Pitch Camp Dallas 2008: Review and Commentary
October 20, 2008
On Saturday around 40 local entrepreneurs showed up at our offices for Pitch Camp Dallas. When Christopher St. John suggested the event, I immediately jumped on the idea and together we organized a day long event focused on helping entrepreneurs pitch their startups to investors and reporters. Christopher’s primary objective (I assume) was to put together an event whereby entrepreneurs would learn a little about ‘how-to pitch’ to VCs, angel investors and reporters. My primary objective was to continue in my effort to help foster a community around entrepreneurship. The event wasn’t about Christopher or me, or even pitching - it was about building connections between entrepreneurs. My thesis is that by connecting individuals in the real world (i.e. through things like Pitch Camp, BarCamp and CoWorking) lasting and powerful connections can be made.
It has been my experience that when my ideas come into contact with other people in the real world, they either get better, change dramatically or blow up. I have NEVER explained my idea to another entrepreneur who simply said, “great idea, what’s for dinner?” By exposing 40 ideas from 40 entrepreneurs there are 1560 possible combinations or new ideas (not counting for teams consisting of more than two people). With each startup happy hour, pitch camp or other event we are allowing for infinite permutations that might result in new businesses, better businesses or even saving someone a lot of time and money.
I think the event was valuable for all who attended. I specifically want to thank Angela Shah (Dallas Morning News), Dan Owen (Ho2), Chuck McCoy (North Texas Angel Network), Tom Hedrick (HP Growth Partners), Christopher Paddison (HP Growth Partners) and Eric Engineer (Sevin Rosen). Here are a few pictures from the event: Pitch Camp 2008 Pictures
If you have an idea for an event that a) would be interesting and fun, b) would attract entrepreneurs from the local area and c) I would enjoy helping with - please ‘pitch it’ to me.
