Why does startup pitching need to come with good vibes?
At The Family we’re tackling something European entrepreneurs have difficulties dealing with: Pitching & communicating about their startup.
Pitching matters vs. Pitching doesn’t matter ⚡
We all know those startups that spend all their time pitching, going to every possible competition to win awards. This kind of behavior comes out of fear, a fear of facing startup reality: users & product. That’s why pitching all the time is a really bad idea — it takes your focus away from what truly matters & wastes your time, which as a startup founder is your most valuable resource. Plus, pitch events all tend to be quite similar: judgemental, cold & stressful.
What’s more, European startup pitches are usually boring for three reasons:
- A good storyteller isn’t necessarily a good entrepreneur (and vice versa).
- Business isn’t seen as fun. People tend to be uptight & tense when they are in “business mode”.
- Europeans are very afraid of “being judged” and they haven’t really been trained to speak in public.
Still, pitching does matter. It helps you structure your vision/project, learning how to efficiently communicate and convince the public. It’s essential to figuring out how to talk about your startup.
So several years ago, we decided to do something about the state of pitch contests, to do something different… To do something entertaining.
Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe! The best open mic for entrepreneurs in Europe 🎤
The goal of Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe is to entertain the young and growing crowd of entrepreneurs who need to smoothly but surely get better at pitching their story.
How does it work?
- A theme is chosen (it can be food, finance, health… you name it)
- 5 startups are selected by The Family
- Each of them is trained in pitching during a 1-hour session with The Family
- The MC KillASon welcomes the crowd, introduces the jury and gets the house rocking!
- The jury, made up of 3 people (one investor, one member of The Family, and one guest), gives feedback to help the entrepreneurs get better & feel real encouragement.
- At the end, the public picks the best startup pitch by clapping their hands.
It’s a SHOW, where three things matter: storytelling, care & good vibes. To really share a story, you need to be surrounded by a super positive environment with a fun atmosphere (decor, intro, music), supportive & relaxed people, and a lot of care in every little detail.
What’s next? 🎉
So far Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe has had 38 events, a total of 4k+ attendees, and 150k+ views on our Youtube channel.
Great startups such as Yuka, Workwell, Crisp, Plato, Nestor, Slite and Pixpay have come up to pitch in front of world-class judges from the best funds & companies in the ecosystem (Accel, Balderton, Index, Kima, TechCrunch, 500 startups, KPCB, Starchain and Comcast, to name a few).
Now we want Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe to become THE ultimate pitch event in Europe, always with the same good vibe, quality & caring people, and startups working on the same themes. We’ll also be publishing more content on startups, pitching, and storytelling. Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe is our vehicle to show everyone that seemingly complicated, technical startups can be tons of fun in the right setting.
Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe now has its own media! Subscribe to our Youtube channel & follow our Instagram account 🍑
If you want to pitch or be part of the jury;
If your company would like to organize a Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe with us;
If you have any ideas regarding content we could produce;
Contact me: vladimir@thefamily.co
