By Lindsey Harper (Founder, Swayable)
Thanks to a Women 2.0 Founder Friday event in Seattle last November, I met some amazing women — 3 of which I shared a house with at SXSW in Austin!
I went to SXSW to learn and to network for my startup Swayable. Prior to going, I decided I needed to have a giveaway of some sort that was an easy conversation starter so I could start conversations and practice pitching Swayable to random people vs. having to just cold start conversations with a smile and business card. Let’s face it, no one is interested in talking to you randomly if you just have a business card to give them.
I looked at everyone at SXSW as potential customers and here’s what I learned:
- Telling people I am the founder of the company actually helped a ton with credibility.
- Telling people to try the product and send me feedback directly actually made people want to help!
- In just one sentence, I could tell if someone gets it or not. (note that on day one at SXSW, it took me 3-4 fumbling sentences to get there)
- I am now comfortable pitching in a wide variety of situations…
Read the entire post “What I Learned Pitching 300+ Times in 4 Days” here.
About the guest blogger: Lindsey Harper has over 13 years of experience in project management, event management and marketing consulting. Since 1998, she’s been building, marketing and selling small websites as a hobby. By 2008, she sold all her “hobby” sites on Sitepoint.com and focused on her marketing consulting business. Currently, she is working on Swayable and blogs about her startup experience at www.harperlindsey.com. Follow her on Twitter at @harperlindsey.
