by Dot Cannon
“I started my company out of a hackathon,” said Senior Technical Evangelist Nicki Stone. “I was 25.”
TechDay LA was in full swing, at The Reef on Thursday morning, September 26th, at 11.
As the largest startup event in Southern California, TechDay LA had returned for its fifth year of connecting startups, investors and the community. More than 7,000 attendees had registered, and 250 startups were on hand, according to the TechDay website.
And the Startup Stage sessions had just begun with a Fireside Chat, moderated by Startup Content Manager Michelle Kung.
During this first discussion, entitled “Confessions of a Founder”, Ms. Stone would offer a candid look at the lessons learned as co-founder of her startup, Betagig.
“We raised a quarter of a million dollars,” she said, recalling the hackathon that started Betagig. “There were developers from MIT and Yale (there), and I thought, no way, (we won’t win), but let’s do this.”
But to her surprise, she and her co-founder did win.
The challenges of victory
Betagig, according to LinkedIn, was the first-place winner at San Francisco’s Launch Hackathon 2016. But the win didn’t come with a “happily ever after”.
Ms. Stone explained that, as winners of the hackathon, she and her co-founder were accepted into an accelerator. The accelerator’s time demands forced them to quit their jobs. Meanwhile, their product was not fully developed.
“We actually started in a hole that I had to dig out of,” she said. “It was not sales-ready, it was not production ready, it was not anybody ready. So everybody else in the incubators was much further along than we were.”
“If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?” asked Ms. Kung.
“I would build it at night till I got the product to a stable place and time,” Ms. Stone replied.
But, she said, she absolutely would do it again.
“There wasn’t a day that I didn’t wake up thinking, “We’re going to make this a reality. This is the best idea I ever had,” she said.
Wisdom from experience
In the final minutes of the fireside chat, Ms. Stone shared guidance for fellow startup entrepreneurs.
Fundraising, she said, was crucial.
“You should always be fundraising, even if you’re not ready to raise. It’s like dating. You don’t want to start dating the day you get married.”
One surprising fact she shared? The accessibility of prospective investors during holiday periods!
“Everyone answered my emails within five minutes,” she explained. “(During the holidays), all the investors are with their families–and they’re bored.”
The audience laughed. But her strategy, she said, had worked.
“I signed a deal the day after New Year,” Ms. Stone concluded.
Pitching their dreams
Following this first Fireside Chat, the Startup Stage hosted short demo pitches. Throughout the day, these would be interspersed with four other educational Fireside Chats at the top of the hour.
“Did you know that the same dish could cost you different prices from two different websites?” asked Hungry Butler Founder Christina Lufti.
She went on to explain that her startup allowed clients to search for their favorite food delivery places on one webpage. Users could then make a choice after comparing menu prices, delivery times and fees.
“Furniture has a problem today,” commented Teak & TImber CEO and Founder Daniel McConnell.
“It takes a lot of carbon emissions to (mass-produce) and it doesn’t last. (Or, it’s handcrafted and very expensive.)
But, he said, his startup had a solution.
Mr. McConnell himself is a woodworker. Prior to his pitch, we’d been admiring his inlaid teak creations on the show floor.
And Teak & Timber connects prospective clients to local woodworkers, who can craft quality furniture that lasts for generations.
“The best place to get furniture is from a local artisan,” he continued. “There are 17 million woodworkers in the USA.
“Woodworkers use marketplaces such as Etsy (to sell their work). We want to give that time (spent marketing) back to the woodworker.”
“U.S. healthcare loses 120 to 259 billion dollars to fraud, annually,” warned Nimbus-T CEO and Founder Dr. Jose Bolanos, in his pitch.
“Every day we hear of identities being stolen.”
His startup, according to the Nimbus-T website, has a patented technology which creates a global identifier that then gets double encrypted and put out as a QR code–which normal QR code readers can’t decode.
“When you have a dynamic QR code that’s encrypted, (it’s secure),” Dr. Bolanos said.
Back on the conference floor
Of course, we couldn’t see or experience everything happening during TechDay LA 2019. But we did want to return to the exhibit floor, as we hadn’t yet seen half of it!
As mentioned in our previous post, there was no shortage of intriguing ideas.
A complete favorite? TAP, a wearable keyboard and mouse!
This is quite ingenious. Marketing Manager Virginia Ochi walked us through a gamelike demonstration where each finger represents a vowel. Consonants and words were a little more involved. But TAP makes any surface a keyboard, as the wearer interacts with a Bluetooth-enabled device.
We were also intrigued by this concept…
With a smartphone app, you can have a car washer come to you!
Further along on the floor, we discovered an app that saves employees time by getting their errands done.
MyShoperoo Founder and CEO Krishna Vanka explained that he had created a mobile app for companies to offer their employees as a perk. It’s a “personal assistant” for everyone, regardless of their position: helping with tasks like grocery shopping, cleaning and returns and exchanges!
While on the exhibit floor, we had the opportunity to meet author and Pop Up World Founder and CEO Graham Jules.
Pop Up World, he explained, is a one-stop shop for startups. And while his service has been based in the U.K., TechDay LA 2019 marked his entrance into the U.S. market.
One final Fireside Chat
TechDay LA, 2019 edition, was flying by. But we did get the opportunity to catch the final “Fireside Chat”, at 4 pm, entitled “CTOs Are People Too”.
“What makes a good CTO in one situation, does not make a good CTO in another,” Startup Business Development Manager Travlin McCormack told moderator Michael Copeland. “They’re walking a fine line between business and technology.”
And the two worlds, he continued, involve different languages. So he uses analogies.
“I ask, ‘Have you ever done renovations where the plumber opens up the wall and the pipes are from 1965 and it’s going to take twice as long and cost twice as much?’
“And the business managers get it.”
“How do you advise startups to build technical teams?” Mr. Copeland asked.
“I actually identify coders that I really enjoy working with,” answered Mr. McCormack. “The second part is, what’s the cultural fit. When you’re dealing with small (to medium firms), every person you add has a huge impact on culture.
“I strive for, ‘am I working on projects that inspire me?'” he continued. …”You want technologists to build, but you also want them building and inspiring for what the company is trying to do.
So, I’m sort of just of service, is the way I look at it. If you’re a startup, we want to help you.”
And indeed, the day had been all about that. Startups connecting, finding resources and possible investors, and learning from others who had made the same journey.
Happy fifth anniversary, TechDay L.A.! Looking forward to seeing your sixth edition.
This is Part Two of a two-part series. Missed Part One? Here’s the link.