SVP Week 3: Preparing to Present Innovative Businesses
Week 3 of Summer Venture Program focused on presentation skills, which are essential to the success of any startup as they communicate their value propositions and seek funding. Each week two SVP teams make Hot Seat pitch presentations to the rest of the cohort, and all of the ventures are preparing to present at July 25th’s Summer Venture Showcase. Here’s what we were up to this week:
Monday, June 3rd
- Every week at SVP begins with Team Updates, an accountability exercise where the venture teams inform each other of their accomplishments since the previous week and their goals for the next week.
- This week’s Lunch & Learn event was led by Andy Tollison Ph. D of the Babson Speech Center, who shared his best practices for making business presentations. Dr. Tollison will be visiting the SVP cohort throughout the summer for regular office hours as they prepare for future presentations.
- Did you know that we live-tweet the key insights from each week’s Lunch & Learn event? Follow @babsoneship and #babsonsvp on Twitter for a glimpse into these lunches!
- SVP ventures with legal questions participated in office hours with Corporate Attorney Bryan Natale of Burns & Levinson LLP.
Tuesday, June 4th
- Nectar (Jack Rokous ’20, Roberto Salinas ’19, Trevor Grode ’19, and Ryan MacDonell ’20) held a tasting of their CBD beverage at the WeWork office space, sharing free samples of their bottled CBD drink with WeWork community members.
- Arist was in the Hot Seat on Tuesday! CEO Michael Ioffe ‘21 sought feedback on his venture’s presentation geared towards potential B2B learning clients.
- Some of the SVP participants watched a HubSpot ELEVATE webinar about Customer Acquisition.
Wednesday, June 5th
- Christopher Lally ‘20, a Babson student with an accomplished career as a freelance web designer, held a workshop for SVP teams interested in developing websites for their ventures. Chris is an expert WordPress designer, and in his workshop he shared some advanced WordPress advice and resources with the SVP teams.
- Startup Coach and Sales Expert Katie Bickford visited SVP to hold office hours with the ventures.
- Dr. Andy Tollison held office hours for SVP ventures looking for feedback on their presentation skills and strategies.
Thursday, June 6th
- Zapp! Financial Technology was in the Hot Seat on Thursday! CEO and founder Joshua Hong ‘21 practiced his presentation for pitch competitions, and received feedback from the cohort and advisors about his slide content and presentation tactics.
This week, the Summer Venture Program will focus on sales, with sales experts visiting the ventures for both Lunch & Learn and Office Hours. Complement Media and CollegeSpot will be the next ventures to enter the Hot Seat! To stay up to date with the latest SVP happenings in real time, be sure to follow @babsoneship on Twitter and Instagram.