There you are, super-excited that a leading business school has selected you to represent them at a European start-up competition among other top MBA schools.
\nThe Event: The \u201cEuropean Business Plan of the Year\u201d Competition.<\/p>\n
Our Business: A career-dating network that connects employees with students for a mutual fit assessment, kind of like a match.com<\/a> for student recruiting. It basically offers effective recruiting for companies and better career guidance for students.<\/p>\n Phase 2: You have nothing to wear!<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ve been shopping for a while and can\u2019t find anything nice enough for the occasion\u2026The dress code for this event: the best business plan, as well as progress in your market testing.<\/p>\n Well, the structure of a business plan, iterations based on the business model canvas\u2026that all sounds familiar, right? However, you\u2019ll soon find out that the devil is in the details. After weeks of interviews, research and deliberations, we had completed three different business plans (why do these areas have to be so tightly connected?) and sent our best draft to an experienced friend, only to receive this feedback: \u201cPuh, this plan still seems superficial to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Phase 3: You\u2019re running late for the date!<\/strong><\/p>\n Although you planned well, the last few minutes are total crunch-time: last-minute PowerPoint edits on the plane, dry runs of the pitch in the hotel room, and a computer that crashes the night before the presentation. Who hasn\u2019t been there? Our only comfort comes from the Greek team, a 7-member group that stayed up until 3 a.m. to enthusiastically practice their presentation (yes, you\u2019re getting the right picture).<\/p>\n Phase 4: You start to panic! How do I even say \u201cHi!\u201d”?<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, the morning of the competition arrives. Before your first morning coffee, you read the message of encouragement that your mentor has left: \u201cGood luck! This competition is not so much about winning, but about learning, girls!\u201d At the coffee machine, you meet the London team, which had not only already started their business before the MBA, but most importantly, for the past year already had paying customers. (According to your plan, you\u2019ll be there in six months, right?)<\/p>\n Phase 5: Not so bad after all! You actually manage to speak normally.<\/strong><\/p>\n Then the presentation (of course, you are the first ones to present.) Surprisingly, despite the wobbly legs, when it comes to your business you\u2019re back on track and happy that the judges seem to have understood your pain point and why your solution is better than anything else out there. \ud83d\ude09 You\u2019re impressed by how spot-on their questions are, pointing you to the main areas that need refinement.<\/p>\n Phase 6: You screwed up! You still haven<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t received a message!<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ll spend the afternoon with great \u201celevator pitch\u201d training. The founder of the Get In the Ring pitch events encouraged all of us to more vividly highlight the specific pain point that our business addresses. You\u2019ll get a second chance to improve your pitch in one-on-one knock-out rounds in a boxing ring, which is a lot of fun and great practice.<\/p>\n We, however, felt knocked out when we asked for specific feedback on our pitch: \u201cI actually don\u2019t remember what your business was about. Something about dating?\u201d Thank God you chose a caring mentor, who tells you that the others got it all wrong. After listening and learning from great presentations made by other teams, by the evening we had accepted defeat and decided to enjoy some fine wine.<\/p>\n Phase 7: The text message! There\u2019s gonna be a second date!<\/strong><\/p>\n After dinner, the finalists are announced. Our faces reflect utter shock when we receive third place for the elevator pitch and make it to the finalist round. Inspired by the good food and wine, you\u2019ll need to incorporate the feedback of the day in your presentation for the following day.<\/p>\n Phase 8: The second date!<\/strong><\/p>\n The finals feel much more competitive with all the teams and their guests in the lecture room. Interestingly, the jury challenged us most on the changes we introduced based on the feedback from the day before. It was a good lesson of how, as an entrepreneur, you shouldn\u2019t lose your focus and listen to too many subjective opinions, but rather go out and prove these opinions wrong. Despite this feedback, our second date was a success, resulting in the runner-up prize and interested investors. It remains to be seen if we\u2019ll make it beyond the honeymoon phase. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Lesson 1: Go out and date!<\/strong><\/p>\n Although the process may be daunting, you\u2019ll certainly learn a lot!<\/p>\n Lesson 2: Stick to what you stand for!<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t be intimidated by the opinions of others since they are highly individual. Either prove them wrong or look for someone else.<\/p>\n Lesson 3: Take the time to find a good match!<\/strong><\/p>\n We realized that there are as many different types of investors out there as Zugv<\/em>\u00f6<\/em>gl<\/em>* in the sky. If they aren\u2019t enthusiastic about your idea in the first few minutes, forget them. As for the others: take your time dating them\u2026you might be surprised how the situation evolves.<\/p>\n\n
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