I just finished an IDM workshop conducted by Douglas of Expara and sponsored by MDA. Though this is the second time I am attending classes conducted by Douglas, there are still tons of new things to learn. The purpose of the workshop is to learn how to craft an idea into a business plan that could attract funding from VCs.
The most fun part is where I actually get to pitch my idea in front of some real VCs. I get quite a bit of heat for a VOIP idea that I wasn't able to communicate clearly but the critics are really useful in understanding how others perceive the idea.
Interacting with the VCs is fun but can be pretty challenging and uncomfortable because they can be quite arrogant and harsh at times. I think it can't be help imagining that they have to sit through over 20 different pitches for this workshop in which a majority are by novices like me. If I am in their shoes, I think I would get someone to pass me a rope or get the
Fakecall application recommended by Douglas. Nevertheless I enjoyed the directness of the VCs, you just get to learn more this way.
One thing I was disappointed though is that I did not get to learn as much as I hope to have from the VCs. Getting the critics from them is easy but most do not have the time to really help me on the details. I managed to get an interesting reaction from a VC because I must have irritated the hell out of him.
What happened was that I did not managed to present my idea clearly and was trying to learn how to improve it from this VC. As the conversation goes on, the VC got impatient and was raising his voice to tell me that he was getting irritated by me and stated that I was not listening to him. I swear I was listening to him just that I was really expecting more. He kept saying that I need to answer the
5Ws so as to understand my idea. I agreed that I did a sucky job at it but was really hoping for more help. It is like someone comes to you with a marketing problem and you tell him to go answer the
4Ps . It ain't too useful.
To be fair, it is hard to expect someone to invest their time in helping you when you get to meet them for the first time. But he did reminded me of an important concept which is the concept of association. When presenting an idea and if you can't articulate it clearly, you run into the risk that your audience will associate it with something that they are familiar with. So when I talk something about VOIP, Skype, Jajah or Fring will come into their mind. This means deep shit for me because they must have think of me as ah siao doing the same thing and trying to compete with them.
Some VCs have more patience. Gwendolyn, another VC representative was willing to listen and provide a great suggestion that I could start my pitch by declaring that my product has no association with these existing products. I would definitely love to give this idea a try if there are future opportunities.
Overall, the workshop was really great. I have my fill of knowledge, good lunches and a healthy portion of humble pies. There are also some very interesting ideas that were shared by participants and some have even successfully raised funds for their startups!
For those who have an idea and interested to give it a shot should keep a look out for more workshops held by Expara. Looking forward to more such events!
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