The experience of a startuper with Speed Dating…
The activities at the ad discovery and creativity lab last Monday surprised all of us, as they were not part of the typical lesson that we were all used to since the start of the semester.
By this point of the classes we were supposed to have crafted our idea and designed our future start up. Ours is named “The Meme Factory” and it’s a small startup that thinks big about memes as a part of our generation’s culture. We aim to make communication with memes much easier and fun.
But questions about sustainability and having a stable audience rose to everybody’s minds considering their own startups each. So, we were introduced to the speed dating method in the business world so as to make sure our ideas are worth spreading and to get in touch with the makers of the other startups that did open our minds to aspects we hadn’t already thought about.
The whole thing went as it follows: One person from our team was the pitcher and the other one the observer. We were all teamed up with the makers of another startup and then the conductor gave us three minutes for the pitcher to present our idea to the pitcher of the other startup while the observers watched carefully and for questions to be asked and answered. Then the observers gave feedback to the two pitchers in three minutes and the procedure continued vice versa for the other team.
As an observer at first, it was critical to keep track of the conversation as a whole while at the same thinking out of the box to see the product or the service presented from many aspects as a consumer, noting possible lacks even in your own product and then giving the right feedback. I was challenged to watch how well the pitchers knew their products and as a result possibly how much they have worked on those. Observation, also, made me realise what I had lacked on as a pitcher and where I did a good job.
As a dater — pitcher later on, I was put right on the spotlight to be the representer of my team. Consequently, I had to be welcoming, fast and at the same time be very specific -though descriptive-about our product because I had to make clear what we had exactly in mind and not forget about certain services of our application. When I was pitched on, the hard part was to learn to think about the right questions to make and the right feedback to give to the other startuper.
The experience as a whole along with the World Cafe method that followed was quite helpful because we learned more about our fellow startupers and we were given the time to hear more about their work in detail and ask the questions we wanted to. The fact that I was taken out of the fuzz and the anxiety about our own project and was called out to step out of my comfort zone helped me learn more about new ideas and prospects and about what is really going on in the startup world.
Eventually, this gave us the path to learn how to evolve along with others that are in the same position as us and how to move forward with our idea.
