The past weeks have been really crazy at eRepublik with the all team working round the clock not just on pre-launching our public version (more about that later) but also behind the scenes. One of the results is that I simply haven’t had the time to update the blog on stuff that has happened. On a nice train ride now so not good for vblogging (probably the one thing that is more annoying on a train than having the person next to you talking on the phone…) but I can at least type a few words.
First of all we were really thrilled to be recently selected by Mike from TechCrunch UK and Ryan from Carsonified and FOWA for their European Start Up pitch competition. We were chosen with 5 other finalists who posted a 60s pitch online. In a previous blog post I go over the unusual circumstances of how I posted ours from my hospital bed.
We were thrilled to participate, especially because the panel of judges was exceptional, including: Jason Calacanis, Mike Butcher, Ryan Carson and Brent Hoberman. As soon as we found out that Brent was on the judging panel we contacted Ryan and offered to retire from the competition, luckily for us, Ryan solved that issue by removing Brent´s vote for our specific case. (Disclosure: Brent is a friend and angel investor in eRepublik).
Having to pitch in 60 seconds a company that you and your team have been working on non stop for the past 18 months in front of hundreds of people from the industry and a very smart group of judges is super nerve wracking. But it’s an experience I really recommend, the great training and exposure from participating as well as the questions and feedback we got from the judging panel have proven extremely useful. Of course winning the competition was also quite a nice feeling and didn’t hurt for all the stuff we are doing behind the scenes :o)
You can see the video here, you can use the timeline shortcut if you just want to see the eRepublik part.
I had some surgery this summer (nothing particularly dangerous and all ok now) and had to stay about 2 weeks in bed after that to recuperate. It was great to catch up on email but not ideal for much else. Still at that time I saw that TechCrunch US was launching its 60 seconds pitch site so I decided that since I had not much to do I might as well do one. Thing is I was stuck in bed, could hardly move, was taking pain killers and all I had was my laptop so I worried it would be a disaster.
Anyway what I liked about it was that they made it clear they weren’t after Steven Spielberg production values plus, I could do with some fun. So I decided to still do it and after 2 or 3 takes I had something reasonably ok (although my mum said I look terrible and should have used make up… tks mum :o).
To be honest I don’t feel I did Erepublik justice in the pitch but it quickly became one of the most popular ones in the site (until some users we had to ban a few days before from Erepublik for cheating and bad behaviour decided get back at us and to try and bury it with negative comments and votes… better to be hated then ignored :o).
Not only that but thanks to it we also got mentioned twice on the main TechCrunch website, once by pure chance (for an article about the YouTube video counter) and yesterday we were the pitch of the week: Erepublik brings strategy games to the Web
Moreover, early last week TechCrunch UK announced that there was going to be a pitch competition at FOWA London (that I had already planned to attend) and that all you needed to do was submit a 60 seconds video pitch.
We submitted again the pitch and I just heard from Ryan Carson (the organizer) that we have been selected along with five other start ups to pitch Erepublik in front of a panel of judges including: Jason Calacanis, Kevin Rose, Ryan, Brent Hoberman (disclosure, Brent is an Angel and advisor to Erepublik, he knew nothing about our application and did not participate in the selection but I have warned Ryan of course and he won’t be able to vote on our pitch) and Mike Butcher.
So this one is just another proof that every little thing counts when you are trying to push your start up forward. Even if what you do is not perfect (I’ll think of the make up for next time mum… or maybe not :o) the important thing is to just do it and have a little fun.
You can find all details about FOWA (Future of Web Apps) London here, I really recommend you go. We will be pitching on Thursday (9th October) at 17h00.
