Startup 'Juice'

I presented on Wednesday at the UNSW CSE Sydney Startup Expo where there were a bunch of other startups presenting.  It was great.  It's the first time I pitched/presented after Founder Institute which brought back lots of rose-coloured memories of practising and preparing my pitch deck.
I realised that I need to go to these events every so often as I get into a bit of a slump with what I'm working on and although I still network with the FI grads it's not the same.  The buzz and excitement of mingling with other startup types is great.  I wouldn't advocating going to too many (as where would you find time to work on your startup?) but every so often it's good.

Firstly, I got to pitch (always good to stay in the game).  And this time it was in front of total strangers as I didn't know anyone there.  Maybe that's a good thing in a way as there is no need to feel embarrassed?  I did chat to a few people before hand and then it was into the pitches.  I think there were around 20 and I was impressed with how well Brad from CSE handled everything.  It was 3 minutes per pitch and 1 minute changeover.  I was prepared FI style and had my USB key loaded with the PDF version of my slidedeck.  (I also took my Netbook and my Chromebook just in case!)  Brad kindly let me preload the PDF onto the machine which was in the room.  The pitch went well and what I was really pleased about was that people actually listened!  I did go slightly over my 3 minute allotment but I think everyone stole a bit of time from their 1 minute handover ;)

Secondly I got to listen to other people pitching.  I think doing FI you forget that there are other startups out there doing the same sort of thing.  But Brad was right... he suggested that we wear our shirts.  Because at the end of the pitching I had no idea who was which startup!  I did as he suggested and was wearing an Oddswop shirt up when speaking.  But I don't think I had that much trouble being remembered as I was the only female Founder speaking!  (There was a lady from General Assembly and an Intern for NSInnovations as well who spoke).  I knew there weren't very many female founders and it was a CSE event but still... 1 female!  *hmfp*

So other people are doing some innovative things.  Some businesses are inspirations in terms of growth or funding or pitching, some are great to laugh with, some are strange in the way they pitch but everyone was in someway interesting.  And most were in a similar stage where it was 'almost' launched.

Lastly, I got to mingle and network.  I really need to learn how to do it better so I get better coverage.  I am happy to chat to people but I'm useless at moving on to chat to someone else.  And I don't want to mercenary about trying to talk to more people but I'm just curious as to what other people are talking about and want to meet them.  So if someone has mastered the art of the 'next' IRL please let me know.