Lessons learned from a startup founder on The Pitch Podcast

A week ago today, episode #19 of The Pitch Podcast was published to Sticher Radio, Pocketcast, iTunes, etc.. One of my companies, SandBox Commerce was featured during a 90-minute recording. After nervously stumbling through a nearly incoherent introduction then finishing pretty strong, I managed to receive 2 verbal commitments from investors. Over the last few days, I’ve been asked how I prepared for the big day and what I learned from the experience, so I put together a few notes to potentially help future founders.

Link to Episode #19

The weeks leading up to the live recording of The Pitch, I scheduled time with advisors, team members, and friends to help me prepare. Those sessions were very structured; starting with practicing my elevator pitch, followed by a product demo on my iPad Pro and finally by an intense Q&A (rinse and repeat).

During those sessions, I encouraged the mock-judges to second guess every assertion and to be particularly critical if I couldn’t back up a statement with facts.

In addition to those mock presentations, I listened to prior-season of the Pitch podcast during morning jogs, in the shower, and on the go, with a goal of learning as much about the process as possible.

On the day of the live recording in NYC, I woke up at 7a, ate breakfast, then tramped from my twin sister’s apartment on the UES of the city to the recording studio. During my walk, I called my mother and listened (more than anything else) to her wisdom. Immediately before the recording, in the green room, I listened to my grind playlist that consists primarily of Young Jeezy and Chance to get my mind right.

I’ve contemplated since that day, what if anything I would have done differently during preparation or while presenting to best represent my company and have come to the conclusion apart from finding some way to shake off my nerves toward the intro, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Would love to hear your feedback if you’ve had a chance to listen.

Originally published at Sterling Smith’s Blog.