Blood, Sweat and Tears – Competition Reigns in the Venture Forum Industry

There’s something about competition that brings out the best in people – especially entrepreneurs. For a long time at GCN, we’ve been incorporating a competitive element into our activities because it’s fun, it draws interest and attention, and it adds value to our events.

We started with the Entrepreneur’s Grill, where we dressed our investor panelists in chef’s hats and aprons, armed them with spatulas and steak knives, fueled them with copious amounts of wine, and set them loose on a group of early stage entrepreneurs seeking capital. That was before the bubble burst, and we dialed it back after things started to get a little out of hand with all the sound effects and arm flatulence, but competition is still a big part of our event model.

Entrepreneurs and Investors at a GCN Entrepreneur’s Grill in Sacramento, CA circa 2001.

The entrepreneur under the knife, Dave Gonsiorowski, went on to raise capital for his company Webraiser, which was subsequently acquired by Flextronics International

At all of our multi-regional venture conferences we conclude the event with a “lightning round” where the top five or six presenters from the 35-40 we typically feature, make a 2-minute elevator pitch to a panel of elite angels and VCs. The panelists determine the “Most Valuable Presenter” awards and everyone flocks to meet them. Accolades, good press and attention from the investment community are the results. These are virtual gold for a young company.

See press release on the finalist presenters at our recent Venture Vineyard event

Venture Island is the GCN “reality entrepreneurship” series where we start with a large pool of innovative entrepreneurs from within a GCN Venture Community region, and put them on the spot in front of a panel of expert judges over the course of several months who score them on a series of relevant business challenges. We partner within the community establish an Entrepreneur Success Fund, which provides a cash award to the winning company, AKA the Big Kahuna.

Tech Coast Angels has adopted a competitive model to generate deal flow as well within its regions with a series of Fast Pitch events where companies get between 60-seconds and 2-minutes to tell their story and a winner is crowned.

See Tech Coast Angels Fast Pitch Competitions

It’s not like the other participating companies receive no benefit from their involvement in the competitive events. They still get visibility, investor and strategic partner connections, and the opportunity to make their business presentations to a high-level audience. Granted, sometimes great companies with poorly presented plans don’t do well at competitive gigs like this, but that’s something every successful CEO learns early on: you are the voice by which your company is judged – and not just by investors, but also by customers, partners, vendors, and anyone else considering entering a relationship with you.

We hear our share of criticism for this competition-based approach. Some say forget the drama, just provide the meat. “It’s just a beauty pageant.”

Winner of Miss Round Lake, Ill., Beauty Pageant

But who would you rather ask out for a date: the passionate, well-spoken beauty or the stuttering beast. Our events are speed dating for entrepreneurs and investors -- a place where each can quickly assess the other from a large group of pre-qualified prospects to determine who they want engage in more serious one-on-one conversations.

Along the way, they get mentoring, introductions to domain and functional experts, and access to a multi-regional collaborative network that can add real value to their endeavors. If there’s a little sweat and a few laughs along the way, what’s the harm in that?

In our experience, what competition does -- besides get the adrenaline up and provide an entertaining package to a potentially dull topic -- is provide a media hook for great PR, and a focus point for our companies and our coaches. In the emerging markets of the western U.S where we focus the majority of our attention, lots of coaching is needed. There are great companies and great entrepreneurs in many places you wouldn’t expect, but they are often very green, and the competitive spirit helps keep things light, fun, but on track to add value.

We were green too when we started this thing the better part of 10- years ago. But in the course of showcasing some 1,200 companies, and with an alumni portfolio that boasts over $1.2 billion in capital raised by our presenters, we have gained a certain amount of inside knowledge into what works and what doesn’t, and what gets funded and what doesn’t. You could say we’re the best in the industry at what we do.

I guess that makes us competitive too.