TWiST 37

Pete Kistler calls in to pitch Brand-Yourself, a platform to manage your online reputation (in short, SEO for people)

Jason and Phil’s comments:

Overall a poor pitch, decent idea which is what you want verses the opposite.  Jason comments he has been asked how to get things removed from Mahalo and other services so the idea has legs but the mystery of SEO and how to explain what Brand-Yourself does is difficult which leads to a credibility problem.

Pitch critique:

• Price seems expensive, the service provided isn’t clear
• Never said the name of his company or at least in the beginning
• Delivery was stiff and confusing
• Idea has potential
• The service that you provide isn’t necessarily clear, who actually does the work (me or you)
• Dashes in a domain name are “like wearing sneakers to a funeral” (Tyler)
• Website doesn’t convey trustworthy
• Re-brand your name it’s not unique, consider something unique, Phil comments on a post by Evan Williams about not being to literal with naming (If anyone can help me find the post Phil I’d be grateful)
• Consider adding a before and after profile as an example showing success
• An interesting showcase of your service would be to take a “problem” celebrity case and see if you can get your profile of them on the front page

My Recommendations (some website changes have been made since the show):

• Consider branding the site a bit better, I see a lot of stock images
• I like the video but I would consider a video showing an example of your work, don’t giveaway your method but show results.
• To create buzz I’d offer your service as a contest for 5 lucky winners (use a Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn campaign) with the caveat that they have to allow you to showcase your results.
• Promote your blog a bit better, it appears very active, I would move the link to the header.
• I see you removed the pricing for your service and moved to a form (for more info).  The problem with this approach, in my opinion, is without genuine credibility and a clear proposition of what you offer I think you will struggle with conversion.

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TWiST 35

Tyler Koblasa calls in to pitch Mingly, a social media CRM tool to help you maintain relationships.  The app basically monitors your social profile and inserts time based reminders in a to do list.  If you are interested in a beta invite Tyler is currently accepting email addresses at Mingly.

Brad and Jason’s comments:

• Be sure to internalize your message to yourself first before you pitch to be able to show your emotion and passion for the idea.  Being technically correct in your pitch is important but don’t be afraid to let your passion for the project shine through.
• Brad shares a TechStars tradition that for the first couple of weeks companies have to pitch their company to each new person that attends the weekly event, so people will get comfortable pitching their idea.

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TWiST 33

Nicky Hajal calls in to pitch, Transissimo a site that is described as Mahalo Answers for translation.  “A community to help translate the world”

Jason and Shawn’s Comments:

• Good space the world is going global.
• Domain experience because of Nicetranslator, which is good
• Business model is lacking, how you will make money
• Didn’t understand what was unique about the idea
• Don’t get technical, you should be able to describe your idea to a twelve year old
• Consider a canned engagement ie. ask a question that you know the answer, this makes sure the audience is listening.
• Give a concrete example of the use of your product that will resonate  and show off the best of what you can do.  Paint a vivid picture of the use case.
• A better way to describe your idea is Mechanical turk of translation
• Jason asks to see some screenshots and a video of you explaining your screenshots.

Follow-up Questions:

You did a nice job pitching your idea how did you prepare?  Have you pitched the idea before or did you just practice?

I’ve presented in the past, but this was our first pitch for a Tumble Design project. When I initially contacted Tyler about being on the show, we weren’t sure when I would be on. So, I was beginning to put together a presentation in my head already when I got an email a few days later saying there would be a spot for me the next day.  At that point, I decided to focus the next 18 or so hours solely on preparing my pitch. Sixty seconds is such a short amount of time – I didn’t want to waste any with trying to figure out what to say.

I watched old Shark Tanks on your site to get a feel for where others did well and didn’t, as well as to have rough answers for common questions (of course, I wasn’t asked any of those ones!). The most effective structure seemed to be Problem -> Solution -> How it makes money.

I built a pitch around that framework and started practicing outloud, recording and listening as I went, figuring out what flowed well and what didn’t.

Of course, I would have loved even more time to improve the pitch but was very grateful I put in the preparation I did.

Did you place the screenshots on flickr and if so can you help me with the link?

Here are the screenshots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tumbledesign/4245115195/in/set-72157623139470670 – Haven’t sent them in to Tyler/Jason because we are still working on a set of videos.

Any advice you would give the next guy/gal?

For the guy (or gal) that’s wondering whether or not he should go on Shark Tank, my advice is a resounding “Do it!”. It is extremely motivational and you really learn a lot in a very short time.

For the guy that’s up next, I would say that the one critical piece missing from my preparation was pitching in front of people that had never heard of our project before. The perspective of a person who knows nothing about what you do is invaluable.

For the senior in highschool: Don’t accept that car from your Dad!

How can the community help you that may want to get involved?

The most important thing for us right now is finding multi-lingual people out there that would be interested in giving Transissimo a try and contributing to our community. Any help on that front is extremely appreciated

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TWiST 32

Brendan Miranda, pitches MusicTrainer a website that provides video music instruction, a PDF curriculum, forum support and will be monetized through AdSense.

Jason and George’s Comments:

• Pitch wasn’t great but the idea was clear
• Good global market
• Too many features and none were killer
• Great domain name
• Narrow down what you want to do and expand as you go
• Don’t mess with the PDF pages

In the spirit of brainstorming Brendan’s idea, Jason sketches up a wireframe on the fly for MusicTrainer believing it needs to take a more curated approach to learning how to play songs.  Jason’s idea revolves around creating a page for a song with 3 to 5 versions of someone teaching you how to play the song.  What Brendan needs to do is summarize what is good and bad about each lesson and give his advice .  Jason goes on to offer if does this for 5 songs he will place them on the Mahalo’s homepage.

I contacted Brendan to see how things were progressing and I am happy to report he has taken Jason up on his offer and plans to launch his new site in late January or early February.  He is currently in talks with music studios regarding music rights and revenue sharing.  Like most people he needs a little help with web design, so if music and tech are your passion and you would like to get involved, feel free to contact him.

I also asked Brendan if he had any advice for others who would like to pitch Jason.  He recommended to be prepared to pitch before you send in the email because things happened quickly and he would have loved to prepare just a bit more.

Brendan comments late in the clip that he owns ChefTrainer and ArtTrainer and would like to spin this idea into these industries. When he mentioned this it made me think of a pilot I used to fly with at TWA, when flying to Paris each month he would sign up for a class at Le Cordon Bleu to learn how to make a five course dinner.  So I definitely believe that their is interest in learning trade skills, it all comes down to making it interesting and fun for the user.  The only issue is the culinary space is crowded and taking a different approach will be necessary to stand out.

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TWiST 31

Adam Weeks, wants to create Ground Control a sleep and relaxation type mask that uses bluetooth technology for audio.

Jason and Jack’s comments:

• Neither are into relaxation type products
• If this was more of a headset (headband) type product for use on an airplane, that may be interesting
• You need a hardware guy, go to Hack A Day and look for someone that may be interested in helping you develop your idea.
• Make sure you are upfront if their are competing products.

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TWiST 29

Jason Wilk, Founder of ContentBridge, provides content management and supply chain automation for the entertainment industry.

Good pitch, clear but not inspiring.  Your idea is boring to most but to a studio trying to monetize their archive it may be exciting, get the studios addicted to it and then charge them a large fee.

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TWiST 28

Kevin Chugh, Founder of Pikk (on Twitter) pitches Jason on This Week in Startups.  Pikk is a social news site that allows you to ask the reader’s their opinion, giving bloggers the ability to embed a poll and has some community features. Basically, Digg meets polldaddy.

Jason’s feedback

• Solid pitch- 7 or 8
• “Digg but better” clever feature (surveys)
• Not in love with it but don’t hate it.
• What is the business here?  Premium services, CPA revenure, Inline Advertising, Sponsorship
• The site being on HackerNews ( Ycombinator) show you are familiar with the industry
• He like the fact that Kevin is a devloper.

Kamran feedback:

• This may be just a feature, Digg can add this easily, you need to try get buzz to hope keep them at bay
• You may want to consider contacting  other publishers and see if you can provide this features to their sites.

If you found this interesting please click the “retweet” button.

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TWiST 27

Phil Weinstein pitches Atmosphere an application that would be integrated with an e-reader, the software will scan the text and play music that corresponds.  The pitch was very good, concise and to the point yet some concerns are raised (ie. business model, battery usage, is this just a feature).

Recommendation:  Try contact some former Amazon employees that worked on the Kindle and see if they considered this idea.

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TWiST 25

In this Jason’s Shark Tank we hear from Pablo, Co-Founder of  Hear A Blog a site that converts a blog to an audio podcast.  Jason and Mark would be willing to pay for a monthly service but wonder if the idea is too small (and niche) for investment.

Recommendations

If you are trying to raise money, Mark and Jason recommend having a dollar figure and details in mind but be humble.  They go on to recommend a bigger vision, more strategy to achieve that vision and working into other verticals.

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TWiST 25

In this episode of “Jason’s Shark Tank” we hear from Tim, Co-Founder of ShoutBuy a micro-blogging platform site where users share recommendations for products within their network of friends.

Both Mark and Jason like the idea, it all comes down to execution.

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