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22/09/08 D4H At Seedcamp - Our Pitch
DUBLIN, IRELAND - I have posted our pitch as a slidecast here for a number of reasons…
- I want our advisor’s from the week who didn’t get to see our pitch to get to see it. We can’t think you guys enough.
- I’m forwarding this URL on to some angel investors and companies who were interested in talking further.
- Web 2 Ireland & co. it’s important to me that we work on more Irish entries next year. I hope that this is motivation.
You can contact me directly on robin@bytesurgery.com / +353 86 328 7563.
Dublin out.
-Robin.
Please note: This is a re-recording! Not live.
Tags: d4h, decisions for heroes, pitch, presentation, seedcamp, slidecast, slides
7 Comments
Excellent pitch Robin. Thanks for sharing this and your experiences of Seedcamp
talk about clear and transparent. actor in a previous life, defo. 10/10
I enjoyed that, very straightforward and no fluff. It looks like ye have a clear plan about how to go forward.
You also have an excellent speaking voice Robin.
23/09/08 Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » Fluffy Links - Tuesday September 23rd 2008
[...] The slide cast of the pitch for Decisions for Heroes. [...]
Hi Robin,
Looks like an important project. I’m just going to throw out some rhetorical questions, most/all of which you’ve probably heard before, but maybe you get one or two things or reminders from this:
Have you gotten your first pilot customer yet? If so, great, how’s it going with them? Can you do a before and after comparison of the key metrics I see it tracks. And the other important ways it benefits them? Time, money, lives, time between incident report and dispatch, total other time-based metrics, etc. I/we/you/customers/investors all want to know is it good? How good? How do we know. Show me.
If the product is good, as measured by metrics, then it should be an “easy” sell, depending on what customer is currently using, when they bought it, when they can justify replacing it, how much your product costs (standalone vs. existing), how it performs (same). You will be going up against various “objections.” Of course, you need to think about these in advance. It will be something along lines of 80/20 rule.
What else? How much will it cost? How will it be priced? Based on what customer or population covered metrics? What kind of guaranty. If we are truely talking life/death here, the thing has to be totaly bullet-proof in terms of 99.9999999999999% uptime. Like a nuclear power plant, IMHO. That should be part of sales process as well, for the customer and your own peace of mind. Also what is the fail safe? I.e., in the event this does go down for a customer, what happens? What is their backup?
What are you costs? How much R&D? Funding they will care about. Can’t invest in life/death when the product support may not be there.
Can you get government grant? Even small town to try this in. That’s going to come through connections. Once get reference customer (and it works great in terms of metrics), get testimonials, roll out. When you roll out, the target list should be what it is for a reason. You need your universe of customers, then a subset of that. How/why did you pick that subset. What is the sales process? Who carries it out? How long does it take? How much does it cost. I want to see the income statement here. And the cash flow. Can you get a government grant. What else.
Ok, I’ve got to hop. Hope you got something there.
Chris Comella, founder
http://buzzpal.com
PS: Sorry did not get a chance to say hey at Seedcamp week… I saw you at OpenCoffee but then missed you. Can’t remember if I saw you at TechCrunch party, it was such a rush (of fun!).
Other thing, that a commercial investor cares about at least, is how does the business model scale? Can it spread virally? What is the customer acquisition cost and what is the customer lifetime value? Is it a “body shop”? I.e., what does the headcount look as it grows? How does it break down to revenue and profit per head. How does that compare to alternative investment opportunities. Even it if goes exceedingly well, what does that mean in terms of financial metrics? What kind of valuation can go on that? To me, again playing devil’s advocate, I am skeptical that this scales, and can do so quickly, with big gross margins, fast sales cycle, expanding lower line on the income statement margins, generating cash as grows, etc. I do see how it’s a hard sell for a VC. Maybe I’m wrong about that. But I do think that if you can show (metrics) how good it is vs. alternatives. And ROI, then a government (or investor) will likely be interested. And if it is really good, and you can get it into the BIG distribution channel, then you have a real shot. Who is that big distrubution channel? The one who can get in front of lots of customers. What kind of deal can you cut with them. Ok, NOW I think I’m done :)
Excellent presentation - very clear and concise.
Great to see what you’ve gone out and created!
Hopefully we’ll get a chance to sit down someday and chat about all this in person :)
Rgds
Richard
