Track our Startup — S01Ep01
Let me tell you that writing content that will showcase your brand in a foreign language is not easy… and when you need to talk it’s even worse. If you add the fact that I am French (and you probably know how bad French are in foreign languages…) then you might understand why it took me so long to release a public video for Elokenz.
However, I have wanted to share small bits of stories about how we are building Elokenz for a long time. It all started with the newsletter sent by John Hingley (founder and ex-CEO of Dasheroo). He was committed to summarize every week in a newsletter called ‘Track our Startup’ (and a few days later he publishes the newsletter content on Linkedin Pulse). Long story short, I felt it was great to share an insider view of how the startup was growing and decided to do the same.
Turning to video
Before releasing this first video, I tried to catch the habit in a different way. I felt completely enthusiast about the post This is how you raise a seed round in 2016 by Philipp Moehring. One great section is:
Our investors would be from across Europe, because we want to build an international company, and a local helping hand is always good. Hopefully we’d have some recently exited founders and a few veterans on board.
So I started to share my story, as weekly reports, with my role-models in the industry: people that I know more or less personally, experienced founders or recently exited ones. I first exchanged a few words on Linkedin, ask them tips about business questions I had. And in most cases, I send a follow-up asking if they would like to receive news about the project in a weekly fashion.
As for today, approximately a dozen individuals are receiving weekly a private 5-minute video that I record in one shot on Wednesday evenings. I share the good and bad news, share my strategy for the coming week, and ask if they have feedback about it. It’s like an advisory board that you don’t need to attend or can attend very quickly. As a result, I’ve received networking opportunities, business ideas, and suggestions.
Why do I do this in a video instead of in person meetings?
Elokenz DNA is based on remote working. So I am experimenting all the possible ways to run a company from a remote location, with virtual meetings and chats. I am a big fan of what Zapier, Buffer or Hotjar managed to build in a similar way.
Season 01 — Episode 01
Therefore, after a few months getting used to recording my voice, in English, I decided that the WORLD should also benefit from my amazing, incredible, supernatural experience :) … now let me be serious a minute:
We still have to improve the format of the video, find a good name and understand how Fanny Arles and I could record such videos together if we are in different locations. But I wanted to publish the first one as soon as possible, just to get the pressure to start the series and improve it. There is this famous quote in the startup world that goes like:
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late ( Reid Hoffman)
The same applies to this first video. It’s awkward, it’s hesitating, it’s probably not very interesting either… but I wanted to do it, and I did it. That’s the most important to me.
How could you help?
If you want to help, that’s simple. Help us find a name for our series. Elokenz is a tool in the content marketing space, and in our videos, we will try to share internal stories and tools (I have in mind something shorter but similar to what Mike Taber and Rob Walling do in the Startups for the Rest of Us podcast).
Also, if you want to share with us tips on how to get better with this project, let us know. We love to learn at Elokenz.
Oh… and of course you can subscribe to our brand new channel!
