Early Stage Growth Part II: Branding and Expanding
StartUpGrind SoCal was good for our team on many fronts. Our story is not so much different than other start ups, but there are some exceptions.
Our team is from the East Coast, and since our team was traveling across the country to Southern California, we wanted to maximize our time and booked appointments for before and after the StartUpGrind event. This took quite a bit of work before jumping on our plane to Los Angeles.
What this meant was looking through Eventbrite, Meetup, and other local event websites to find things to do, and people to visit. I would estimate about 10 hours went into research and due diligence to choose which events are team should attend.
For instance the first night after the StartUpGrind event, we pitched at a local “Pitch Globally Shark Tank Style” hosted by Kaustav Chaudhuri. There was a small fee to pitch but all we had to do was register and show up.
https://www.meetup.com/pitchglobally/
At the pitch event, we met a CEO of a large venture fund, an experienced silicon valley founder and author (Lance Elliott) and several investors/advisor types, all of whom we have followed up, and some have made additional introductions.
Link to Lance Blog http://www.lance-blog.com (Immerse yourself in content published by experts. Here is one that you may find useful.
Link to Lance Book http://amzn.to/2hEyHNe (Great book to help prepare for pitching your business idea.)
Second, we secured lodging using AirBnB and secured a place to stay that was near the StartUpGrind event that included a pool…so yes, it was a nice place. The AirBnB provided a great time to sit out under the stars and chat about the direction of Pass the Plate – a mastermind group time of sorts.
Toward the end of our time in California, an execution plan was hatched. The question of how was answered. The next 60 day would be focused on accomplishing specific objectives.
“Branding and Expanding”
From wheels up at SoCal StartUpGrind the rule of the day was follow up, follow up, follow up. Both my brother Ross and I, on separate planes, heading in separate directions followed up with people that we had met.
We recently had adopted a CRM called Insightly that installs nicely with Google. Using this system, I took a few photos of business cards to have processed, and then put in a few myself. Emails were sent…
At wheels down, we knew that we were no longer Pass the Plate. We had become ONE DONATION. No longer would we be a stand alone application that let donors give to any nonprofit that they wanted to, we would now open the platform to allow for payroll deduction donations, giving the donor even more power to give to the nonprofit of their choice. And one more thing… wait for it… we have other plans too!
We are ONE DONATION. And we will help change the world one donation at a time.
Until the next post…
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