Only had time to write this now. Things have been a bit mad. So the Pitch Forum organised by EI on Tuesday went very well despite some annoying things which will be discussed properly in a future post. Enterprise Ireland really pulled out the stops and some very heavy hitters in Silicon Valley and American business turned up. The new Irish ambassador also was present and gave a speech.
Conrad Burke of Innovalight moderated the event which included a 45 min panel discussion on all things VC and business. The panellists were Richard Irving, Tim Danford, Patrick Ennis and Dino Vendetti with a guest appearance from Aidan Connolly of Idiro. Aidan then went back into the audience while the remaining panel listened to pitches from Jan Blanchard, Hélène Haughney, Alan O’Rourke, Marcus Mac Innes and Joe Drumgoole.
I’ve done some videos of the event, please forgive the quality.
First is Jan Blanchard doing his pitch:
Jan doing Q&A
Marcus Mac Innes from Pix.ie
Hélène Haughney from Nubiq
Alan O’Rourke from Toddle
Joe Drumgoole from Putplace – Pitching
Joe Drumgoole from Putplace – Q&A
Damien,
Thanks 4 that and all your fantastic work so far.
EI did manage 2 run a good event but many “improvements” (coaching etc.) that we can get into later and certainly would need 2 be fixed b4 another event.
Without Conrad’s excellent MC’ing it would have been a lot different.
The comradeship betweeen the panel was enjoyable and Conrad’s repore. They asked some pertaint questions but mostly appeared 2 keep their gloves on.
The pitchers had a hard time within the two mins ‘allocated’ and varied from on-topic, focused to quiet, nervous. The Q&A both for panel and the floor was good but some of the presenters faired quite well and others need 2b more confident and just say “not at that stage within our business and just don’t know those figures”.
All in all – a great learning experience and of course the ‘after’ session networking is where most is 2b gained.
Helene Haughney won the ‘best pitch’ prize (voucher from Apple Store) with entertaining Joe Drumgoole a close second.
Well done 2 all including EI and Fenwick & West for their work.
Lal
Great stuff Damien!
Have to admit this is making my sick as a parrot – green with envy!
Delighted the trip is going so well – thanks for the commentary it’s really giving us stay-at-homes a taste of the trip
JohnP
[…] PutPlace Pitch in Silicon Valley Here’s me pitching along with the rest of the Paddy’s Valley crew in Silicon Valley. Congratulations to Helene of Nubiq for winning the top […]
Joe Pitches PutPlace…
Check out Joe’s pitch and Q&A at EI’s Pitch Forum in Palo Alto.
Via: Damien Mulley | Tags: putplace joe drumgoole
……
Well done on everyone who had a go! You might find you don’t get the deal you wanted, but you will still have learned a lot and you will have a lot to think about. Will be great if you can bring a bit of that knowledge back to the ol’ country with you!
best,
antoin.
Thank’s for posting this information
As someone who coaches speakers to present and pitch for business and investment it is always useful to have a bench mark for comparison.
I would be very interested to what was the American audience expectations and were they fulfilled?