You put on a really great session both in terms of logistics/overall smoothness and polish of the founders. I’ve done TONS of Zoom demo days and this was potentially the best I’ve seen. Clearly the program that you have at StartupOS is insanely valuable.
– Elaine Zelby, Partner (SignalFire)
One down. And many, many more to come.
At StartupOS we are on a mission to democratize access to innovation tools, guidance, and capital and to dramatically increase the likelihood of those ideas becoming successful businesses.
For the past 30 days we opened up our platform for a preview of what’s to come. We had over 250 startups apply to be part of our Pitch Perfect Pre-Release and we admitted only five to craft their perfect pitch. Choosing only five was a painful exercise because we are building a platform to empower all founders and not only a small batch who are accepted on a quarterly basis. But for the purpose of testing our early release we had to limit the number of startups we could actively support.
The journey began with the startups onboarding on Day 1 and then working through a series of PowerUps. PowerUps are self-contained learn-by-doing exercises that tie to outcomes or workflows. They provide the scaffolding required to have crucial conversations between founders and mentors, which leads to better solutions and stories. They Pitch Perfect PowerUps included:
- Problem Solution Fit
- Value Proposition
- Persona Builder
- TAM / SAM / SOM
- Revenue Modeler
- Brandstorming
- Storyteller
These first few exercises extended the founders’ market vocabulary and tightened their language around customers, problems, solutions and value. The last few exercises stretched founders into less familiar space where they needed to develop more confidence going into their pitch.
After completing a PowerUp they were assisted with our platform’s directional guidance to market test their findings and validate the outcomes. Once their market testing was complete, they shared their findings with our network of mentors. StartupOS is more than software. We offer a community of investors and mentors that checks on the progress of our active startups using our real time analytics and reporting.
The founders made amazing progress in the month leading up to the event, and the preparation paid off. They delivered great performances. The investors were generous with their time and feedback. The audience was prepared with thoughtful Q&A.
As we continue to test and validate our own platform, startup demo days will become more and more integral to our community. The early feedback to Pitch Perfect Demo Day has been very positive, but the quote above from Elaine Zelby of SignalFire (one of our amazing panelists!) seems to summarize our thoughts best: that founders and investors appreciate the value in refining stories and telling them in the best possible way.
