The main event we took part in was EU Startup Demo Night organized by blackbox.vc (known for the Startup Genome project you might have heard of). Filmaster was invited there as one of the top 10 European internet companies (thanks to a GammaRebels recommendation) to pitch in front of some major Silicon Valley VCs like  Silicon Valley Bank, DFJ, and others.

The event took place in pariSoma, a cool co-working space located in downtown San Francisco. It was especially interesting to visit the venue, as we only recently started a similar place in Warsaw, Poland: Reaktor.net.

You can watch our pitch, recorded on @jaromirdzialo‘s iPhone here:

And here are some of the hints that I think should be useful to you if you’re planning a similar trip to promote your startup.

This is one sentence that best describes what you do and that should convince people you’re doing something interesting and that it’s worth talking to you for 3 minutes more.

Make this as precise and interesting as possible.

If you have a platform that enables server owners to quickly sell their CPU resources by only using an USB stick (this is what Witsbits.com does), do not say that you are going to “bring cloud computing closer to companies” because that’s meaningless.

If you have an analytics company that works real-time, tracking any device (like Capptain.com), say that, as opposed to saying that you have a “business-enabling platform allowing companies to earn more money” as that could as well apply to a hosting service or a coffee vendor.

By heart. And I mean by heart. We practiced our pitch with Pawel for the whole previous day and we said it at least 25 times loudly before being sure it’s good. You should be talking in a natural way, not as if you were reading a prepared document. This way the person you’re pitching knows you did your homework and you’re serious about your business.

When they ask “that sounds interesting, could you tell me more?” this is what you should tell them. Ideally it should tell what problem your product solves, what the market size is, and what your traction is (if you have any). A cool example that sticks in their mind is good as well.

Ask who is coming to the event and do your research about each VC, angel or journalist that confirmed to arrive. This way you know who to talk to and what do you want from them.

It’s astonishing how few startupers do that!

Contrary to common sense (as you know your startup is the most revolutionary idea on the planet), the VCs usually don’t run after you. They probably don’t even know you (and don’t really get how you’re “different than X” even if they heard your pitch already). It’s you who have to reach out to them, sell your idea and make them excited about it. This fight for attention is something that’s very different in Silicon Valley compared to Europe. In Poland everyone seems to have a lot of time to discuss your product with you. In SV, it’s a real fight and you need to make sure you win it by being one of the first to get the attention of your dream VC.

Even if they only gave you their business card out of courtesy, still thank them for your time, remind them what you wanted from them and offer to meet up later, e.g. via Skype if you’re going back soon.

You can do it via e-mail, LinkedIn or on Twitter, depending which of those channels the VCs use most.

You cannot lose anything by doing a follow-up! And most people still don’t do it for some bizare reason.

Allright, those were the 5 points that probably seem very obvious to you (and if so, good, you are well prepared!). The goal of our trip to SV was not to get Series A right away (as we just got seed-funded by HackFwd.com) but rather gain some good contacts that will be helpful in the future when we actually need more money or need to reach some people in the entertainment industry. Thus, I’m going to share with you in a couple of weeks what was the outcome of the trip based on these criteria.

If you have any questions to this article, ask them on Twitter. My handle is @michuk and I always reply to everyone.

Borys Musielak

PS. I’d like to thank Lufthanza for making this post possible. I actually wrote it in a plane, on my way back from San Francisco, mostly because the only other option seemed to be watching a sad Chinese romance screened on a small TV above my head.

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