You’re competing for attention with the likes of Google and Facebook. Your ad proposal better be interesting. So show us you’ve truly thought about it.

Another point: if VC says no, it does not mean you should not do it, if you want to! Small scale business can be profitable for the entrepreneur, and totally ok!

I probably understand why Tapio feels like that. He has heard too many people saying same thing. However I think that behind this is a major misunderstanding.

Ads is not a good business model for young startup that is seeking funding BUT it is really strong business model overall. You need to gain critical mass before you can really rely on ads.

So basically if your only biz model is ads, start small and try to grow without VC money because it is almost impossible to get it without outstanding track records. But if you try, keep focus on traditional B2B models instead of saying that you’ll sign up to Google Adsense.

I believe that it was only beneficial to all that the jury was as harsh in it its judgment as it was. Both sides, the organizers and the startups, surely learned a lot. At least I did.

Good luck to all the eight startups that participated. I believe all of them have something great to offer, they just need to find the right focus and the right way to communicate that focus.

If you loose, don’t loose the lesson! We too, as the organisers, must think carefully how to perform it better next time.

It somehow felt like not all of the competitors took it as seriously as they should have – in my opinion. A public pitch in front of the conference audience may be a show, but nevertheless it is a true opportunity. The experts in the jury – and in the audience - are real people with real business opportunities, networks, & money.

Next year, we must advice the competitors better, prepare them to meet the situation, and give them more help to finalise their pitches.

It was a great learning process for me – BIG thanks to EVERYONE!!! who participated, followed, or judged!

- assert and defend…so make your claim and then give the evidence to back it up

- use numbers not adjectives or adverbs - instead of saying huge say X millions, instead of saying cool, say allows you to do things X% faster”

- summarise your investment requirement into 1 sentence like “we have 5 clients willing to pay €X for our product and we need to invest €X to deliver it”. Be able to say it in less than 15 seconds.

Marc Davies also said that I should have just done a demo…cut out all of the crap and get straight to the point…i.e. let the technology speak for itself.

The feedback was wonderful, and I learned a lot from all of the judges comments. I want to thank the judges and MindTrek for organising such an esteemed panel. Next stop…sharpen my demo skills!!

I actually find my mind wandering off in a matter of seconds if the pitch doesn’t work. Even if I try to concentrate.

Word of advice too: just my opinion but don’t listen to those who say start with describing the team. I don’t care. If I like you it will be because of how you present yourself, not by a long list of “this guy did that sometimes” (unless there’s some cool background story for the whole team directly leading to your idea). So obviously tell us who you are, then go straight into what it is you do (or even better: show it), and in simple terms. If the idea sounds interesting and/or it solves a problem I have, then telling some cool stuff about the team will reinforce the image I already have and make me want to talk to you.

OK, I’m not an investor, but they’re human beings too. The team is essential, but I need the framework in which to place it (ie. the what do you do).