MSB Pitch Night November 2017
Sorry about the delay in getting this blog post to you. Here I am, up in Sydney writing this on Melbourne Cup day. I was planning to have this done and dusted before I flew to Sydney but you know what they say about plans?
I hate plans.
In fact, I wouldn’t be writing this even today if not for the fact that all the Two Space venues here in Sydney are closed for coworking because the bars & restaurants they operate out of are fully booked out for Melbourne Cup. The purpose of my visit – checkout the venues and talk to potential partners/sponsors in Sydney to get Silicon Beach in Sydney back on track. I don’t buy into this Sydney vs Melbourne competition. We are one Australian startup community.
And as Silicon Beach goes into startup mode – creating Silicon Beach Australia to bring all current and future Silicon Beaches into a united and connected network of startup communities – Sydney’s strong startup eco-system and the community will play a very significant role.
TwoSpace, if you don’t know already, is a Sydney based startup that converts restaurants, bars and cafes closed during the day to coworking spaces. They are heaps cheaper than the traditional coworking spaces and ideal for our community of bootstrapping, first time startup founders. They recently opened two venues in Melbourne.
Now had I planned this trip better and spoken on the phone to Tashi, the founder of TwoSpace earlier than yesterday, I would have come to Sydney some other time. But then I wouldn’t have met my Airbnb host who just happened to be working at Google Australia HQ in Sydney. As a result, Sydney Silicon Beach events at Google HQ is a very real possibility. Watch out for a blog post on Sydney Silicon Beach project.
Sometimes it’s best not to plan, and let the Universe plan for you.
But I digress. Here are the videos from November Pitch Night.
November Pitch Night was sponsored by Clover. Check out their special offer to Silicon Beachers below (offer valid till 30th Nov)
0:00 – 5:35 Intro and stuff. Feel free to skip
Messages from our Sponsors
5:35 Darcy from Clover. Darcy was one of the founding organizers of Melboure Silicon Beach (MSB) back in Feb 2011. He handed over the reins to Athula and Cullen in Jan 2014 when MSB was a rather small community of approx. 1,700 Members. Darcy seems to have a knack for backing winning teams. We had no idea about running a community. We are still learning, but haven’t done too badly. The community has grown four fold in little under 4 years.
True to form, Darcy’s uncovered another potential winner in Clover. Check them out and make full use of their special offer to Silicon Beachers –
7:54 Georgia from Wade Institute (Masters in Entrepreneurship from University of Melbourne). Checkout their scholarships.
9:30 Luke from Simbisa Law. They listened to your feedback and moved the startup law webinar to after hours. It is now on Wednesday (NOT on Thursday) at 5:30pm (NOT 12:30pm).
You will find this week’s topics very interesting. Register directly on the GoToWebinar page here – http://bit.ly/OnboardingBPs
You are invited to an upcoming workshop they will be speaking at “Partner with your professional advisors for business success”.
RSVP here –
Sponsors who couldn’t make it to the Pitch Night.
12:35 Chat Matrics. Add that human touch to your website. Chat Matrics is a Melbourne based company offering human powered chat to websites all over the world.
In the a dominated by AI & bots, we will begin to appreciate that human connection. Chat Matrics is already there.
13:28 Pivot Summit 2017 in Geelong. Not only you get to meet who’s who in the startup world, you get Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak – the ‘other Steve’. He co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in a garage long before ‘startup’ was a thing. Click on the link below to get your ticket at a special discount. Hurry, these things are going like an iPhone on the launch day.
Partner Pitches
14:52 Bill from Two Space. We recently partnered with Two Space in their “Pitch to Space” pitch battle event. We might have a regular “Pitch Battle” once in three months or so at their Fitzroy venue – Brunswick St. Cider House. Contestants to be chosen from monthly MSB Pitch Nights. Watch this space for the blog post and videos on that event.
Nov 2017 Pitch List
We are trying something new (again!), creating a pitch video for each pitch. Makes it more shareable and more likely to be viewed by potential investors.
Videos are posted here raw and unedited, we would love some help from a video editor. Thank you.
1) Jamie Dunbar – Dragon Boot Studios
Jamie! Please read the linked article on SiliconSchool about Elivator Pitch and come pitch again in 90 seconds. We will keep a spot for you in the December Pitch Night.
jamiedunbar@dragonbootsstudios.com
2) Eli – QbestA
elifsh@gmail.com
3) Dammika – Mitra Innovation
4) Jose – LaundryLAN
jose.rojas@laundrylan.com.au
5) Rob – T2q
Here’s Linda from Simpateco in a 90-second interview with Rob after his impromptu pitch.
6) Harry – Business video
We seem to have lost some videos. ThinkShopapp and other impromptu pitchers who pitched without websites.. you are welcome to pitch again in December. Do you know you can DIY a webpage for free in minutes with Strikingly?
Let us know on Slack if you are pitching, so we can reserve your spot before the rush begins.
Sponsor us and help your community grow.. Check out our sponsorship packages. The prices are startup and small business friendly.
Are you a startup, small business or a service provider keen to offer your product or service to Australia’s emerging startup community but can’t afford our sponsorships?
Then get involved with Silicon Beach either as a Partner or Volunteer. Silicon Beach community is in startup mode as of now. We are on-boarding new communities around the country and rebuilding inactive communities. A not for profit company will be formed to carry the movement forward. We need you. Now.
Join us on Slack and let us know what you can offer the community. And community will return the favour in spades.
And last but not least a BIG THANK YOU to Harjit for videoing and Linda for helping me with MCing and all the other volunteers who helped make the November Pitch Night a great one.
See you on the Beach in December, if not earlier! RSVP below..
P.S.
I’ll leave you with a few pics from Coogee beach, just across the road from Coogee Bay Hotel, another Two Space venue with an event space similar to Royal Melbourne Hotel. It’s ideal for Sydney Silicon Beach Pitch Nights/events. So, where shall it be? Google HQ, Coogee Bay Hotel or both? Or do you know of a better place?
We might need a team from Melbourne to go up and get the first events happening, till the locals get fired up. Any volunteers? Join Silicon Beach Slack and add yourself to #sydney_sb sub channel.
And we will need more sponsors to make it happen.
See you on the actual beach :)
