How WisePass managed to win at Sharkchain?
On Sunday, May 19th, 2019 WisePass was competing for the final round at the JW Marriott in Hanoi and won the prize
In this article, our CEO Lam Tran is the writer and will share about his approach in Sharkchain. You can download the slides by clicking here.
The format of the pitch was 5 minutes and 5 minutes Q&A from the judges. You will be able to see the pitch from each contestant.
Blockchain Pitch vs Startup Pitch
WisePass usually pitches for some startup competition where it follows a regular framework for investors. That usually starts with :
- Problem setting
- Product
- Business Model
- Customers
- Customer Acquisition Strategy
- Market Size
- Traction
- Team
- Ask
That gives enough information for investors to understand and come over asking more questions if they’re interested. However, this pitch was different.
Defining the problem to make WisePass relevant
In the case of that competition, I approached things differently as the problem setup was put in the middle of the presentation. The reason why I did that was to connect the product we have and the problem we’re solving, which is to make spending crypto easy.
In some movies, you may see some setup where the introduction is being used to set things up to provide a meaningful twist at the end. The focus in the pitch was to plant the seed in the introduction about the product and connect it at the end to let the audience understand why WisePass is relevant when it comes to solving this problem.
Showing how the problem is getting solved
Another thing was to share in excruciating details the way WisePass is solving the problem from A to Z. Sharing the methodology and how we reach that goal was key to win the audience. The challenge was simply to put that in a few slides with very few words. In the pitch, we actually took only 2 dimensions to let the audience understand quickly the way we measure and solve a problem. In this pitch, it was about making the user experience have a fast and simple experience to spend cryptocurrencies.
The problem with fast and simple is that you need to go beyond and apply for some numbers so it can be objective. We were bold enough to set the goal to 1 second and little to no steps.
Ending on a strong note
We described in a very detailed way how we’re solving the problem. After we did that, we ended on a broader perspective as the problem we’re solving doesn’t seem to be specific to a company but to an entire industry.
I backed it up with some companies that already signed a partnership with us in order to move forward. That’s showing traction and a serious market size potential.
That’s what I saw for BigBom pitch. They didn’t really end with something strong enough and the problem set up and the solution wasn’t clear enough for the audience according to me. Despite the fact that they’re a really great business, the slides could have been painted differently and win upfront.
Finishing in time
That one can only be done if there are tons of rehearsals. The rehearsals help to really know if the pitch can be done within the 5 minutes set by the organizers. It forces to make a trade-off on what should stay or not on the slides.
Also, it really is also about the pace so the pitch doesn’t feel rushed and people can follow the presentation. A pitch that is too slow or too fast will lead losing the audience and that’s what you don’t want. I usually ensure I can have at least 10–15 seconds just in case something goes wrong ( like the clicker during my presentation)
I guess my competitor Robert Vong from Elefos is smarter and more knowledgeable than me in the blockchain industry but he forgot the time aspect and that’s what led me to win.
