Tonight we pitched at Match Capital’s marketplace pitch event over at WeWork Spitafields. We were up as number 5 of 8 and from the feedback we got, it went well.
It’s only our second ever pitch and the first one was to a closed group, so this was different. More startups, more people and an open room, so to speak.
I spent the morning at home practising the pitch and getting it down to 6 minutes. I thought I’d get a little nervous as this whole thing about talking in front of other people about Glimt.it is new, but I think I forgot and just saw it as getting up and telling our story.
The amount of talks and workshops I’ve run has completely changed how I feel about giving a talk in front of a full room and I’m grateful for the confidence it’s given me. At school I always secretly liked the idea of presenting in front of the class, but when it actually came down to doing it, I got nervous and didn’t enjoy it at all. As for my public speaking “career” I used to be incredibly nervous just before going on stage, and whilst on stage, but that all changed when I gave a talk at Dublin Web Summit back in 2012. Not sure why, but it was the first time that I found myself not wanting to get down from the stage and that’s kind of how I feel now every time I give a talk, and apparently also when I pitch Glimt.it.
I simply view it as storytelling and as long as I know what story I’m telling, it appears that any nervousness I feel (I always feel a little “Here we go – eek!” the minutes before I get up) trickles off me shortly after I get up there in front of people. At times it comes back, if I loose track of where I am, or something throws me, but generally I enjoy being up there and sharing what I have to say. I suspect that it’s partly down to feeling passionate about the topic I’m talking about and trusting that I have something valuable to share.
As for Glimt.it, I wouldn’t be up there telling and trying to sell our story if I didn’t believe in us. I’ve been fairly quiet about Glimt.it up until now, but I think it’s time to start getting the word out there and to tell our story to more people.
Image via Flickr user Melissa Wall
