How I Survived Collision Alpha 2017
What is Collision?
Collision conference is stated as “America’s fastest growing tech conference”. Over 20,000 attendees and 4,500 companies from 110 different countries get together every year in New Orleans to share their passion for entrepreneurship and technology.
The Art of an Elevator Pitch
See the sign hanging to the left of this text? You have 15–60 seconds to capture the attention of the listener. Through trial and error, I was able to refine my pitch and make improvements as the conference went on. Now this may not be as easy for some people. I come from a background in serving and restaurant management so having quick bursts of conversation with people comes naturally. The challenge is after the initial exchange of words. You should be able to tell if the listener is interested or not after you have completed your pitch, then you have a few options depending on their reaction. If they don’t appear interested, you’ve either failed to clearly define your points or they are genuinely not interested. Either way, you have some work to do. You will need to draw them back in by asking the right question and finding out what they are interested in hearing. Everyone has that hook or trigger that will get them excited, you will just have to find it; however, that will be a discussion for another time!
Standing out
Unless you do something incredibly stupid or break the law, the worst that can happen is you get some funny looks. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place of course! I’m not telling you to start jumping up and down or yelling in the middle of a conversation with an important investor. It all comes with feeling the room, but if you never put yourself out there, you will never know when the situation calls for doing something crazy! (or what your crazy, niche stunt is for that matter). At collision, you will meet hundreds of people (depending on how you network) and it is up to you to make sure you are remembered. Some people don’t have that charm and charisma that is unforgettable, so you need to figure out what makes you, you. It’s as easy as a funny story, or joke to build that connection after your elevator pitch. Now I’m not telling everyone to learn how to do a handstand or break-dance, I’m just simply promoting self expression. I don’t know how many times you will hear “people invest in the founders, not the ideas.”
After hours networking
I won’t bore you with all the generics of networking, but I do have two experiences that validated myself as a founder. A great founder will do whatever it takes to get what’s needed done, regardless of experience. Before I delve into this story, let me give you some quick background about me, I am an engineer studying computer science. The second night of the conference, I made it my goal to talk to people while I was waiting for my drink at the bar. Now this is the time to let loose, drop the elevator pitch, and build a connection by talking about whatever you want! Throughout the night I was constantly mistaken by VPs, CEOs, and other founders as being head of sales and/or marketing. The point is, that if you have a genuine belief in yourself and show that enthusiasm through general conversation then you are effectively selling yourself as a founder. The second instance that I wanted to mention plays more towards the “do whatever it takes” part of being a great founder. I was speaking to an investor outside of the bars, and she had jokingly mentioned that the empty back side on my business card was a waste of real-estate. I simply asked her what I should put on the back and she said, “Anything, social media tags perhaps?” So I took the remaining stack of cards I had with me and hand-wrote our Instagram handle on every card. She then took that stack from me, and handed them off one at a time to everybody outside of the bars, showing off her investor badge and telling them to invest in this amazing company.
Stay connected
What’s next? You met all these great people but sadly you will forget most of them or they will forget you. Luckily for you, you have a pile of business cards. Take the time to thank everyone you talked to. The internet has this crazy thing called social media that is engineered for this exact purpose. On my plane ride home I paid for WiFi and took the time to add every person that gave me their card. Also make sure you have your own business cards. If you can’t take the time or don’t have $20 to get 500 cards, then you have no business being at the conference. (Unless you have your own unique strategy to get connections in which case please share!)
How many business cards do we need? “All of them” — Alexander G. Orozco CEO & Co-Founder, Oli Fitness
Worth missing a week of class?
Absolutely! As long as you use your time effectively to get caught up. I mean what else are you going to do at the airport?
Definitely shot a question from my algorithms homework to Wolfram himself during his Q&A. #mathspiration
