I had the opportunity to attend the bootcamp for Pitch@Palace yesterday in readiness for the finalists to pitch on 5th November. Our gracious hosts for the boot camp were MS Ventures at Working Central.
HRH The Duke of York believes that “British prosperity, in all its forms, is central to his work. He wants to recognise and reward the people and organisations working to ensure that we have the workforce, intellectual property and entrepreneurial culture to succeed. He considers it a priority to support young people in developing skills that make them more employable so that they can become economically active…… So growth in job opportunities will come from a more entrepreneurial economy.”
That statement was most visible yesterday with the support he has put in place for the 42 startups that pitched for 1 of 15 places to pitch for the Duke’s ~300 special guests on 5th November at St James Palace. He knows that it is the relationships these people will make with his guests that will help propel them to be successful and secure businesses of the future.
The room also included mentors who gave their time generously to help these teams hone their pitch, increase their reach, expand their business plans and so much more. These mentors came from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to give these teams diverse views and perspectives that they may not have the opportunity to seek I their current situation. I managed to sit next to a very interesting gentleman who has the joyful role of heading up innovation for his company. He regularly creates the same set up for his company in order to be able to help start ups with exposure to suitable partners or collaborators.
I am sure the judges had an extremely difficult task to determine the finalists. All the teams had such innovative ideas to solve a wide variety of problems.
What I saw was a group of people who fully appreciated the time and expertise that they received (and will receive in the future) from their mentors. Many of these teams had already generates revenue or secured investment. What they need is hard for money to buy: They need help facilitating meeting with future partners, they need connections with successful and creative people, sometimes they don’t know what they need until one of these mentors highlight it.
It was a privilege and joy to have the experience. See you on 5th November if you manage to get an invite!
Tech Talkfest 