"You're telling me you benched 360 pounds? Wow." You could see the look of disbelief in their eyes as the conference room went silent. "Yes," I responded hesitantly, despite the statement's truth. "But not recently. I haven't been to the gym in a couple of months."
"Well … as venture capitalists, it's our job to take what you guys say and validate it, right? Did you know we actually have a workout room downstairs?" My eyes widened and stomach sank as attention was immediately drawn away from Textworks and focused directly on whether or not I could put my strength where my mouth was.
Terrified at first, I recollected and assured myself that there is no way that I would actually have to go downstairs and prove my statement. Still uncertain, Miles, my business partner, grinned at me from across the room. He had faith in my abilities to put up a respectful weight right there - we've known each other for a long time and he has seen me in this very situation before. He still, however, gave me that "you better be able to do this or I'm going to kill you, Alex" look.
The meeting continued, and I was fairly convinced I wouldn't actually have to bench press. Everything was going perfectly - the extensive and draining pre-meeting preparation (seven hours that night, up until 3 a.m., and three hours during the day of) definitely paid off. We were at our first follow-up presentation at one of the most prestigious venture capital firms in the country and couldn't be more thrilled.
In the meeting prior, the venture capitalists left us with a couple major questions that we had to answer: How can you prove that there is a market for your services? How does Textworks fit into the "ecosystem" of its competitors as well as potential synergistic partners? This follow up served to answer those questions before continuing to present to other partners within the firm.
What does our ecosystem look like? Not completely certain, we brought on a friend in the accelerated Information Systems Management masters program at Carnegie Mellon to be our chief technical officer.
He has worked at IBM, Microsoft, Audible.com, and Salesforce.com and has a much broader understanding of how applications can be integrated and leveraged by "meshing" with other Web site experiences. Due to his background, Steve was able to go beyond the venture capitalists' expectations, impressing them not only with his knowledge, but with his ecosystem solutions.
How did we validate our idea? A simple survey was our solution. We conducted a one-on-one survey with random students all over campus. But the method with which one goes about doing this validation is not so much important as the fact that an entrepreneur needs a proof of market validity alongside any business plan when presenting to investors. The core of the presentation revolved around handling these two concerns presented by the VCs. To conclude the presentation, we directly asked them if they were still interested and what concerns they had. It's always important to go back to the main point of why you are there. They like that. But never go in with the expectation of a check: It's a long process so the goal is always the next meeting.
As the meeting seemed to be coming to an end, anxiety continued to build: Would they actually invite us downstairs to their gym? The answer is … yes. They were going to put me (us) to the test. Our bodies tensed, still not knowing the outcome of the presentation and now not knowing the future of our relationship with the firm. The plates were stacked on each side, increasing with each consecutive press, 225 … 250 … 275 … 315 … 335 … 345. With each bench press, I felt our dream come closer to reality as the impressed venture capitalists applauded with excitement. It's amazing how that last-minute decision to put the "fun fact" on our bios played such a crucial role in validating ourselves.
Although we didn't get the next appointment simply because of the bench pressing feat, it just goes to show that you not only have to sell your concept but also have to sell yourselves. Every entrepreneur needs to show investors that he or she has the characteristics in place - the competitive, unrelenting drive - to do everything possible.
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