Launch 48 - Day 1 - The Pitches
Welcome to part two of my review of the October 2009 Launch48 weekend (first part here: http://dirtyandy.posterous.com/launch48-day-1-summary). I realised I forgot to link to the Launch48 site in the first post, so here you go: http://www.launch48.com - good domain name!
So we had an hour between the end of the conference part and the start of the pitching and I whipped up the road for dinner with two new friends - this event was really good for networking, I exchanged business cards and contact details with a lot of people. When we got back they were getting ready to start the pitches and once we sat down I found out you were supposed to have registered your name on a list if you wanted to pitch. They said there would be time for a couple more at the end but they ran out of time and had two or three people that weren't allowed to pitch. I had two different ideas that I was interested in pitching, but more had them there in case they were desperately short of ideas. There had also been an area on the supporting website where you could post pitch ideas, but unfortunately not many people actually signed up until last minute so this was a bit quiet. Definitely another area of improvement would be to ensure everyone knew they had to get their name on the list to pitch.So the pitching began. There were 30 pitches in total, each person got one minute in which to present their idea, and I did actually write a note and keep a count of votes for each one, but I cannot find the piece of paper. If I find it later I will try and detail them out. There were some great pitches for some awful ideas, there were some awful pitches for some possibly great ideas. There was one girl who may have said she had solved the worlds energy problems and if we could get a website up by Sunday night we'd all be billionaires on Monday. Sadly I couldn't hear a word she said so I am not sure if that is what she was promising or not. A microphone at this point would be great, and I know it is nerve racking to stand up in front of a crowd and talk, but once you have gotten that far you might as well at least project your voice and a bit of confidence. After everyone had pitched the organisers went through each one and gathered a show of hands from the audience. This then took it through to 12 ideas, they had two minutes to further their pitch and take a question or two. I recorded each idea, a rough idea of number of votes and whether I would be remotely interested in joining their team. I had a no, maybe and yes column and no one made it to the yes column. It doesn't mean they were bad ideas but from the initial pitches I was pretty sure none of them would create a viable business that I would be overly interested in being involved in. Idea, Market and Business Model were part of the requirements for pitching.The List (I know I haven't gotten their initial product names right - but close enough)
| Idea | Votes | My Interest | Reason |
| Find a Driving Instructor | Low | No | Idea didn't appeal |
| Facebook Corporate Giving | Medium | Maybe | Idea from Lucian - I knew of him via stuff on Techcrunch and figured he would make it interesting. Idea was quite interesting although a massive number of issues in front of it. |
| Socialise | Medium | Maybe | Idea from Sam - didn't know of him but he had some energy and I figured like above. Didn't keep enough notes about it but thought it was of interest |
| Old Folks Home Finder | Low | No | Not necessarily a bad idea although in Q&A someone pointed out that it is well covered by another company - but a bit boring |
| Wraply - a gift giving service | High | No | I actually think a good idea, 3 people had similar and I had the idea about 3 years ago, actually bought the domain chipin.co.uk. The guy that presented this was also likely to be the best of the three with this idea, but as I had also thought about this area a bit I thought 4 people with strongly formed ideas might be a bit much |
| Clothes Fitting | Low | Maybe | This was my closest to a yes and after he pitched I realised a way that may have really made it work. I almost definitely would have wanted to work on this team if it had gone through. I never buy clothes online because sizes are such a pain. I meant to have a chat with the guy behind this later and never managed - if he happens to read this and wants to get in touch I'd love to have a chat |
| Wine Finder | High | No | One of my two ideas to pitch was a Beer Finder. I think that is an easier domain to work in. There are thousands of wine producers producing dozens of wines, and these guys were hoping to be able to create an app where you could have a wine in a restaurant and then type in the barcode or scan it and get links to it etc. Drinking wine is a hobby of mine. Most wine in restaurants does not have barcodes. Half the French wines you are doing well if you can even read the label. I just didn't see anyway this could work |
| Loyalty Card Point Swap | High | No | Really interesting idea but I felt it had too many legal and contractual issues to work through in the weekend, let alone develop a website to support it |
| PA Finder | Medium | Maybe | This was to be a Virtual Assistant / PA finder. The main reason I was interested in this is that half the people that follow me on Twitter are VA/PA's. It doesn't mean there is an increasing market but there is definitely an increasing number of resources around. |
| Yet Another Gift Thing | Medium | No | Wraply seemed to have a slightly better idea leader so I think most people voted for him instead. The three pitching this idea said they would all join up anyway |
| Verify | High | Maybe | A bit like I had an idea like Wraply I also had an idea identical to this one - about three years back. The reason I never pursued it was I didn't think it was legally enforceable. More on this in my final wrap up. It was slightly of interest to be involved in but I felt that because I had thoughts on the idea already it was better not to - plus it is pretty boring and corporatey and that is what I do in a day job |
| Amazing iPhone Race | High | Maybe | Interesting idea, was worried about a lack of iPhone developers but was quite interested in being involved in an iPhone app. I think so was everyone else. |
So who went through?
- Facebook Corporate Giving
- Wraply
- Wine Finder
- PA Finder
- Verify
- Amazing iPhone Race
Now I wasn't on the official counting party or anything but I am sure they got this wrong. The Loyalty Card Point Swap should have gone through, and probably the Facebook Corporate Giving application shouldn't have, although it was close between that and the PA Finder.
