In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Andrew Romeo sits with Amanda Fay, Founder & CEO, The Pitch Portal, a platform through which she helps connect business ideas and opportunities with expert service providers who have the skills to make them fly. During the course of the episode, the two cover a lot of ground: connect between venture capitalists and startups; vetting of experts and also the pitches, tools used by The Pitch Portal to ensure an efficient and effective support system; access to information and mentors early on in the startup journey, among others.
With her history of having a marketing firm for several years and having worked as a corporate communication consultant, Amanda knew that her idea of expanding the support community was the next step in her career and that was how The Pitch Perfect came into existence. It is, as she aptly puts it, an obvious match between the venture capitalists and the startups, where the former is looking to diversify income and the latter is looking for investment so that they could enter the market. As many research findings would affirm, startups are getting sophisticated and there definitely is more money in the industry. But that has also meant that there are more choices and more competition. The Pitch Portal eases that support ecosystem for all parties involved and it does so by having a deliberately detailed process for vetting the experts and the pitches that they decide to take in. They, in fact, have tools designed to help with doing just that:
1. The Survey: Businesses are asked deliberately detailed questions to help them come up with a perfect pitch.
2. The Lab: Businesses can put up their questions throughout the journey and experts can come and share their knowledge and wisdom.
3. The Interface: Businesses can put the details of their pitch online, and the experts can review the pitch and express their interest at any time.
4. My Projects: Businesses and experts can come to an agreement and the milestones can be managed.
While the three tools (the lab, the interface, and my pitch) have been put to use since The Pitch Portal was set up, the survey tool is a new addition and would help startups and businesses have a much-rounded idea of their goals before putting in all they’ve got into something that might or might not yield the returns they seek. Having seen people lose everything in the startup journey, Amanda’s goal was to expand the support economy and make profits along the way—basically, a win-win for all parties involved.
“You don’t have to have everything. You don’t have to have all the ducks in a row but you need to be able to present a good argument, a good proposition for it to even kind of go to the next level.” – Amanda Fay
Topics Covered:
- Venture Capitalists and Startups
- Vetting the Experts
- Tools used by the Pitch Portal
- Importance of Mentors and Support
- Flexible Payment Arrangement for Service Providers
- Vetting the Pitches
Key Quotes (Time Stamps)
- “It just seems to be a good match. You’ve got these professional services that the money would be spend on if they got it from venture capitalist. They are trying to find different ways to diversify their income. We’ve got startups looking for these skills to get them to that next level where they might be attractive or they could be in the market. It just seemed to be an obvious match.” (3:07 – 3:28)
- “The stakes are getting higher. We are becoming more sophisticated as a startup community.” (5:34 – 5:38)
- “We are trying to, kind of, expand that community, that support economy to build awareness to what’s out there for support.” (8:54 – 9:06)
- “Our pitch upload process—the information requirement is deliberately detailed.” (20:17 – 20:23)
- “We do support the journey in a big way by drawing on the experts, and that’s not only in the Lab.” (22:03 – 22:09)
- “You don’t have to have everything. You don’t have to have all the ducks in a row but you need to be able to present a good argument, a good proposition for it to even kind of go to the next level.” (22:47 – 22:55)
Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)
- Starting The Pitch Portal (0:33 – 3:56)
- Vetting the Experts (6:11 – 6:56)
- Three Key Tools (7:09 – 11:03)
- Flexible Payment Arrangement (18:08 – 19:28)
- Vetting Pitches and the Survey Tool (23:01 – 24:34)
- Success Stories (25:35 – 27:17)
Useful Links:
