Roles Reverse as Investors Sell Themselves to EntrepreneursatReverse Pitch
The startup and investment eco system is changing rapidly all over the world. With a plethora of blockbuster success stories and multiple fund cycles, investors have gained immense confidence and experience in this investment instrument. But keeping in mind the infant stage of our eco system, it needs an honest two way communication process to flourish and that is exactly what Reverse Pitch is trying to create.Inspired by Total Access, Betaworks‘ and AOL’s New York VC Demo Day, East Angels and Bangalore Startups are working together to introduce India’s first Reverse Pitch- where the ‘investors sell themselves to entrepreneurs.’
This event puts angel investors and VC firms on-stage and gives them up to five minutes to deliver their elevator pitch to entrepreneurs.
The structure of the event would include a 4 minute demo/pitch by each of the angel investors and representatives from VC Firms. The pitch would include Operational Experience, Ticket Size, Sectors, Investment Thesis and Portfolio.
In turn, entrepreneurs will submit questions while the organizing team will select the best one for each investor. The question would be asked after every pitch, followed by an informal one-on-one networking session between Startups and Investors.
The core purpose of Reverse Pitch is to provide a fairly transparent platform where both investors and entrepreneurs get to see the best among each other, and thereby develop relationships which can contribute to a very healthy ecosystem. “We don’t want to see any funding happening on that very day as both the parties will take time for due diligence but we won’t be amazed if that happens!” says Subhendu Panigrahi, one of the organizers of the event.
Basis of Selection:
For Startups: The event is only invitation based and 20 startups will be selected. Various metrics are taken as the selection criteria, but, one of the core features is that Reverse Pitch is looking for innovation in at least one aspect of the running of the business, be it in the idea, operations, marketing, or even social impact.
The past funding situation is not a core metric for the event but they are trying to include the startups which would get maximum benefit out of the event.
For Investors: The investors were selected on their past deals and their experience with entrepreneurs. The country’s leading venture capital firms and members from angel groups have been invited.
The firms who have confirmed their presence are Accel Partners, Inventus Capital Partners, India Innovation Fund, IndoUS Venture Partners, India Venture Partners, Citrix Startup Accelerator, Nirvana Venture, Tempus Capital and SAIF Partners. And the angel investors who have confirmed their presence are Palaniswamy Raj Rajan, Ravi Trivedi, Venugopal Sathyanarayan and Steven Lurie.
The event is scheduled on the 28th of March, 2012, from 5 PM -8PM. The venue is Microsoft Signature Building, Embassy Golf Links, Inner Ring Road, Domlur.
Organizers of the Event:
The brains behind Reverse Pitch are that of a bunch of entrepreneurs from Bangalore who run a local tech community named Bangalore Startups and a local angel community named East Angels. All the organizers are part of a startup or running one.
Though they were initially skeptical about whether Indian investors would embrace this ambitious event or not, once they got a warm response from investors, they went ahead to execute it.
“We felt that the dynamic nature of the startups, particularly early stage ones, coupled with the vibrant nature of the recent success stories, will make a huge difference to our ecosystem,” Subhendu of Reverse Pitch concludes.
