

Demo Days compared: Seattle TechStars VS San Francisco AngelPad - cookingrobot
http://blog.shopobot.com/demo-days-compared-seattle-techstars-vs-san-f

======
sma
I was at the Techstar's demo day. I felt the length of the pitch was perfect.
Long enough to have some depth, succinct enough to keep the audience
interested. 2 minute pitch at AngelPad sounds really short. It would be hard
for design centric companies like smorepages.com to convey interest under 2
minutes.

~~~
kloncks
(founder of design centric kout.me here)

It was definitely interesting.

The exercise of condensing our entire pitch down to 120 seconds was
worthwhile. We could very quickly explain what we do, where we're going, and
how we'redoing. Elevator pitches were a snap.

The best aspect of it was that it gave us more time to speak to investors
afterwards. Most stayed in the room and we had an opportunity to have amazing
conversations (and collect business cards) from those that might be a better
fit...rather than broadcast to everybody.

That said, having never been through a 7m presentation, I can't compare
against that directly. Just providing my own perspective.

When we first heard of the two minute rule, we were in disbelief. But at the
end, somehow it miraculously worked.

------
staufman
Seattle obviously has a lot of tech talent so I can see some great startups
coming onto the scene there.

This got me thinking. Are there any thematic differences in the kinds of
startups popping up there? For instance, we are seeing lots of fashion
startups in NY as compared to SF. What about Seattle?

~~~
webwright
A lot of commerce/ad startups (Amazon influence?) and a lot of LeadGen stuff
(AllStarDirectories influence and several key investors up here seem to like
that style of business). Plenty of B2B.

There's a fair bit of gaming DNA here (Valve, BigFish, PopCap) but strangely
few gaming startups (there are a few). Lots of mobile stuff (notably Swype).

I'd say it's pretty all-over-the-map.

~~~
forrestthewoods
I'd say that Seattle has plenty of gaming startups, they just don't seek VC
money. The VC money for games is primarily (exclusively?) in social games
which a lot of devs aren't interested in.

------
cookingrobot
I was really surprised to hear time spent explaining that "Angel investing is
a great opportunity!" In SF the investors know that it's a great business and
are only worried about finding the right teams.

A question for founders in other cities: do you have to try to sell the idea
of "being an investor in a startup", or do you just need to sell yourself?

~~~
staunch
I'd never sell the idea of investing in a startup. It's an area that should be
left to sophisticated investors. It's not like investing in a laundromat or an
apartment building.

------
bretthellman
A 7m pitch for TechStars... 2m for AngelPad. What about YC?

~~~
whather
Back in YC S'08 pitches were between 5-6m. Now with so many teams I believe
they're around 2m.

~~~
cookingrobot
AP had 12 teams demoing, and TS had 10. How many teams at YC?

~~~
whather
Back in '08 there were around 21 teams, now I believe there are around 60
teams.

------
neworbit
Scuttlebutt from the Seattle network says valuations are lousy there as
compared to the bay area. Did you happen to notice anything either confirming
or contradicting that?

