Startup Podcast Write-Up

I really enjoyed listening to this podcast, it started to give me a better understanding of what goes into a good startup pitch. Alex Blumberg presents us his first attempt at pitching his podcast startup to Silicon Valley billionaire, Chris Sacca. In this once in a lifetime opportunity, Alex’s squander ends up becoming a great learning experience with the fortunate opportunity for another shot at it. It amazed me how Chris was able to listen to Alex’s botched attempt and turn it around to give him a pitch that made Alex ready to invest off what his original pitch should’ve sounded like.

For me, the biggest take from listening to the first two episodes of the podcast was the conviction in telling your story during your pitch. You must have the confidence and passion when presenting this idea you believe is going to be the next biggest thing to pop off. To go hand in hand with this, you must do your homework on all different aspects of your venture idea and be ready to answer questions thrown your way after you finish your initial pitch. One of the other key things I took away from the podcast was the simple idea that in order to try to perfect anything you do, you must take the time to practice the pitch. Although you would obviously prefer an audience that can give you meaningful feedback, pitching the idea to any ears will only help to build the confidence and fuel your passion about your idea.

I think another important thing I took away from the podcast is the understanding that the process of pitching isn’t a simple and easy process. Entrepreneurship is about taking risks and these risks will come in a variety of degrees. As an entrepreneur, you must not be afraid of failure, but rather be prepared to embrace it and use it as a learning experience much like Alex did. He talked about still not feeling satisfied after giving what seemed to be a better pitch to Chris’ partner Matt, who seemed to have some interest in his idea. From this, I took the idea that you will hear so many different ideas and challenges built around the idea you present, that you must be willing to listen to and consider. I’m interested in continuing to listen and see how Alex progresses. I assume he’s had some sort of success as he’s now on his eighth season of the podcast.