What should an entrepreneur keep in mind before participating at a crowd pitching event It's important to keep in touch with your panellists post the event
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Crowd pitching events are where fairly younger startups get an opportunity to showcase their ideas and product in front of investors and mentors. The sole motive of crowd pitching is not just to secure funding, but is also to get audience's reaction to the product and receiving constructive feedback.
Seven startups participated at a crowd pitching event conducted by Crowd Product in Bangalore. The startups included Cloud 9, Fundamentor, Sunami, Help Tweet, UI5CN, myOtels.com, and WomenCabs.com.
Entrepreneur Media asked a couple of panellists what they thought are the key requisites in a pitch at such events.
Sribaschha Joshi, Mentor and Director of Investments at Querencia Ventures said using the recommendation from the audience an entrepreneur can change or modify your product or go to an investor with your data for evaluation.
Mr. Joshi, who has mainly funded tech startups till date, said he mainly looks for passion, differentiator and long-term viability of the idea.
Talking about other requisites, Mayuresh Raut, co-founder of Salamander Excubator Angel (SEA) Fund said he mainly looks for the market opportunity of the product. "The team should have the necessary requisites to not only understand the domain but to also go ahead and execute it," Raut added.
Raut also said that one important element which he considers to be a crucial factor is having a co-founder. Entrepreneurs should realise that a co-founder is like a wife for a ten year journey. The media only talks about the glamorous part of the journey and not the loneliness of the same journey, he added.
A startup may start off with an initial idea and more often than not they end up with something completely different. The only common factor is its co-founders. You've got to have guys who work well together and are comfortable working with each other.
On the other hand, Rao Yamajala, a mentor at Querencia Ventures, said that he often finds that entrepreneurs fail to keep in touch post such events. They are often so bogged up about their presentation and pitches that they forget about connectivity.
Fundamentor, an ed-tech startup, was declared winner at the event.
