KTEC Pipeline Event

I was lucky enough to have the chance to attend the KTEC Pipeline annual awards ceremony.

Although I have seen many investment pitches, none have been from experienced entrepreneurs that have multimillion dollar forecasts and successful companies. I was inspired by the enthusiasm and commitment the presenters showed and their ability to describe their business propositions. It was also inspiring to see how similar their presentations are to those that the fellows have been creating, and bar some polish, and a better understanding of our markets and business models, we aren’t far of the standard that I saw from the KTEC businesses. It was useful to see my mentor Tim Donnelly pitch his business, as I will be working closely with him in his organization for the second half of my fellowship and this insight was very useful.

There were a number of aspects that I noticed in the entrepreneur’s pitches that I learnt from. Firstly the importance that was put on the team behind the idea, including the management, but seemingly as significant the advisors the companies had backing them up. Also every pitcher used the term Value Proposition, which was something that I hadn’t heard before, but is a term thrown around here to represent the viability of the idea to both investors and customers of the business. Other things that I noticed were successful pitchers knew who they were pitching too, and had obviously done the research into the judges, and they also all thanked the judges for making the time to be there, another nice touch.

This was a great experience, invaluable to me going forward as an entrepreneur. I was impressed with the scale of the event, and the amount that has been invested in the future of entrepreneurship in the Kansas area. The KTEC scheme looks to be a great success, and to be a part of the ongoing improvement to the area is a real honor. Everyone that I met was extremely approachable and kind in spending time with me and I’m looking forward to other such events.