Once upon a time, in a café not so far away, a sort of a startup love story began, a beginning of a beautiful friendship between Startlabs and Cybercity. But not because one was accelerator / investor and other early stage startup.
Nope, there was a different bond there, a bond based in love for startup community and startups as a way of life, for the people who are part of this lifestyle. And since Startlabs began organizing Meetups with Lean Startup Circle Belgrade, our team at Cybercity, finally found a great place to go out, have fun, relax and not appear boring or because we only talk about work / startup.
And it was that very atmosphere and attitude that laced the entire day at Belgrade Parobrod venue on 28th of March 2014, where Permjot Valia, London based investor and founder of Flight & Partners, gave his seminar on 'Sale without Selling' or how to put the needs of people before profit, while still retaining a very high revenue.
“The question is not – how can I sell this to you? But – how can I make your life easier?” – Valia said… naturally, we loved him for it. And perhaps one of the most fun aspects for movie geeks such as Cybercity team, was that a great deal of Valias seminar was given in examples and phrases from movies – making the whole process of understanding a complex matter of sales, very easy to understand and demystify.
This seminar is still one of the top inspiring seminars Cybercity attended, and the one we most often go back to and talk about.
But the treats didn’t stop just with Permjots seminar, (At moments, it toped most stand-up comedy performances, leaving us with a huge grin on our faces), there was a second event that evening in the same venue that really gave something special to community.
The event was StartLabs Open Mentoring Hour, where all interested could participate and pitch in front of investors – but not for money… We pitched for feedback. And that was massive, at least for Cybercity team. We loved this event.
You don’t miss a chance to pitch when you have a team of mentors such as:
· Permjot Valia – Flight & Partners
· Jugoslav Petkovic – Angel, Seedcamp
· David Schoch– Orion telekom
· Todor Breshkov and Stanislav Sirakov - LAUNCHub accelerator
It is very rare to have a chance to pitch in front of serious investors – care free!
You are not competing, your startups survival does not depend on the outcome of such a pitch. All pressure is off, but you still reap all the benefits.
For who can tell you more about how to shape your product and your pitch for investors, but investors themselves. And this was one of those rare occasions when we could do so.
And as everyone knows so far, Cybercity is never shy to pitch, so we did it… but sadly this is the only one we don’t have any recording of and it’s a pity as the feedback was very insightful and at the moments quite funny.
And in the end it’s what startup life is all about – knowledge and fun, they are not mutually exclusive, and startup scene with its Meetups and people proves that quite the opposite is true..