By Joseph Czikk

Our first Elevator World Tour event last Thursday was a huge success and it was only made possible from a diverse panel of 12 seasoned judges. Over 100 eager startups vied for their attention at the CN Tower in Toronto and we wanted to know what it is like sitting on the other side of a pitch. Before they entered the highest elevator in Toronto they gave their opinions on everything from the best pitches to the worst turn-offs.

What is the most important quality in receiving a pitch?

Of six possible answers, we asked what the most and least important qualities were when receiving a pitch: the team, traction, the market, the problem and solution, the intellectual property or protected idea and how they can make money as an investor.

Each judge ranked these six qualities in importance and we scored each one based on points (six points for the most important quality, one point for the least important quality). Overall “team” scored highest of all six qualities.

71 per cent of the judges said that the team was the most important quality to them. Similarly 71 per cent of judges said that IP/ Protected Idea was the least important quality in a pitch.

We all want a second meeting, but how many of us will receive one?

Some of our judges were more liberal with their estimates, saying as high as 33 per cent of elevator pitchers would receive an invitation for further discussions. Others put their number as low as five per cent. On average our judges told us that just over 15 per cent of pitchers would receive a second meeting.

“I try not to waste an entrepreneur’s time,” said Roger Chabra, a partner at Rho Canada Ventures. “If it’s not a fit for our fund I will let them know.”

The best pitch I ever received was…

With more than 25 years of experience in a variety of high-growth technology businesses Kerri Golden knows what she’s looking for in a meeting. The partner at JOLT technology accelerator in Toronto said the best pitch she ever received told her a story from start to finish.

“The founding team was so in sync that they were finishing each other’s sentences,” said Golden. “This ended up being a very strong indicator of their ability to work together and I invested.”

For Chabra three of the strongest pitches he ever received exuded complete passion for their business and market and came across with a “failure is not an option” attitude.

Advice for Elevator Pitchers: just get to the point

Our judges like to hear exactly what the idea is about rather than those that leave them wanting to ask more questions. The majority emphasized short, quick, clear and precise pitches that reveal what the problem and the solution is.

As a cofounder at Vancouver-based GrowLab Jason Bailey is known for his long resume of building successful businesses. He won’t mince words when it comes to what he wants to hear from a pitch. Don’t be fancy and clever. “Get to the point or I will rip you up,” said Bailey.

Does “getting to the point,” mean explaining the technology itself or the business model first? This question revealed a varied set of answers from our unique panel of judges. Some preferred the business model first while others preferred to hear about what the product does. Other judges couldn’t pick either choice.

“Neither. I want to know about the founders and what led them to this idea,” said Mark McLeod, a partner at Montreal-based Real Ventures.

Buzzwords and other VC turn-offs

Certain words or phrases are bound to scare off VCs and our judges were quick to indicate what those were. The unanimous losers are buzzwords or words that entrepreneurs don’t actually understand.

“I recall one of the worst pitches ever where I listened to a long list of mobile industry phrases and it became clear that the words had nothing to do with the business plan of the company,” said Golden.

Other (non) favourites were name-dropping; part-time team members, clone or “me too” ideas, lack of eye contact, aloofness, acting like others should already know what the idea is about and saying that there is no competition.

“Everyone has competition,” said Chabra. “Whether it is direct, indirect or the option for customers to do it themselves.”

Jonas Brandon is a venture investor and cofounder of Startup-North. He says that having no technical cofounder is a “recipe for failure.” McLeod agreed: “Any mention of outsourcing tech and it’s over,” he said.

The Toughest Questions

We asked our judges, “what is typically the hardest question you ask a person pitching?” and received a few thought-provoking answers:

Jason Bailey: Why do you care?

Jonas Brandon: Can I demo it?

Roger Chabra: What needs to happen in order for your business to get very big, very quickly?

Sunil Sharma, Managing Director at Extreme Startups: What is your strategy to withstand possibly a year or more of a funding draught?

John Ruffalo, Chief Executive Officer, OMERS Ventures: What makes you think you will beat out your competition?

Words to Live By

Finally, we asked our judges for their thoughts on the importance of the Elevator World Tour and how these entrepreneurs should approach it. As always, they did not disappoint:

“It’s as important as anything for entrepreneurs who are truly looking to build a venture scale business. Great entrepreneurs never stop pitching, day in and day out.

Everyone is busy, convince people quickly why they should spend time with you.” – Roger Chabra

“It is a silly thing. Have fun. It is not where you get a cheque, it is where you get a next meeting.” – Jason Bailey

“Be passionate, be direct, be quick, be engaging, be thoughtful, be confident, have great credentials, have a track record of something impressive.” – Sunil Sharma

“An elevator pitch event held in an elevator sounds like a goofy proposition, but few things are as important to your startup as figuring out how to encapsulate the reason for your startup’s existence. A coherent pitch is probably the first milestone that matters.” – Jonas Brandon

by Joseph Czikk

In the third installment of our three part series we asked a few friends of the International Startup Festival who they like to practice on before delivering their big pitch. It’s all in preparation for next week’s very first Elevator World Tour event at the CN Tower in Toronto.

When an entrepreneur has secured a meeting with a targeted VC or angel, it could be one of the few defining moments in their career. Rarely more than 30 minutes and sometimes as little as 60 seconds, this desired meeting can sum up one’s entire life’s work.

So how do we prepare for an elevator scenario? On January 31^st over 100 entrepreneurs will flock to Toronto, Canada and literallyride an elevator to pitch their idea.

According to Guy Rosen of San Francisco-based Onavo, it’s simple: “Build a demo, make it very easy to understand and be very confident.”

Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Rosen and cofounder Roi Tiger started the Sequioa-backed company that allows consumers to save on their mobile bills both by compressing data usage and by monitoring usage.

At the first International Startup Festival they wowed a panel of “experienced” judges and took home the Grandmother Pick Award. During a very eventful 2011 for Onavo, they won the MobileBeat Startup Competition, The Next Web Award and also secured $3 million in a series A round from Seqouia Capital and Magma Venture Partners. In early 2012 the company secured a series B round of $10 million from those same partners along with Horizons Ventures and Motorola Mobility Ventures.

Like past guests in our recent blog posts, Rosen emphasizes pitching to everyone including family and friends (and grandmothers of course).

“Pitch, pitch, pitch,” advised Rosen. “But moreover, pitch to other investors. If you have that one investor that you have your eye on, that you think is a perfect match and this is your chance, don’t go to them first. I think its wise to go to other investors even if they’re not the best fit just to learn from the process.”

Mark MacLeod is less a fan of pitching to mom or grandma and prefers developing a strong fundraising team, focusing a large degree of effort on the pitch language itself and practicing on a network of mentors. As a partner at Real Ventures, a Montreal-based seed VC fund, MacLeod focuses on SaaS, freemium, e-commerce and digital media seed investments. He spends an inordinate amount of time mentoring startups on their pitches. Before an entrepreneur walks into that all-important meeting, warns MacLeod, make sure the language is concise.

“Its actually really well served to take the time and really practice, to really think about your positioning and messaging and to make sure that every word in the pitch is there for a reason,” said MacLeod. “At the end of the day investors turn down the vast majority of pitches they see and good investors get a lot of pitches. You have to stand out.”

MacLeod anticipates that between one and four percent of startups will be funded as a result of a standard elevator pitch. But according to Rosen one’s first big pitch will likely be the hardest. After every pitch he learned what to say and what not to say.

“You suddenly find that there’s a pattern and you have answers for pretty much any question,” said Rosen. “By the time you reach maybe the 5^th, the 10^th, or the 20^th investor you’re pretty much on auto pilot and there’s nothing that they can throw at you that you don’t have a good answer for.”

It’s not a simple task convincing an investor in 60 seconds why they should invest, but nothing really is when it comes to entrepreneurship.

“At the end of the day it’s a very defining moment because there you are, bearing your soul, risking it and trying to sell your dream to someone else,” said Rosen. “You have to get someone to buy into something that’s a dream of yours.”

Happy pitching!

By: Joseph Czikk

When you only have a minute to impress an investor you’ve never met, sometimes things don’t go completely as planned. In the second installment of a three part series we asked entrepreneurs and investors about their funniest or oddest stories while pitching their idea.

With just two weeks left before our first Elevator World Tour event at the CN Tower in Toronto, we take a look at those ‘unique’ stories.

“He was looking at me like he wanted to kill me!”

Peter Lalonde of Ottawa-based cloud filing startup Openera had a strong showing at the last International Startup Festival, claiming both the Startup Pitch award and the FounderFuel investment Award. The CEO has no shortage of interesting stories, including one encounter with a VC who at first glance did not appear to be enjoying the pitch. In fact, he looked like he wanted to hurt Lalonde.

“I started pitching in a board room table-type-scenario, so there were twenty different VCs around the table and one of the VCs, the moment he sat down, looked at me like he wanted to kill me, like he wanted to rip my guts out. I don’t know what it was but it looked like he hated me, he was starting to fall asleep, he looked bored and he looked exasperated at everything I said. I think it was some kind of tactic that they were using to see how I would respond. It was just incredibly off-putting. Then right when I was done he put his book down, (he had been writing stuff, ignoring me, checking his phone) and just started saying how amazing and awesome this was, so it completely took me by surprise.”

“Don’t judge an entrepreneur by his shoes”

As a founding team member of San Francisco-based Bandpage, Andrew Sider helped build up the company to over 12 million users and over $3 million in initial investment. Today he heads up Montreal-based Bunch and has raised money five times over his career.

During his first pitch of Bandpage he and the Founder spent an hour talking to an angel about the product. When they had finished, the angel (who had been silent the whole time) told them, “I have no idea what you guys do and I’m not interested.”

His funniest story would be when he pitched to a traditional VC firm clad in suits and ties. His partner joining him however dressed like he always did:

“He had a hipster ripped t-shirt, jeans and he wore flip flops everywhere, including to our VC meetings. I remember going into an office and these guys looked down at his flip-flops and you could just see they were scared. They must have thought, ‘Is this guy walking into our office with flip flops?’ The look on their face was priceless. We went on to raise over $3 million that round so I don’t think an investor can always judge an entrepreneur by his shoes,” said Sider.

“I thought you only saw it in the movies”

Greg Isenberg had a memorable experience while raising money as a young entrepreneur. The 23-year-old angel investor with Good People Ventures splits his time between San Francisco, NewYork and Montreal, and raised his first round at 20 years old.

Similar to Sider he had one experience where after just five minutes he was interrupted by the investor who flat out told him that he should leave. “The guy was like, ‘I don’t like the space your in and I don’t like at all what you’re doing.’” The lesson there was to accept rejection and not get discouraged or emotional about it.

He also experienced the complete flip-side of that. In one instance as an entrepreneur he had so much attraction from investors that one apparently tried to force him to take a cheque.

“I thought you only saw it in the movies. Someone is writing you a five-figure cheque and says, ‘take it, what’s your bank account number?,’ and I had to say sorry. Sometimes if a deal gets really hot you’ll get attention from other people, or you’ll take meetings because you may like the guy but you just don’t have space in the round. Some people just really want to get in the rounds,” said Isenberg.

Part three of the series will examine how to prepare for that big meeting with a desired investor. Who do you practice on? Who can give you advice? Check out the website for the January 31 Elevator Pitches here.

by: Joseph Czikk

In part one of a three part series we found out from several entrepreneurs and investors what worked and what didn’t when it comes to the art of pitching. Part one: The do’s and don’ts of pitching.

At the International Startup Festival our theme this year is ‘Startup Stories’ and what better way to celebrate that than to recount tales of making that first pitch. This three part series is also a good preparation for January 31^st when we hold our first Elevator World Tour event at the CN Tower in Toronto.

Practice, Feedback, Practice, Feedback

Seems like a given, doesn’t it?  Actually, it can’t be emphasized enough. Mikael Cho is cofounder of Montreal-based app building website Ooomf and may be one of the more meticulous preparers we’ve spoken to.

He learned the importance of preparation after his first elevator pitch over two years ago.

“I remember going up and pitching and I kind of blanked half way through,” said the 26-year-old Cho. “I realized that preparation, even for something that is 30 seconds, is probably one of the most important things.”

Cho said he ended up practicing his final pitch 40 times a day over four days. In other words he repeated his 20-minute pitch 160 times before he had to present it. Needless to say it was like second nature to him by the end of the week.

Jeff Howard of Toronto-based startup Konekt.Me agrees and emphasizes remaining humble. The company raised two rounds of funding over one year and used feedback from every pitch, successful or not, to their advantage: “every pitch we do seems to get stronger and it’s because we listened to what the people who we were pitching were telling us,” said Howard.

Pitch to Mom and Grandma

Greg Isenberg may be one of the youngest angel investors at 23 years old, but this Montreal-based partner at Good People Ventures has had success in both building companies and raising money. He made his first pitch to an investor at the age of 18 and at 20 he successfully raised his first round of funding.

One of the most effective techniques he used was to pitch in front of, “people who just don’t get it.” Call up the old high school friends, call up Mom or Grandma and get the bad ideas and poor delivery out of the way.

“That was probably the best thing I’ve done,” he said. “Instead of taking your first meeting with a big investor, wait a second and refine your pitch.”

It worked for Cho as well. He would try to learn how to communicate his idea in simpler terms. “I pretend that I’m trying to explain it to my mom,” he said. “Speaking about it from a very basic level was something that Steve Jobs was good at. Instead of talking about gigabytes, resolution and pixels, he would talk about 1000 songs in your pocket. Its a way of thinking different and communicating that.”

Build relationships before the pitch

Isenberg says he was never too nervous during pitches. The best pitches “are not real pitches”, he says, as it has often been when he was simply sitting down with someone who knew him and his idea.

Similarly Howard built relationships while Konekt.Me was still an abstract concept, talking about it with people, gaining opinion and building up good ‘reputation capital’.

“I’ve found that talking to people early on and sharing your vision with them is much better than keeping it a secret,” he said. “At least they’re aware of you and keeping an eye on you. And you can deliver on your promise if you say what you’re going to do, and then some.”

What Didn’t Work?

Don’t give pitches over the phone and when you do have a meeting, make sure there is no elephant in the room. Address the questions you know they want to hear early on.

Make it unique to each investor and know whom you’re pitching to. “Try to get them emotional about it; try and get them to actually feel a connection to whatever it is you’re doing,” said Isenberg.

And if your big pitch happens to be on January 31^st in the CN Tower for our official launch, follow all these rules!

Part two of the series will look at unorthodox, funny and unexpected experiences while pitching. Check out the website for the January 31 Elevator Pitches here.

Startupfest 2013 Manifesto by: Alistair Croll

Since the dawn of humanity, we’ve shared stories. Tales are how we inspire, how we warn, how we learn. Stories are a proxy for wisdom, helping the young to see patterns and avoid pitfalls. From Wall Street to Main Street, from the big screen to the one in your pocket, Founders are today’s heroes. They face down the unknown, taking chances, staring down detractors, and pouring their souls into unlikely dreams.

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces

Once, stories were scratched on cave walls and whispered around campfires. They were wrapped in song and rhyme, all the better to hand them on to the next generation. Today, startup stories are handed down over hipster cocktails in SOMA; or in the comment threads of tell-all blog; or in YouTube clips. But while the format may have changed, the purpose hasn’t:

Stories make us who we are.

For our third year of Startupfest, we’re focusing on stories. Every great company has one, from the Homeric epic of IBM to the Haiku of Instagram. But so does every great trainwreck—and frequently, stories of failure are more informative. After all, the victor writes the history. But the loser has a tale to tell, too.

The underdog’s story is often more illustrative, reminding us of what not to do—or at least, just how much of success comes from seizing the moment, from unfair advantages, and from being in the right place at the right time. Victors know the legends; losers know the truth. There are two sides to everything.

We want to put tomorrow’s victors face-to-face with those on whose shoulders they stand. We want to turn anecdotes into conversations. We want to share the collective wisdom of starting and growing a new business. We want to unearth the great stories of the startup world, and tell them in a new light. Ultimately, we want Startupfest 2013 to be the campfire around which yesterday’s stories are told—and tomorrow’s epics are launched.

We hope you’ll join us in telling your stories. 

As with last year, we had several judging categories for Startups to win prizes in; some were recurring (Grandmother Judges) and some were new (Teenage Judges), but what remained constant was the tough decision-making involved in narrowing down winners! I mean, every single startup featured at festival this year was remarkable and we thank YOU for that.

For those of you who missed it on stage (or on our Twitter ), here are the winner for the various judging categories:

Startup Stage Pitch

From hundreds of startup applications, we selected 12 deserving startups to feature onstage at the event. A panel of Expert Judges then judged these companies while they pitched on Stage B. The Startup Stage Pitch winner is…

Elevator Pitch

For the second year in a row we have the Elevator Pitch category. These pitches happened, well, in a real elevator. Startups had 29 seconds up and 32 seconds down to wow these judges with their pitch. The Elevator Pitch winner is…

Teen Pick

We’re always saying that “children are our future,” but in the tech world, teenagers are a huge part of the present! For this reason we decided to branch out and extend judging to include another generation of people; since teens are avid users of mobile phones, the internet, and other forms of modern technology—a lot of apps are geared to younger audiences. This year the Teens couldn’t narrow their decision to just one winner, the Teenage Judge winners are…

Grandmother Pick

Last year we took a bit of a gamble and asked grandmothers to judge Startups at the event. It turned out to be a huge success (just ask last year’s Grandma Pick – Onavo, who ended up raising over $12 million dollars!), so we brought them in again! The Grandmother Pick winner is…

Founderfuel Prize

FounderFuel added even MORE value to this year’s festival by awarding a deserving startup at the event with a spot in their Fall 2012 Cohort! If you haven’t heard of FounderFuel yet, it’s an intensive 12-week program aimed at helping startups get to the next level and raise follow-on funding . As part of this arduous program, you can rest assured that it’s renowned mentor network will help you gain traction, secure partnerships and get you to revenues faster. The FounderFuel prize winner is…

$50K Prize

This year, 5 expert judges pooled money together to create a $50K investment prize. Not only would the winning startup gain $$ and mentorship but they would also be awarded a custom-made 60 second video by Switch Video. After much deliberation and a decision aligning with the “Startups that Matter” theme, the $50K Judges picked…

We’re thrilled to announce that Switch Video will be offering the winning team of the $50K prize a 60second Switch Video custom animation to help launch or scale their company!

Switch Video produces short animated videos that explain what you do. They’ve helped hundreds of companies globally ranging from wee startups to mighty enterprise clients by increasing conversions on their website. They love what they do and it shows in the great work they produce! Please check them out and spread the word. As if the $50K prize wasn’t good enough already…

So who’s Fiona Gilligan and why should you care about reading this? Well, to put it simply: she’s phenomenal. 18 years ago, after life threw her a couple curve-balls, Fiona took her passion for helping people and created (from nothing!) what would become the #1 company in Canada for her industry. Using a simple nuts and bolts business strategy to compensate for her absence of a business background, Fiona not only became a successful entrepreneur but was able to maintain her company at the top for years before selling it. And that was that: she was hooked. After selling her company in 2007, Fiona went on to become a serial entrepreneur and Angel, dedicated not only to helping people while staying profitable, but also to inspiring entrepreneurship in women. Read the following interview to see what Fiona has to say about her success story and the importance of female entrepreneurship!

Be sure to catch Fiona at the Women in Tech and Office Hours tents at the Startup Festival.

Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about yourself?

I am a serial entrepreneur, investor, avid outdoors enthusiast and single Mummy of two great girls.

18 years ago you started what would become the #1 trauma company in Canada and today you remain a successful entrepreneur and investor, what has this journey been like for you?

Building a company as a young female entrepreneur was tough; I was building a private sector health company in a government town so you can imagine some of the challenges I faced. There was no ecosystem for me to turn to for financing or mentoring, but these challenges made me more determined to succeed as I bootstrapped and followed my instinct! As Entrepreneurs, we are the architects of our own life…and this is what I have appreciated the most.

What has your experience as a woman entrepreneur been like? Do you feel women entrepreneurs are at an advantage or disadvantage?

I have always felt a bit rogue, almost like I have been cutting a path as a female entrepreneur (and now angel) and this has been a very powerful experience. Women can sometimes be more risk-adverse and this serves as an advantage/ disadvantage. To me, it is this very quality that can make a woman an incredible entrepreneur especially in scalability: Women tend to scale with metric decisiveness versus going the next step just because it is time, ego or whatever. We don’t need a parachute but we have our eyes wide open on all aspects of what it takes to build something into number 1.

What do you think are some factors keeping women from taking the “entrepreneurial leap” and what do you think can be done to reduce these factors and encourage women to do so?

Many young women don’t consider entrepreneurship as a viable career choice. Just like 50years ago, many women didn’t think that they could become doctors. We need to educate young women by giving them female entrepreneur role models that they can relate to and be inspired by. Innovation has no gender line, yet women entrepreneurs often have to work harder and smarter to be recognized in an arena that is still mostly male. If a woman has the personality, drive and street smarts, she can become as successful as her male counterparts. Being female is not a reason to avoid becoming an entrepreneur. Like anything if you want it badly enough, you will figure out how to make it happen.

What would you say was the biggest challenge during your entrepreneurial journey?

I would have to say balancing single parenting with being an entrepreneur – investor. I am constantly trying to find balance and it is tough. I often feel like I am being pulled in different directions but I am a master of scheduling, multitasking and recharging in my down time. I also have an incredible team of people around me that make my life manageable. And my kids are great in that I have raised them to be independent and to realize that what I do is really fun and rewarding for all of us.

Once you sold www.trauma.ca, why did you go on to become a serial entrepreneur?

I love business and innovation. It is in my DNA, in my blood…I love the acquisition and then mentoring/coaching entrepreneurs on how to build a successful company. I love the due diligence, kicking the bumper, doing the math, the risk for reward proposition that lies ahead. I just love the deal making. It is a powerful emotional state to be in because risk is the ugly twin of reward. But it feels great to turn over a business and have a good exit. And I like philanthropy – being a serial entrepreneur gives me more opportunity to give back.

Why are you such an advocate for start-ups, especially those driven by women?

Innovation is at the base of a strong economy and I also know that if we harness the intelligence that exists within the entrepreneur community, we can resolve many of the challenges that face humanity and the planet. Women are 50% of the population and it just makes smart business sense to include us in all aspect of innovation. I won’t invest or align with a start-up that does not have at least 1 founding female member or 20% of its senior leaders or board of director’s women. And this is not tokenism…there are many incredible women out there ready to become entrepreneurs but they need to have more doors opened to them. Few things make me happier than when start-ups, especially women, come up to me and tell me that I am their inspiration.

What projects are you working on today?

I am currently working on a trauma app mobile with a tech team and I am in due diligence with a few tech start-ups out of Ottawa/Montreal. I also love buying real estate. My criteria for projects is that I have to fully believe in the team, the project must be fun and meaningful (social entrepreneurship is really my thing) and it must be profitable. When I have those 3 things in place, then I invest.

What advice do you have for female entrepreneurs (or women who may be in the same position that you were in 18 years ago) who want to start a business?

Just do it. And hold off on babies until your start-up is well established. If you let being a girl become an obstacle, then you won’t be successful as an entrepreneur. The key trait of an entrepreneur (male or female) is creatively overcoming challenges and knowing that failure is never an option. The key is how hard are you going to work, how adaptive is your business model and do you really want it bad enough. If you do, you will make it happen even if you crash and burn a startup (or two) until you hit the right trajectory for a winner!

At the Startup Festival we believe that using technology to connect people at physical events is simply not good enough or the tools are too complex; so we have partnered with a third party (of humans) to augment the opportunity for people to meet each other at Startupfest. A hybrid of humans and technology.

Our promise is that you’re going to be meeting the right people at the festival so we’re excited to be featuring Knowledge Ambassadors, sponsored by E-180 at the event.

E-180 is a Montreal-based startup whose mission is to connect you with like-minded folks interested in sharing knowledge. No need to be “an expert” to be useful to the guy sitting next to you during that fascinating talk at the event! For instance, a founder who wants to apply to 500 Startups will obviously want to chat with Dave McClure, but spending an hour with an alumnus like HighScoreHouse is even more useful.

Knowledge ambassadors will be available and walking around the venue talking to you good people in order to figure out what kind of knowledge you have to share or want to acquire. On the spot they’ll reveal all the skills and knowledge available which will enable you to connect with the people who need what you’ve got, or vice versa.

So make sure to keep an eye out for our Knowledge Ambassadors, who will be on site to help you formulate your knowledge Offers and Requests and to connect you with your perfect match!

Interested in testing it out before the event?

1) Simply tweet I know… or I want… using both of these hashtags: #E180 #StartupFest

2) Indicate if it’s knowledge you can share or knowledge you’re looking for. Here are some examples:

- I know: how to get into #500Startup #E180 #StartupFest

- I want: to know how to get into #500Startups #E180  #StartupFest

3) E-180’s Knowledge ambassadors will analyze all the Offers and Requests and will recommend people you should meet via Twitter. Then, it’s up to you to make it happen! You can also contact people directly based on the Offers and Requests you notice on #E180 + #StartupFest

Recognize Knowledge Ambassadors by this shirt!