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Teru Talks About Boot Camp Experience

Teru presents 5 Minute pitch on Demo Day at the end of Boot Camp.

Auburn, CA - January 24, 2015. Teru emerged beat up but much more confident from Velocity Venture Capital's (VVC) 2014 Entrepreneurs Showcase Boot Camp last month, the rigorous 10 week business startup crash course. New speakers came in each week from the Greater Sacramento Region and beyond to share their slam-dunk successes - and resounding crashes. "Dan the Man" Wadhwani, Entrepreneurial Studies professor at University of the Pacific, provided the course backbone while the VVC team kept it real with their investment house and start-up experience.

Back in August at the start of this process, Teru Talk posted Teru's heartfelt if awkward two minute video he used to fight his way into the Boot Camp. He won that first round, hands-down. During each of the ensuing ten weeks, Teru tackled another piece of the Business Model Canvas to separate and clarify all elements of our start-up business development. He examined concepts of Value Proposition and explored how those differed from Revenue Streams or Cost Structures. He soaked up the importance of understanding diverse Customer Segments as different from developing Customer Relationships. He dove into the importance of finding key Partners, as one of many key activities needing our abiding attention. But as much as anything, he began to find more precise ways to say what we do.

Each of the Boot Camp participants re-examined every iota of what they thought they were doing. Almost everyone experienced what the instructors called a "pivot": a mental turn from your pre-defined direction, shifting the game toward where the market actually wants you to go. Sometimes that only takes a slight course adjustment. Sometimes, it's more like crack-the-whip. Here's where the Boot Camp process really paid off - their solid guidance helped find ways to use the centrifugal force that comes with dramatic Plan realignment.

Boot Camp culminated in Demo Day, where VVC gathered perhaps a hundred potential investors from this region for a concentrated day of show-and-tell. The trick is to learn the language of your audience, not to instruct them in your own lingo. Each slide in the presentation deck and every word had to be clean, clear and direct. By Friday, December 5th, all twelve plebes were ready.

Good introductory staging by VVC's speaker panel and crew set the stage. The class then presented an even dozen five minute investment pitches, back to back - no stumbles, no stage fright, just clean and confident. A link to the video of Teru's pitch is here. Everyone then stood post at their respective showcase booths, chatting up the attendees. The audience stayed, visited, asked questions, and in most cases suggested follow-up meetings, which really is the point of a five-minute pitch: to sort out who is interested in what you have, and engage them in longer discussions. Teru made some excellent contacts and is continuing the dialogue.

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