attract.  As an extension of that, if you can’t explain your idea in an elevator pitch you’re not going to be able to sell it to the person you’re pitching.  That doesn’t make it wrong, but it does tell you you’re selling it wrong – or maybe just to the wrong target audience.

For more info on who presented and what they showed off, search Twitter for #tech23 and check out the site at http://www.tech23.com.au