Beta-start’s 12th Edition ended precisely 10 days ago – disclaimer:this is an emotional blogpost.
Every Beta-start edition is special. And this is mostly due to its participants. I’m not talking about the idea or success of the startups that “survive” but, the people. These men and women who were bold enough to pause their lives for 4 weeks in order to come learn how to validate and continuously test their business assumptions. For that they deserve our respect, no matter how crazy some ideas may seem.
6 startups + 1 pitched brilliantly on the Demo Day. They had it all: the well-structured pitch, the pretty design slides and the charisma, it was an interesting moment and the perfect ending for this program. But, why 6 + 1? Well, this is a program about validation and getting facts to support your assumptions, meaning: it is more than okay when participants decide not to continue with their projects if they understand that somehow their initial idea is no longer viable – so we had 6 pitches on projects and 1 on learning, decisions and conclusions after validation.
So, in short the outcomes of this batch:
André was our plus one here and he is now taking some time for ideation – my guess is he will integrate a startup team soon 🙂
Miles ‘n’ Dreams: Sofia rebranded her project and aims to build a marketplace for destination weddings.
Viable: Jaime and Manuel, are true hustlers, now with a new business model and different targets for their entrepreneurship viability platform.
meTour: Christine pivoted within the same solo traveler market and is now focusing more in offering better prices to solo travelers by doing shared tourism and leisure activities.
Buzaco: Diogo is still materializing (literally) your outdoor furniture dreams now with full power.
Sweat Experience: Alex, Andrew and Marvin are now back in the UK full powering their platform for athletes posting their stories and achievements I bet we will hear from them soon.
FlyPilot: The platform for renting airplanes is now taking off, Miguel has his numbers in order and is ready to his MVP.
We always wanted Beta-start to be a mind shifting experience and this was precisely what happened with more than 100 mentoring sessions, 13 workshops, a lot of pitch practicing, tailored help and networking. It is hard to describe how much they evolved during these 4 weeks mainly in terms of pitching and having their business ideas structured.
There is no other acceleration program like Beta-start. No other program provides this much freedom to projects that gradually may evolve to startups. No strings attached in a program where ideas are never stupid (at least before validation) yet demanding enough to set the pace and a “must-deliver” culture.
Excited? Want to more about one of these startups or about our pre-accelerators?
[fusion_text]After 9 intensive weeks, the Protechting Startup Accelerator program, designed by Fosun and Fidelidade and powered by Beta-i ended last thursday with an impressive Pitch Day. In the event that took place at the Fidelidade HQ in Lisbon, the teams presented their projects to the Jury, representatives from Fidelidade, Fosun and Beta-i as well as investors, the media and other invited guests. EctoSense won the main prize of 10.000€ and LifeSymb and CleenBeen will join them in a Roadshow to China where they’ll have the chance to meet some of the world’s most influential investors.
“Hey, here’s your mic, soon as he finishes you can take the stage” – Boom, this is it, you’re just 5 minutes away from your time to pitch.
You feel your sweaty forehead, shaking hands and your stomach feels like its spinning at the speed of light in a washing machine. While you realize that all the work, effort and sacrifices you’ve done are now depending on a 5 min-pitch, that Exit sign in the back somehow begins to stand out, almost sinfully attractive to you.
You hear the audience clap after the last speaker and without realizing it, your body is already walking towards the stage. Time to take a deep breath and go for it.
Even though there are certain universally accepted steps to follow to create a good pitch, pitching is more of an art than a science. Naturally your main focus is on how to structure the pitch – how will you present the problem and the solution? Among all the things that seem relevant, which ones really need to be included?
The internet is packed with pitching tips about everything you should include but soon as you have all the info structured and while you’re practicing countless times you should also pay attention to other, often forgotten, techniques that can help you deliver a great pitch.
Your aptitude to tell stories, your posture and the tone of your voice, your speech rate and your ability to create a connection with the audience through empathy are just a few examples of other different factors that can have a huge impact on the way you engage with the audience and the way they can understand your message clearly.
So here are 3 great Ted Talks that will help you to deliver a pitch that everyone will carefully listen to and will not forget
How to Speak so That People Want to Listen by Julian Treasure
Have you ever felt like you’re talking, but nobody is listening? Here’s Julian Treasure to help you fix that. As a sound expert demonstrates some useful vocal exercises and shares tips on how to speak with empathy, he offers his vision for a sonorous world of listening and understanding.
Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are by Amy Cuddy
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.
The Clues to a Great Story by Andrew Stanton
Filmmaker Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “WALL-E”) shares what he knows about storytelling — starting at the end and working back to the beginning.
As the start-ups from our corporate accelerator with Fidelidade and Fosun, Protechting, get ready to pitch at the final which will be held on Thursday in one of the auditoriums of Fidelidade, we thought it might be useful to highlight some of the best pitch decks out there, of companies that you most probably have heard of.
You can check out the a list of 38 here on StartupFundraising and there is also the site bestpitchdecks.com that has an even larger selection including Facebook’s first deck and Airbnb’s.
As you look through them you’ll see that they usually don’t have more than 20 slides and always cover the following topics:
Product / problem & solution
Business model
Market size
Team
There is no scientific way of creating THE pitch deck and you will hear many differing opinions – ultimately, like everything else in this process, it’s up to you – just make sure everyone understands you and your idea. Better to be rejected because people don’t see the value in your start-up than because they didn’t understand what you do.
