"Venture Capital Entrepreneur Challenge" Produces Entrepreneur Idols

About a month ago, TiE-DC and The Entrepreneur Center @ NVTC, brought together 10 early stage entrepreneurs for the “Venture Capital Entrepreneur Challenge.”

I had the pleasure and fortune to help eight of the companies hone and deliver their five-minute presentation pitches. As a TiE-DC partner, The Chief Storyteller holds quarterly “Get Funded: Design And Deliver The Perfect Investor Pitch” workshops for the approved companies a month in advance of the event.

I am proud of each presenter as they poured their hearts and minds into each pitch. They were fantastic! I look forward to hearing all about their successes in the coming months.

Find below a summary of the event with many of the notes coming from the TiE-DC summary.

The Challenge was “the first event of its kind in our area” and “it turned out some fierce competition among some of the Mid Atlantic's top early-stage entrepreneurs before an audience of nearly 100 entrepreneurs and investors.”

“Brian Hayhurst from the Carlyle Group, Shan Nair from Nair & Co., and Jay Markey from Columbia Capital gave their frank analysis of the 5-minute pitches from each contestant over a 2-hour show before a rapt audience.”

“In the end, the $10,000 seed prize, sponsored by Carlyle Group and Nair & Co., was awarded to Chinedu Ekechukwu of Mwendo. His pitch and concept drew applause from the crowd and a running head-start for his budding company.” [some  notes from his interview below]

Comments From the "Venture Capital Entrepreneur Challenge" Presenting Companies

Preeti Gupta Shah of CopperPages
“This was a tremendous opportunity to receive feedback on my elevator pitch and to learn how other entrepreneurs structure their presentations. I flew in from California just for this event, then drove 8 hours from Jersey to attend, but I always make it a point to attend the TIE-DC VC Pitch events because I find they give me a public presentation platform that I don't get at other chapters.”

Cliff Krieg of Eye Q Development
“It was a good event! I look forward to the next one. There was good push back from the audience and the VC’s. TiE-DC did a great job organizing the event!”

Chris Hopkinson of TaxScan

“The VC Entrepreneur Challenge was a tremendous learning experience and invaluable opportunity for us to make our pitch and watch others present to a room of seasoned investors and entrepreneurs. The contacts made and momentum gained around our product will help propel us to the next level.”

David Sherbow of MPTrax

“It was a great opportunity for me. This was my third VC pitch event, and this is the one I took the most seriously. I appreciate the support of the TiE-DC staff in guiding me through the process. Both NVTC and TiE-DC were instrumental in putting me in the right state of mind to present in front of an audience. My relationship with the organizations has encouraged me greatly, and I look forward to the TiECon in Boston."

Trevor Goss of Project Varsity

“The event last night was great, and our company had an excellent opportunity to get the word out on what we are doing. It was a good opportunity for our public debut. Getting the chance to talk to people in the venture capital area was a great experience as well.”

Tamer Ali of NewsPixx

“While I didn't win in the pitch event, I met multiple VC's from the audience who invited me to pitch their firms. This, like every one of my TiE-DC, experiences underlines my opinion that TiE-DC has been the most effective and rewarding affiliation I've made in the area. I welcome anyone to contact me if they seek my enthusiastic personal endorsement of TiE.”

Shazia Sami of ClickClang

“ClickClang was able to make strategic contacts through the TiE-DC VC pitch event and learned several key points to incorporate in future VC pitches. It was a great learning and marketing opportunity for us!”

--------------- Interview With The Winner, Chinedu Ekechukwu

Winner: Chinedu Ekechukwu of Mwendo. The three judges were unanimous in their decision to award Chinedu the top prize. A couple of things that Chinedu shared about passion, storytelling, and communication:

[TiE-DC] Q: How did you come up with the concept behind Mwendo?
[Chinedu Ekechukwu] A: It actually came about when a number of business school classmates and I attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah during the middle of winter and we stayed in this very pleasant log cabin. It turned out that an alumnus offered it to current students to rent. However, I wondered to myself how I could have discovered such lodgings on my own. So the concept blossomed from vacation home rentals to a full service “living arrangement marketing platform.”

[TiE-DC] Q: Has the "Perfecting the Pitch" workshop with Ira Koretsky improved the way you tell your business story?
[Chinedu Ekechukwu] A: Ira is incredible! He provided insight into how to keep the audience’s attention while presenting the facts in a succinct manner. He teaches a framework of storyboarding your presentation, not unlike how an animator would do for a feature film. Very useful concepts.

[TiE-DC] Q: While there were many great concepts presented in the room yesterday, you were able to combine the necessary business plan facts and present them in an engaging and polished fashion. How were you able to give such an impeccable presentation?
[Chinedu Ekechukwu] A: Well, I’ve worked in management consulting, so we regularly presented recommendations to clients. In business school, offering presentations are the norm. And I worked in marketing/strategy at Disney, so everything including internal documents attempted to craft a story to convince superiors. Also, Ira’s tips were instrumental.