Last week I was pitching Cyacomb to an audience of hundreds of government officials, politicians and investors at the GovTech Summit in Paris. Over a hundred companies from around the world applied to get stage time in front of that audience, and only 9 were selected based on a short pitch video in our application. The pitch was competitive, and I’m delighted to say that we won!
I say “we” won because I may have been the person on stage, but the pitch was a team effort. The language I use, the traction I describe, the visuals, all of these are a combined effort from my team at Cyacomb and those that support us.
Those that support us most emphatically includes the team at Informatics Ventures (which produces EIE). I was pitching against people from the London, Germany, France, Israel – and I’m pretty sure not one of them had received the level of pitching training, support and coaching I have received through the EIE preparation program.
Back in 2016 I wrote about my preparations for EIE in the very early days of pitching Cyacomb, the business I now lead. I’ve written about the impact of EIE on our funding and the support we received for the process – and one of my personal quirks about always starting with my name (which was remarked upon in Paris too).
It’s application season for EIE again (until 24th Nov – then you’re too late) and for anyone thinking of applying I’d really encourage you to go for it. EIE is a great event, and the skills and experience you gain doing it are utterly invaluable.
Last week I found myself walking out onto a big stage to pitch feeling confident and well prepared and winning a global pitch competition – all thanks to EIE.
