The Red Bull Basement program ended a few days ago with the announcement of the finalists and winner of the 2020 competition. A London duo won it with an eco washing machine. The pair beat 3,800 entries to top search for global student innovation. Lava Aqua X (a UK startup) ingenious portable washing machine cleans clothes with recycled shower water in a third of the usual time and using a third of the power.
Read the the press release of the winner here. Photo credits Mark Roe, Red Bull Content Pool. Also my article about startups and Innovating with Purpose.
Studio Startup Competition
The final days of the competition was full of excitement. 38 finalists were invited for a virtual, four-day Red Bull Basement Global Workshop, an immersive, collaborative experience in which teams could network with various leaders in their field. I was lucky to mentor some of the teams as well organise workshops with NTT to help students get around the concept of funding their idea. During the workshops, I helped them understand that it requires planning and some thoughts. You find here below a short summary of the 12 magic words:
Pitch, pitch, pitch
Fine-tune your pitch deck. Show why your idea or startup has revenue potential (revenue model, TAM, competitive landscape etc), why you are the best founder(s) for your idea (vision, passion, innovation, persistence, intellectual property etc) and what the funds will be used for (be concrete, show clear budget items, go-to-market activities etc).
Persona, persona, persona
Define the persona who will give you funding. To whom are you selling your idea ? What’s in it for the persona (personal help, intellectual property & acqui-hire, short-term capital gain, long-term secured investment,10x exit in 5 years)?
Iterate, iterate, iterate
1 pitch a day keeps the doctor away! Dry run your sales pitch with friends (my advice is to run a pub pitch with some drinks, but corporate comms do not like this idea). Improve your deck after each presentation (debrief/post-mortem to assess what to improve) and carefully prepare the sequencing of fund raisers: do not run for the Polaris (North Star) at first. Start with pitching to a persona that is unlikely to fund your idea.
Money, money, money
Assess what you need from investors. Money is key, but. Are you also looking for a network of people/companies, door openers, industry specialist(s), technology collaborations, mentor(s), veterans in your space, person to call when sh* hits the fan etc?
Yes I know, some of the advice is common sense. However, it is key to stay down to earth and master the basics when trying to fund your idea or startup.
Stay safe, keep innovating and enjoy the holiday season.
PS: this article was also posted on Linkedin
