Going to FOWA and how every small thing counts

by Alexis

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 (9^th October) at 17h00.