New year, new ventures. Over the past few weeks I have continued to work on my new business venture in the hopes of quietly launching it before the end of this month. While I achieved my original goal of completing the site by the end of 2009, it was still not ready to launch. Domain names, technical issues and more plagued me. It was a new year and I needed a new outlook.
I found new excitement last week when I took the opportunity to pitch this business to Startup Chicks. The pitch would offer me the opportunity to participate in the Startup Chicks Accelerator Program. I also had the opportunity to practice my pitch the night before at Startup Gauntlet.
The program not only offered me the opportunity to gain valuable insights from the Startup Chicks Advisory Board; but also networking and sharing information with nine other startups in the program. This would be the first program of its kind for women starting businesses in Atlanta, and while I was apprehensive, I really wanted to be part of this! So while I continued to work on fine tuning my website, I needed to complete my Executive Summary and prepare a slide presentation of 5 slides. The criteria to pitch was:
- must be a startup chick (female founder)
- need a well-formulated idea
- committed to working in business for at least 10 hours / week.
- willingness to be coached
- willingness to spend min. of 5 hours in coaching program/month
Flash forward to the competition. For those of you that have never been involved in pitch competition, it is truly remarkable. So after each of us presented our pitches, the judges excused themselves to vote. In order to win, we were judged on:
- viability of idea/growth potential
- credibility of founding team
- ability to be coached
And even though there were great prizes for the top three winners, thanks to the generosity of the Advisory Board, we soon discovered that we would all spend the next 90 days working together receiving coaching and sharing information. So regardless of the results, we were all winners! I can only imagine where these businesses will be in 90 days!
Oh, I guess you want to know the results. Well, I didn’t win. But I did come in second! I did win some amazing prizes, but as I have already stated, the community that we will build together as a team will help us move our businesses forward and learn from each other. I can hardly wait to share more with you after our first meeting….
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Good luck! Let me know if I can help in any way!
You go girl! Your dad would be very proud of you and so am I.
Todd,
Thanks so much! I am hoping to launch by Monday, so I will let you know! Look forward to your input!
Marna
Ellen,
Thanks so much! The idea came from him, and he is my inspiration! So that alone motivates me to move forward. And hearing it from you means the world to me.
Marna
It’s been so fascinating to see this vision come to light so quickly! I’m in awe of how much you’ve accomplished in such a short time. I am so excited about your new venture and ready to help anyway I can!
Robyn,
Thanks! I believe that when you work on what you are most passionate about, anything is possible. Stay tuned for the launch!
Marna
Great meeting with you yesterday. Congratulations on your New Business.
I’m so excited for you and I know you will be Successful. I can’t wait for your
website to Launch…..
Deva,
Thanks so much. I’m looking forward to our next meeting!
Marna
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
great post as usual!