A Personal Blog
Archive for July, 2006
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Jul 6th
It’s 2pm and I basically just woke up. Really, really long day yesterday. Hopefully I’ll have more thoughts on Romania later.
Basically, I loved it. Bucharest is on my top 5 cities, Romania on my top 3 countries.
Now to clean out some emails, have a nap and grab some pizza ;-)
Pitching VC's: The Elevator Pitch
Jul 2nd
Sean Wise, a good friend and our mentor during the time when we were seeking out VC’s, has posted a tip on elevator pitches.
For me, as the guy talking to VC’s, this advice was fundamental. The ability to communicate our vision quickly and easily, without being overly simplistic, but while also being approachable, was incredibly important.
You need to be able to communicate with VC’s in such a way that they “get” your business, while also showing that you have the unique knowledge necessary to make you a domain expert – and ultimately to help make the business a success.
If you’re at all considering funding, try doing an elevator pitch. Then upload it to Your Elevator Pitch. It’s a core skill of entrepreneurs looking to begin conversations with VC’s.
Obviously an elevator pitch isn’t enough. You need to have prepared your business plan and delivered your entire 2-3 minute and 10-15 minute pitch at least a dozen times before you’re ready to talk to any VC. And even then, be ready to be grilled, dismissed, compared to an irrelevant “similar company” and told to change your business ;-)
Romania: Day 2
Jul 2nd
I spent most of today touring the city. And wow. I mean I’d spent some time in Bucharest yesterday, but today I had a guide who showed me some of the churches, many of the sights, took me to the Village Museum (get this, they actually moved “traditional” houses from each area of the country, so that part of their heritage would never be lost!) and all kinds of other things.
Along with more traditional food (stuffed cabages, amongst other things), today was a lot of fun. I saw even more fantastic Romanian architecture, and every now and again I’m able to catch snippets of folk talking. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to grasp much more than that by the time I go, but this certainly is an amazing country, and it’s a real honor to be here.
I’m going to pop some sleeping pills tonight, as tomorrow’s the big day. 5-6 hours of speaking plus 3-5 hours of interviews. Hopefully the interviews will be sitting down ;-)
Romania: 24 Hours In
Jul 2nd
Phew, I’m here! I wanted to post some thoughts on my experience so far in the country. And while I want to do it honestly, I don’t want to seem like some western elitist. Because the truth is that Romania is a beautiful country, full of beautiful people. Really, the most friendly, giving, generous and unpretentious people I’ve ever met. Sure, I’ve only met 20 or so so far, but I have been very impressed by how engaging they are.
And while I’ve only seen a small bit of Bucharest so far, I’ve been very impressed. As I said, it’s beautiful. To my western eyes, much of it looks like New York might, had New York been ravaged by decades of war. Many parts are incredibly modern, where right beside the modern buildings will be old ones that look like they were abandoned 20 years ago (though many of these have advertisements almost as big as the buildings hanging on them).
It’s a fascinating country. I still haven’t gotten used to the dual-currency. I’ve tried to get some Romanians to explain it to me, but the language barrier has been substantial. Don’t worry, I won’t say that everyone should speak English. This is Romania, they’re totally allowed to speak they’re own language after all ;-)
It’s probably most frustrating for me, because I can *almost* understand Romanian. It’s so latin-based (I’ve learned a half dozen different latin languages). In fact, it’s the closest modern language to latin, though it is heavily influenced by Russian. It’s a fascinating language.
Probably the biggest language barrier is, surprisingly (to me at least) with taxi drivers. I often have to ask 8-10 taxi drivers to find one who speaks any English at all. In some ways it makes sense (mainly it is people in the younger generations who speak English regularly), and in other ways it’s very new to me.
Again, I have no criticisms of Romania. To my western eyes, they are finding their place in the world. And I totally encourage that. Romanian business shouldn’t be western business. Romanian TV shouldn’t be western TV. Romanian music shouldn’t be western music. Romania is an incredibly rich and diverse country, with an intense sense of culture and society like I’ve never seen.
And I, personally, would never want to see them lose that just to pretty the country up. Because sometimes the real beauty isn’t in how much metal and glass you have in a building. It’s hidden inside. In the genuine smile of the cashier as she explains to you how you got 1 million lei in change after giving her a 500 lei bill. Or in the smile of the poor McDonald’s guy as he tries to understand what a “Big Mac Combo” is (eventually I figure out that “menu” doesn’t mean “menu”, but literally means a group of items – as latin originally intended).
It is a fascinating country. I have a few interviews today (with massive media outlets here), but I’m getting quite a few hours off to explore the city more. Tomorrow will be crazy, with the conference all day and about a dozen interviews. I’m really looking forward both to chatting with folk and to learning what Romania thinks about blogging.
Really my only frustration is that there aren’t any pay phones around, which has meant that I’ve only been able to communicate with my family via email. 5 days without talking to them will be very, very hard.
