It’s 6:28 am. I have not had coffee, and my wife is out of town so I am taking care of my 10 and 11 year olds. But I am going to pop something out real quick like here.
Yesterday I wrote a little piece about the inordinate amount of technology startup events in Atlanta and how a little thoughtful coordination might be of help. Despite the fact the majority of actual practicing entrepreneurs appeared to agree with my assessment I was called harmful and ignorant. I can assure you I am neither and the subject seems to be good for both conversation and traffic so I thought I would give a little more specific example.
Pitching events. These are events where an entrepreneur gets up on stage in front of a panel and gives a presentation on their company. The panel (or crowd), which is motivated to appear smart, then proceeds to rip the entrepreneur’s presentation to shreds because that is what they are supposed to do. Sounds like fun no? To be fair some of these pitch events are great for getting
entrepreneurs ready to pitch for real at CapVenture, GRA/TAG Business Launch, Startup Riot, and in front of angel groups (Update: Michael Blake rightly points out in the comments that this is the purpose of PitchCamp mentioned below). If the entrepreneur listens and incorporates the appropriate feedback then their pitches do get better.
Well any hoo there is MIT Run it by the Pros, OnStage, PitchCamp (not sure if it is still active so I won’t count it), and Startup Gauntlet. There may be more and if so, please comment. But the way I figure it there are at least 27 of these events a year in Atlanta. Do we really need 27? It’s fractured and diffused with oh maybe 50 people in the room at best. Instead of that combine forces and have 12 kick ass pitch events that are must attend for the the entire technology startup community so that they can see what is exciting and new. Have prep events for the companies that are presenting. 120 people show up. Boom baby! You got something real.
One plus one equal three on two. Ready, break.