Open Mics
Last Thursday iXperience hosted an Open Mic Night on the outdoor patio of the Bay Hotel, right down the street from the iX Village. I went over with some friends around 6, grabbed a seat on the couch under the heat lamp, and ordered dinner. It turns out the show didn't start until 7 (and our food came out at 7:01), but eventually the first acts made their way to the mic and started performing. There were a number of guitarists/ukuleleists and singers/singer-songwriters (including Rafi!), as well as poets, hip hop and Bhangra dancers, and a magician with a crazy card trick (though I'm pretty sure I know how he did it). It was a nice night (especially in our seats out of the wind) and was cool to see some talented performances from our classmates at iX.
Last night there was another chance to get in front of people and behind a mic, and this time I was one of the ones up on stage. Brookwood Capital, Aaron Fuchs's (iXperience CEO) investing company, hosted a pitch event at Workshop17. I had applied a few days ago with RealWorld, but did not secure one of the 5 spots at first. However, yesterday around noon I received an email from the organizers telling me a spot had opened up and asking if I wanted to participate. At first I declined, as I had little time to prepare and was feeling pretty under the weather, but I mulled it over and at 4 PM, just 2 hours before the event started, sent an email back saying I was in. I rehearsed the presentation twice, put on my suit (which I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to wear after bringing it all the way here), and made my way down to the Waterfront.
The pitch competition was held in the student lounge but I was the only iX student participating. The other companies included JumpIn Rides, Resistance Pictures, SLE Farming, and Mr. Cup Saver. JumpIn Rides, which offers an Uber-like service, but for longer car trips, went first, and I have to say I was a little intimidated. They have a full team working on the platform, have 1000s of users and rides, have secured previous rounds of funding, and were asking Brookwood for R2 million. RealWorld is essentially just an idea at this point, but I reminded myself that I was pitching mostly for the experience of pitching.
Next up was Resistance Pictures, which wants to be the next Vice but for South Africa, and their presentation made me feel a little better. The guy basically just ranted about the film industry for a while and then bragged about the "famous" people he knew by listing names, none of which I, or most others in the room seemed to have ever heard of. He was a nice act to follow.
I was up. I gave an abridged version of the presentation from the end of the Product Management class to fit into just 5-7 minutes, but was able to cover the problem and opportunity, our value proposition, the demo, the future, our business model and go-to-market plan, and the competitive landscape. I was happy with my presentation, as it covered a lot of the questions the judges (Aaron, his younger brother Seth, and his Brookwood Capital partner) had asked the other presenters. They did still have a few other questions about how I would get it off the ground and get the first paying customers and how much money I was asking for (I said $100k for developers and marketing). Overall, it was a great experience and I'm still somewhat shocked that I voluntarily spoke in front of ~60 people.
When I sat back down, the adrenaline rush left and I immediately felt like I was going to pass out. As I mentioned, I have been feeling really sick for the past few days, and the presentation literally drained me of every ounce of energy I had. I sat through the final presentations by SLE Farming (who want to bring vertical farming techniques to the townships) and Mr. Cup Saver (who want to replace disposable cups with reusable flasks) and then left immediately afterward to go home and sleep. They haven't announced the winners yet, as they wanted to discuss an send and email in the next few days, but again, just pitching was an awesome experience for me!
Last night there was another chance to get in front of people and behind a mic, and this time I was one of the ones up on stage. Brookwood Capital, Aaron Fuchs's (iXperience CEO) investing company, hosted a pitch event at Workshop17. I had applied a few days ago with RealWorld, but did not secure one of the 5 spots at first. However, yesterday around noon I received an email from the organizers telling me a spot had opened up and asking if I wanted to participate. At first I declined, as I had little time to prepare and was feeling pretty under the weather, but I mulled it over and at 4 PM, just 2 hours before the event started, sent an email back saying I was in. I rehearsed the presentation twice, put on my suit (which I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to wear after bringing it all the way here), and made my way down to the Waterfront.
The pitch competition was held in the student lounge but I was the only iX student participating. The other companies included JumpIn Rides, Resistance Pictures, SLE Farming, and Mr. Cup Saver. JumpIn Rides, which offers an Uber-like service, but for longer car trips, went first, and I have to say I was a little intimidated. They have a full team working on the platform, have 1000s of users and rides, have secured previous rounds of funding, and were asking Brookwood for R2 million. RealWorld is essentially just an idea at this point, but I reminded myself that I was pitching mostly for the experience of pitching.
Next up was Resistance Pictures, which wants to be the next Vice but for South Africa, and their presentation made me feel a little better. The guy basically just ranted about the film industry for a while and then bragged about the "famous" people he knew by listing names, none of which I, or most others in the room seemed to have ever heard of. He was a nice act to follow.
I was up. I gave an abridged version of the presentation from the end of the Product Management class to fit into just 5-7 minutes, but was able to cover the problem and opportunity, our value proposition, the demo, the future, our business model and go-to-market plan, and the competitive landscape. I was happy with my presentation, as it covered a lot of the questions the judges (Aaron, his younger brother Seth, and his Brookwood Capital partner) had asked the other presenters. They did still have a few other questions about how I would get it off the ground and get the first paying customers and how much money I was asking for (I said $100k for developers and marketing). Overall, it was a great experience and I'm still somewhat shocked that I voluntarily spoke in front of ~60 people.
When I sat back down, the adrenaline rush left and I immediately felt like I was going to pass out. As I mentioned, I have been feeling really sick for the past few days, and the presentation literally drained me of every ounce of energy I had. I sat through the final presentations by SLE Farming (who want to bring vertical farming techniques to the townships) and Mr. Cup Saver (who want to replace disposable cups with reusable flasks) and then left immediately afterward to go home and sleep. They haven't announced the winners yet, as they wanted to discuss an send and email in the next few days, but again, just pitching was an awesome experience for me!
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