10 Insane Strategies to Winning StartupBus
You won’t believe that they actually work (and you’re even allowed to do that).
If you think that StartupBus is just like other hackathons or pitch competitions, but longer… you’re dead wrong. We want to make 100% sure that you don’t get used to that competition winning formula mentality, as the real world often have vague rules to why a startup succeeds.
A hackathon winning hack or a pitch competition winning idea will not win the StartupBus. StartupBus judges this year are all investors, and they will judge your startup as a real startup, not a fake 5-day startup. They want to see your team and your traction.
Since StartupBus is no ordinary startup competition, a lot of the rules from your other competitions don’t apply. Instead of pages and pages of rules, we really only ask for a few things, such as:
- A core team of 2–5 Buspreneurs.
- No plagiarism. All designs and codes must start from scratch except templates and boilerplates.
- Adherence to our Code of Conduct.
Get creative! That’s what entrepreneurship is about. You’ve got tons of freedom to try things out. Here are a few proven insane and unlikely strategies that actually work:
1. Hydrate!
This sounds like a camping tip from Burning Man, but it’s actually very important on the bus, too, especially during a hot summer. When your team members aren’t hydrated, they get more pissed off more easily and derail the project. Therefore, remember to piss clear!
2. Tweet up!
Don’t be shy! Taking you out of your shy comfort zone is a big part of StartupBus. Tweet to the universe and believe in what you say. If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody will.
Tweet directly and pitch shamelessly at famous people or influencers. They do check their Twitter, and you’ll be surprised when they reply your tweets if they see something in your idea. Ask them to help promote your startup to gain traction!
3. Pitch every random person you can find on the street.
The best way to validate your business strategy is to get out of the office, at least according to Lean Startup Machine. You will find people at every stop, but those can all be your potential user. You need to develop a thick skin to become a founder anyway.
Oh, and btw, nobody cares to steal your idea — execution matters way more than ideation. Get out of that mentality already.
4. Get all your friends in New Orleans to applaud LOUDLY for your pitch.
Applause is very much a herd mentality thing. If someone hears another person clap, they clap, too. So if your ultra-supportive friends clap together for your product, everyone will follow.
Judges get impressed by things like that, and your product is more memorable and impressive just because of applause. We are all pretty gullible to the applause at the beginning of all TED talks start for that reason, too. More memorable products are more likely to win.
Our Demo Day tickets are available here: https://startupbus.com/summit — So get all your Nola friends to register for free with promo code APPLICANT.
4. Write on the bus.
If your bus driver permits, you can draw your startup’s logo and Twitter handle on the exterior of the bus (with an erasable marker, of course). Our sponsors put their logos on the bus too for a reason: It’s great exposure, literally, on 7000 miles of the highway.
Or stick your logo on the bus with a magnet or a removable sticker!
5. Prototype hardware projects quickly with parts from a Walmart.
Hardware projects always stand out in startup competitions, simply because how rare they are and how hard (pun) it is to pull it off. Instead of making every custom part, try going to a Walmart on the way and taking apart an existing toy or product for parts.
6. Hire someone on Mechanical Turk, Upwork, or Fiverr. Or even an agency.
Yes, you can even do that!
All normal startup competition rules you know fly out of the window on the StartupBus. If you’re investing real money to register your domain name or buy stock photos, you might as well invest some money in extra labor if your team really believes in the product. You’re gonna need to hire extra help eventually anyway.
Why waste your developers’ time coding CSS for a simple landing page for half a day when they can spend that time perfecting the Deep Learning algorithms? Or have your biz dev person spending time scrubbing data clean when they can be evangelizing and gaining an extra 1000 followers? Delegating talents to their best use is directly proportional to your startup’s success.
And if you are that good at pitching your product and you get your developer and designer and data scientist gang back home to code for you for free during the 5 days — Amazing. You’ve definitely got some leadership skills. We love that.
7. Befriend that conductor who’s responsible for social media on the bus.
We have at least one conductor who tweets and posts often during the road trip. And guess what — your brand new startup’s Twitter account has only 2-digit followers, while your bus can have up to 3 or 4-digits of them.
So do something cool and awesome to ask your conductor to tweet or retweet about it. If you’re lucky and @TheStartupBus retweets your bus, you’re instantly exposed to 14k followers — many of them investors and top leaders in tech. That’s free marketing.
7. Convince someone talented to switch to your team.
Nobody said people can’t change teams halfway through the competition! Poaching is actually allowed. 😈
If you see a talented developer stuck in a terrible team, it’s your chance.
8. Make your team T-Shirt.
Investors love to see a good team. And a team that can work together with the looks as well is perfect. Order some t-shirts and have them deliver to the final venue!
9. Ask your mentors and conductors to code for you.
Who said your mentors can only watch you pitch but not get involved?
Nobody.
In fact, halfway through the trip you’ll realize the competition isn’t about teams on the bus against each other, but maybe it’s about buses against buses. Your mentors want your bus to win just as much — if your pitch is amazing, they might actually help you code, design, or market the crap out of it.
10. Sleep on the bus at day. Work at the hotel at night.
If you’re a night owl and possess the superpower of sleeping on a moving vehicle, take advantage of that, because hotel wifi is definitely better than bus wifi, and it’s more stable and less distracting.
Sleep management, surprisingly, is one of the life skills you’ll learn on the StartupBus, and is a key to win the competition. You don’t want to show up at your final pitch groggy. Plan your sleep and coffee intake ahead.
That’s all for now to the hidden secrets of winning the StartupBus. May the odds be ever in your favor! Have a great trip!!!
