Next Generation: Balancing Act

[00:00:05] Bilal: It came fast cause I don't know what it's like, dang, this is the week.

Richard: Now it's like becoming more real that we're going be there in a few days.

Sloane: It's so easy whenever you have so many balls in the air to get overwhelmed and, and start looking down the road of how am I gonna get all these things done?

Alex Duncan: We’re not just there to tell them what they want to hear.

Richard: You'll probably get like a hundred nos before you get a yes.

Sloane: I fully believe that we're the team to be able to, to disrupt this market.

Shiv: We need to make sure we bring our A game.

Bilal: I feel like everybody's gonna be side eyeing each other when they walk into the building. It’s like, oh, this is the, this. Oh, you're the, yeah, it's gonna be real intense.

Sloane: But I think that it's important to go into it and still not take it too seriously.

Richard: It's pure chaos. It just feels like pure chaos.

Shiv: I think that stress is a good thing because I think it, it is gonna push us to work even harder for the next couple days. So we're grateful for it.

Andrea: Hi, and welcome to “This is Small Business: NEXT Generation” - a miniseries brought to you by Amazon, [00:01:00] where we follow 4 student teams behind the scenes throughout the Rice University Business Plan Competition. You’ll hear all about their challenges, hopes, and fears as they prepare to pitch. And by the end of every episode, we’ll be pointing out key takeaways that will help you wherever you are on your business journey. I’m one of your hosts – Andrea Marquez.

[00:01:18] Mitch: And I'm your co-host Mitch Gilbert, co-founder of Oya and an ex-Rice Business plan competition winner.

[00:01:24] Andrea: So by now, we understand how the competition will unfold and have met the four teams we will be following through this journey. Today, we wanted to check in and see how our teams are doing just a few days before the competition. The closer we get to the competition, the more nervous I get and I'm not even competing! So I can't imagine what it's like for the competitors.

[00:01:45] Mitch: I think everything was a blur at that phase of my life. There were so many forces and stakeholders and actors, and they're probably in competition season, so it's not exactly like this is the only competition. It's like they have competitions on competitions [00:02:00] and they're probably not sleeping that much in general, so everything's happening at one time and you're just really, you're just holding onto the wheel trying to survive.

[00:02:09] Andrea: And on top of needing to prepare to pitch their hearts out, these teams are still running a business. So they've got a lot going on and a lot that could happen that can affect their pitch. Like seriously, some of the teams are doing some really cool - but time-consuming – things. Before we get into that, I found out that the competitors receive anonymous feedback from the judges on their pitches before they even get to Rice in person. Here’s Bilal from Unchained explaining how he's been feeling lately and the feedback process.

[00:02:42] Bilal: I'm at a point where it's just like uncertainty is the only thing I'm worried about right now. Cause it's like, I'm excited for the opportunity. I don't really like to psych myself out with worry because I'm an over thinker, so as soon as I start worrying about one thing, I'm gonna worry about like three more things. I like to just keep a,a clear scope of like, okay, you know, this is the target, this is the goal. This is the week. [00:03:00] Let's, let's make it through the week. Take it day by day.

So like the cool thing about the competition is like when we had our final business plan submissions. So essentially, I guess like the judges do preliminary review of the content you shared and like they sent back feedback. So they give you obviously the good feedback. Areas of improvement and things that they had questions about. So that you could change, either make adjustments to your deck or be prepared to answer those questions during the competition. So it was that, that I wasn't expecting. So it was like one of those good surprises.

They were really impressed with the traction that we've been able to make thus far. They really understood, like the space that we were in and like the work that we were doing. So like on the positive side, like everything that I believed was a strength to, like our business was a strength to them. And then on the other end like the gist of it was like, like it was hard for them to follow because there was a lot of different things that were going on and into account. So like when I'm. I guess delivering it. My job is to make sure everything is clear cut and like the information on the slides is just supporting [00:04:00] versus like the actual supplemental, like the actual details themselves so.

Over the weekend and like early last week, I had like that, you know, that weird feeling of anxiety. It's like, it's like when things are getting closer and you know you're prepping, but you don't know how much more prep you need type of thing. I was stuck in that weird like, I guess creative funk where I'm like, do I have it all? Am I good? Do I need to do anything else but receiving like the, the judge email yesterday where it was feedback. It was like, okay, something. Cause I'm just sitting here like, okay, time is ticking. Like it's time to get things on with like, am I ready? Did I miss anything? But I'll take it back to sports where it's like game day, you have to dress up and you know, it's game day like that. I'm in that mood now where it's like, all right, I'm ready.

[00:04:41] Andrea: Bilal sounds pumped. And hopefully he is able to go in with the right edits based on judge’s feedback because Unchained has a lot on the line according to Bilal.

[00:04:52] Bilal: I win this competition. My conversations with other VCs are gonna be a lot different because, you know, I've raised some form of capital. So for me, this is a stake of independence for my company. [00:05:00] Saying that, hey, we may not go to conventional route of, you know, going to the accelerator and giving X amount of the company or, you know, going to a VC and kind of like giving away all your rights type of thing.

[00:05:11] Andrea: Mitch how important is it for a business to raise capital at this part of their journey?

[00:05:17] Mitch: I think it depends on the type of business you have. There are certain business models where you don't necessarily need as much capital and you can kind of hit the ground running and you can sell finance and get your own nine to five and some people would argue that's a great way to go because you can grow at your own pace, you don't have so many stakeholders or investors. But I think for a team like, Active Surfaces, it makes a lot of sense, right? Because it's something you need to manufacture. It requires a lot of R and D. It's like heavy industrial. Even Dia, like you need to be able to spin a significant amount of capital in just building these devices. [00:06:00] But I think the amount that of capital that's a requirement varies based on like your r and d needs and what you need to get to go to market.

[00:06:09] Andrea: And I wanna quickly go back to something else Bilal said: that pitching to a client isn’t like pitching to an investor. Mitch, could you tell us a little bit more about that from your experience?

[00:06:20] Mitch: My philosophy is when everyone talks to you, they should feel emotional, like emotionally, like amped up, like they got something from the conversation. I think I read that Presidents win based off of the beer test, like, would you go drink a beer with them? People's ability to see themselves hanging out with you is very important, whether they are an investor or a customer. I think our direct-to-consumer business is a little bit different than like say a B2B or like retail business because retail, I have a longer lead time. I can talk to you. I have a, a buyer. I've built all this relationship, et cetera, [00:07:00] versus like direct to consumer is where I'm trying to like build that camaraderie through social media.

And then that's different than an investor where it's like I'm trying to build that relationship and that camaraderie through a pitch deck and through rounds where you've given me feedback and hopefully you feel like I've grown. And so I think my ultimate goal is the same with all of those stakeholders, but the way I build it is different depending upon the stakeholder.

[00:07:28] Andrea: That makes a lot of sense. I'm sure I heard about the beer test a while back, and I'm curious to see how the teams make the judges and investors feel when they're pitching their ideas. So I also wanted to hear what some of the other teams felt about the feedback they received. Let’s check in with Outmore Living and see how they've been feeling as the competition approaches:

[00:07:48] Kevin Long: I would say overall we're both probably really excited. So on my end, I graduated on Friday. I just had my parents and in-laws in town that left yesterday. So it's been really busy, [00:08:00] both prepping for graduation, graduating and now getting ready for Rice. And then, on another personal front, my wife and I’s honeymoon is May 13th. So it's the Saturday of Rice we leave for Paris and we already talked to the judges before, cuz if we do make the finals we have to go first cuz I have get in a car to drive back to Austin to catch a flight. And a little insight into my wife and I’s dynamics, I'm not that nervous about it, but she's very nervous about it, me missing the flight.

[00:08:32] Alex Duncan: And if, as if that wasn't enough on the Outmore team, just under two weeks ago, April 27th, my wife and I welcomed a new baby girl, our third child into the world. She's doing great. Mom's doing great. Sleep is overrated. And so that that has thrown, you know, just a, just an exciting wrench into Kevin and I’s like ability to prepare and coordinate and find time.

[00:08:56] Andrea: That sounds like a lot to juggle.

[00:09:00] Mitch: Yeah, I really admire entrepreneurs who have systems and those that have really strong teams. And when I see certain founders really being successful, they have so many systems for things and they're not the ones doing everything. That being said, there are a lot of founders who do everything. You make the decision as a founder of like, what type of lifestyle is it that you wanna live? I enjoy working hard, I enjoy growing. I also enjoy working with a very solid team where you can delegate.

[00:09:35] Andrea: And just like Bilal, Alex and Kevin also received anonymous feedback from the judges, but their reaction to it was slightly different.

[00:09:42] Alex Duncan: It's so valuable, right? To get that. But one of the things Kevin and I struggle with is specifically to Outmore’s, you know, we see this as a pretty blue ocean, right? And there's a lot of dependent paths that Outmore can take in the future. And the more people we talk to about this, some of them have very valid [00:10:00] potential business models for Outmore like that they think would be best that Kevin and I usually have deliberated, right. Licensing, partnering with others, you know, all these sorts of like, ideas that Kevin and I have discussed ad nauseam for a lot of 'em. And if there's that disagreement on like the best business model. That sort of like high level disagreement on the best business model going forward. Then sometimes the subsequent feedback is not as helpful as it would be otherwise. But in terms of like the specifics of like, this is what I want to see here. This is more detail. Spell this out more. I'm confused by this. That specific feedback is, immensely valuable as Kevin and I prepare.

[00:10:44] Kevin Long: The only thing worse than making the wrong decision is not making a decision. And so, you know, what we've done as we've built our business model and gotten ready to launch in the market is put our heads down on this is the right path forward, but also give us optionality to pivot if we get [00:11:00] in the market and find out, hey, you know, the customer we thought was the biggest, isn't the biggest, and this is a bigger opportunity. Or the actual product, the way that we're bringing it to market has a bigger opportunity if we do X. So I think it's important to, at a certain point, draw a line in the sand and, and just go forward, but also give yourself optionality to pivot if you make the wrong mistake.

[00:11:20] Alex Duncan: We're not just there to tell them what they want to hear. Right. This is Kevin and I portraying our plan to how to, how to make Outmore a billion-dollar company. And invariably there's gonna be, there's gonna be differing opinions on that.

[00:11:32] Kevin Long: When you're creating a product that's in a market that largely doesn't exist yet, you're like building the market essentially. It may be to some judges or, or advisors simpler to just license our tech or partner with other groups. Sure. But we, for us to really go after what we think could be a billion-dollar opportunity, it, it would be to create a brand.

And we want to at least try with that first. And if we find out that's un undoable, then we'll pivot. But we think the opportunity is big enough to go after.

[00:12:00] Andrea: Okay so Alex and Kevin raise an interesting point here. Feedback from other experienced people is invaluable but what do you do if you feel like the feedback isn’t as helpful as you expected it to be? Will you get penalized for not implementing the feedback given to you? So I decided to ask Heath Butler, one of the judges at the competition about the feedback they give to the competitors.

[00:12:20] Heath Butler: Feedback's so critical and really good feedback could be so valuable, but you want to make sure you're being thoughtful and supportive. Once I've seen the pitch and then I see that company again in a subsequent round, I'm really impressed with those that make major changes to their deck based on the feedback they've received. Whether I give it to 'em or I've overheard somebody else give 'em that feedback. That helps me understand that they're coachable and that's a great sign to most investors. We want to make sure that we are working with someone that will apply the feedback. It's also important though that judges don't penalize teams unnecessarily [00:13:00] when they disagree or don't take their feedback. As investors, we're not always right, and it was just a suggestion based on our experience of what we believe.

[00:13:10] Andrea: Coachability is something that Mitra, another judge at the competition talked about as well.

[00:13:16] Mitra: Coachability is that incredibly important intangible characteristic of a team where they can listen to thoughtful feedback, evaluate it, sift through it, and figure out what to apply to their strategy going forward and what they shouldn't. It is the opposite of arrogance. It is a willingness to listen and pivot when needed for the betterment of the company.

[00:13:47] Andrea: So, in a situation where you know what’s best for your company, or at least you think you do, especially because it’s your baby and you know it inside and out… how do you balance this coachability with knowing what’s right. [00:14:00] Mitch, what are your thoughts on balancing this based on your experience with Oya?

[00:14:05] Mitch: I have wonderful investors. No one really explicitly tells me what to do or yells at me. Sometimes they express disappointment, but that's normally when I was moderately off the rails, not like about my decisions about the business. And sometimes they'll give me feedback and I'll be like, I don't wanna listen to this. And sometimes that feedback will come back almost a year later, and bite me in the butt and they'll just be like, I'm happy you came to this decision. And that's something that's happening right now. And I would say whether you wanna listen to that feedback or not should be influenced by whether you want that specific person's money or not. And I think sometimes founders get so obsessed with just like money, but like there's a relationship connected with it. But for me, [00:15:00] I would say I'm probably a really coachable founder and my investors really appreciate that, but that's because I was really intentional about the people I brought onto my cap table and making sure that those are people I wanted to listen to.

[00:15:09] Andrea: And do you have any advice for people who might be struggling to reject feedback politely?

[00:15:16] Mitch: I think underrepresented founders actually get in a trap of trying to sound so polite all the time. And that's not how you win and that's not what winners are focused on. I read a book from Kobe's personal trainer about what it takes to go from good to like unstoppable and a lot of winners are not looking at people around them for answers. They are going based off of their gut. They are using their own data. They are grinding it out. They are leading people around them. They are pushing people, taking as much data as they can, and finding the people who they wanna listen to. When you look at people who are like just groundbreakingly innovative. They don't care. Don't get me wrong, being coachable is really important, but I've seen what I do my own coaching and I'm showing up with my own data and being like, these are all the ways that I suck. Can you help me get better at this? That is received very well, and that's very different than being like, I'm in my ego. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't wanna listen to you, X, Y, and Z. [00:17:00] I'm not saying go in that direction, but if you feel like you're, going in a direction, and you're winning, and you are pulling in the people who excite you, and you are passionate about that, then why do you care If you're polite, and maybe that's controversial.

[00:17:18] HOST (Andrea): You're listening to This is Small Business Next Generation, brought to you by Amazon. I’m one of your hosts, Andrea Marquez, and along with Mitch Gilbert, we’re introducing you to the world of business plan competitions and learning about how to best pitch your business in a way that attracts investment, in the case of the Rice Business Plan Competition, teams are competing to win up to $350K towards their small business startups.

Did you know that nearly 60% of products sold in Amazon's store are from independent sellers - most of which are small and medium-sized businesses? If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or an early-stage small business owner, there are many resources that Amazon offers to help you succeed and grow. [00:18:00] One of those resources is the Amazon Small Business Academy where you can find the help you need to take your small business from concept to launch and beyond. You can strengthen your skills at no cost with live and on demand trainings, Q&As, events, and even find more This is Small Business Next Generation content. If you don’t know where to start, you can take the free self-assessment on the Amazon Small Business Academy site at www.smallbusiness.amazon.

[00:18:24] Andrea: Okay, now up next, let’s check in with Dia!

[00:18:28] Sloane: I am attending Special Operation Forces week down in Tampa, Florida. So demoing our technology and meeting some high up CEOs in special ops, but I'll fly to Houston on Thursday morning. It's a combination of excited and nervous. It's going straight from this conference week into the business plan. I do not have as much time to practice or hone the pitch as I would like, but this was a really exciting opportunity to potentially go ahead and get on some contracts. So as, as a startup founder, [00:19:00] you make it happen. And I think that regardless of what happens in the competition aspect, we've been able to really hone our business plan, gotten a lot of really good feedback. So even if it stops now the experience has been really valuable, so trying to focus on that positive.

[00:19:15] Julio: You can tell there's a lot of judges technical background, which is great they're making very technical questions which it's always to me a good sign. Means there's sophisticated investors who have seen at startups like us and they have reasonable concerns this is a saturated space and there's there's plenty of failed, startups to talk about, so they have valid concerns and this gives us a very good chance to sort of like, stand out from the crowd and explain why what we're doing is different and better than what people done before and, and how we're benefiting from all that knowledge of prior startups that failed to sort of like take us over the edge. They have some sophistication and that means that it's gonna be way more interesting when we're up in front pitching and they have questions. Well, that's just gonna let us shine.

[00:20:00] Sloane: I need to get the deck finished. So that's, that's one part that I'm stressing about. We, we are taking this seriously. I mean, we're a very lean team. We're, we're three co-founders. And so really the day is, is what fire needs to be put out right now. In some ways it's going to be harder to pitch as two people because if I get off my script a little bit, I can sort of bring myself back because I've done this pitch, not this exact pitch, but I know my slides, I sort of know the talking points, but switching off between two people and having those two different cadences and still being able to engage your audience and tell a story. I think that that just makes it a lot harder. Like you're creating this story and you're taking the audience along with you, but then you also need to be in sync with another person and that adds a whole other dimension to it.

I've had to get a lot of coaching and practice also in making the pitch more relatable, making it more dynamic. And so I think that what Rice has done in sort of forcing us to do this, because we probably, once again, limited amount of hours, [00:21:00] probably wouldn't have done it. I think we've all had a lot of improvement in sort of our communication of what our vision of this business is, and also being able to answer succinctly in a way that we're conveying what we mean, but we're not just like overloading people with information because as scientists and engineers, that's what you like to do. You like to be like, oh, you wanna know more? Like I'm going to give you all the data.

[00:21:27] Julio: At this point you did, you either did the work or you didn't. And your competition either did the work or they didn't. And you have to be able to trust yourself and your team and your work and realize that, look, if it's enough, it's enough. I'm gonna do my best. If it's not, well congratulations to the guy that did even more work, did it even better. It's not on my hands like what was up to me, I did as best could. I'm gonna respect that by trusting myself.

[00:21:52] Andrea: Sloan and Julio are also both scientists and their product is pretty complex. They both said that they had to work on their communication because they didn’t want to overload the judges [00:22:00] and investors with information but they also want to make sure they understand their product. So Mitch, how did you balance that?

[00:22:09] Mitch: Well, I think that is part of your job as a founder raising capital. Recently I was on a panel with one, an with an investor, and he straight up like, I don't expect you to be normal. I don't expect you to do normal things. I expect you to be extraordinary, I expect you to make magic happen. And those are what you find investors for. And if you're struggling to make magic, then you're gonna find it hard to find investors. Steve Jobs was able to explain an iPhone with like five slides and just having the iPhone in his hand and talking about a broad vision. There are many examples of technical founders who have explained very complicated physical products by actually coming in and like showing innovation, showing things,

showing packaging, like just putting like ideas together [00:23:00] in a way that's easy for people to follow, but then also bakes into this bigger vision. If you're struggling with that, I would say maybe that's where you need some coaching to help you be able to tell that story.

[00:23:18] Andrea: And now, last but definitely not least. Let’s see how Active Surfaces is doing.

[00:23:22] Shiv: We're super excited and nervous at the same time, which is a crazy feeling. Because we, like we've been spending hours and hours talking through the deck, thinking about how to tell this story properly. But at the same time, we're excited to go, like, see the other competitors, see the judges. We got feedback yesterday from some of the judges for our business plan. So it is like a lot of information trying to process all at the same time.

[00:23:47] Richard: It just feels like pure chaos. because you're still trying to build a business in addition to doing the business plan competition. So like, we were in Milan last week actually trying to do like, like actual business. [00:24:00] And we'd do like 12-hour days and get back and be like, we gotta do this presentation. Um, and then we flew back and I've been a little jet lagged and the whole day has just been trying to polish, trying to get feedback, trying to, to do it.

[00:24:15] Shiv: So we have to do a lot of prep to make sure when the judges ask me really tough, really technical questions that we're ready to, to provide all the right answers. Some of the main section of the feedback some of the strengths they saw and some of the, the gaps that they want to see closed. So we see a lot of good pathways for success. But at the same time, the feedback had a lot of things that we need to work on, which is good. Cause we need to hear these things and we need to work on them actively. Like what are our exit strategies? And those are some deep questions.

[00:24:40] Richard: It's a weird question to be asked or a comment to have for exit, especially because, we operate in the built environment. We operate in building infrastructure. The average exit timeline for startups in that zone right now is like 10 to 12 years. It's so long that like, it's, hard to even have certainty on what that's gonna look like.

[00:25:00] Shiv: How do we get pilots on board in the next two years? Who are those people? What is our strategy to get them? How do we get the technology vetted before then? How much funding do you need to get there? And a lot of those questions we have answers to. But maybe the learning from that is like, how do we tell the story in a way where people walk away, like just understanding what they need to understand as opposed to leaving with questions. And I think that goes down to the storytelling piece.

[00:25:28] Richard: It's a lot of pressure too because now that the competition's public, some people have looked us up and like see that we're in the business plan competition. And some - I really hope this doesn't happen, but if it, we have like a lot of pressure to do well, I think. And I think some of it's contingent on like people working with us to some extent.

[00:25:47] Shiv: As we prepare for this, I have to keep reminding myself that regardless of what happens, in the grand scheme of like building a multi-year business, this is just like one of the many steps that we need to do to get there. So if this goes well, that's great. If it doesn't go well, [00:26:00] then it's okay and we'll continue thriving and surviving. Getting every judge to like you or every VC to invest in you. Like that's not really the goal. It's okay if some of the judges don't believe us, or it's okay if some of the VCs don't invest in us, cuz you only need so many people around the table.

[00:26:16] Andrea: You know, Richard brought up a good point about how public the competition is and how investors might be basing their opinions of your company based on how well you perform there. What are your thoughts on that Mitch?

[00:26:28] Mitch: Pictures are very public. These live forever, and I have an interesting anecdote, like I once did a pitch competition at SoFi Stadium like they brought me in, in retrospect as a diversity candidate because they didn't have any women and it was a sports business plan competition, which is awkward cuz then you think to yourself, there are no women in sports in la, no startups. That's not even statistically likely. They only had one woman judge out of like five, six judges, [00:27:00] and they had pre-selected who the winner was gonna be before the pitch competition even started. But I didn't know any of that. And so, I went in and I just pitched the best I could pitch, and I did a really great job and it made things very uncomfortable for everybody involved and they got booed.

And I cried and it was terrible. And I was like, wow. I had never felt that way on stage, but it happened to me. And even to this day, I continue to meet people who met me through that pitch competition and they're like, they did you really terribly. And I'm like, I know. And it's, and it's uncomfortable because that's not how you wanna be remembered. But at the same

time, I gave a memorable performance, and I had even last week, somebody reached out about a potential partnership, which is like a business that's doing like seven figures. And they saw the pitch and they were like, we're thinking about partnering with you, like da, da, da, da, da. And so, [00:28:00] It is public, but you do the best that you can do and just know that you cannot always control how judges wanna see you or treat you, especially if you're underrepresented. But that doesn't mean that the people in the audience won't have favorable impressions of you.

[00:28:17] Andrea: Shiv and Richard also said that the feedback they got was asking about their exit strategy. And Richard pointed out that it’s a little difficult to plan something that probably won’t happen for another 10 to 12 years. And maybe they never plan on exiting the company. It’s crazy to me that they have to consider something like this right now.

[00:28:37] Mitch: If you wanna venture backed, business and extra strategy is important again, versus a business model where you own all your equity and or maybe you want a lot of control over the business. I think. It's as if most things are venture capital. You kind of lick your finger and put it in the wind and it is your best guess for what would make the most sense. [00:29:00] I think having businesses with clear exit strategies probably get invested in more though.

[00:29:03] Andrea: And that’s all our teams! It sounds like they’re already gaining a lot from the RBPC, buuut I really hope some of them at least get some money.

[00:29:15] Mitch: I'm rooting for everybody to win. I think we have a lovely bunch of humans and their ideas sound great. It's very diverse. I think we did a great job picking our candidates and I hope they definitely win money. I hope they take takeaways. I hope they grow from this experience and I hope Texas is good to them.

[00:29:34] Andrea: And we’re just getting started! In a few days our competitors will finally be pitching in front of the judges. And I can’t wait to hear what they’ve all come up with!

[00:29:42] Mitch: I've never seen a competition in person, so I'm excited just to see what that looks like.

[00:29:47] Andrea: On our next episode, we’ll be attending the first day of the Rice Business Plan Competition talking to the teams there, the judges, and the organizers. And we’ll finally get to hear everyone’s full 15-minute and 60-second pitches. [00:30:00] I’m so excited! But until then, here are some of the key takeaways that we’ve learned today.

1. Mitch: One. So when you're pitching to a customer, whether that be B2B or direct to consumer, they have different foci and they're really focused on how the product will make them feel. Versus pitching to an investor who's really focused on how this is gonna help them make money and get them to an exit. And so it's important to think about all of those, their drivers and how they're different. And do storytelling and practicing with a partner to help you get the different pitches.

2. Andrea: Two. Startups with clear exit strategies in their pitches might have a better time fundraising because investors understand immediately how they will get their money back. So this is something to consider including in your business plan even if it’s further down the road.

3. Mitch: Three. I think when you're coaching, when you're practicing pitching, it's very important that you're looking at your feedback and your rubric, [00:31:00] and you are trying to hit as many of those categories out of the park on your rubric as you possibly can, given all the feedback that you have. Practice, pitching with people who've been through experiences like this before and people who don't like you who've also had experiences like this before. And I think that's how you get stronger.

[00:31:20] Andrea: Mitch. I’m feeling good about where our teams are so far. Especially their mindsets going into this.

[00:31:25] Mitch: Excited to see our company's pitch and evolve.

[00:31:30] Andrea: We’d love to hear your stories wherever you are in your journey. Whether you're about to start your own business, in the process of it, or maybe even getting ready to pitch your business in a pitch competition. Reach out to us at thisissmallbusiness@amazon.com to tell us what you're up to. Or let me know what you think of the episode by leaving a

review on Apple Podcasts – it’s easier if you do it through your phone. And if you liked what you heard -- I hope you'll share us with anyone else who needs to hear this!

[00:32:00] If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, and I hope you are if you’re listening to This is Small Business. Or maybe you already have your small business up and running and you’re ready for the next step. A super valuable resource that can help you is the Amazon Small Business Academy where you can find the help you need to take your small business from concept to launch and beyond. Take the free self-assessment on the Amazon Small Business Academy site at www.smallbusiness.amazon.

This is Small Business: Next Generation is brought to you by Amazon with technical and story production by JAR Audio. I’m one of your hosts, Andrea Marquez –

Mitch: And I'm Mitch Gilbert.

Andrea: Hasta luego and thanks for listening! [00:32:35]