ARK Challenge (@ARKChallenge): Week 8

Jul 27

Written By ereeves

If you would prefer to listen to this blog post rather than read it, please scroll to the bottom to hear me read it to you.PressBaby has great business potential. I am absolutely convinced of that after this last week. We are getting down to the nuts and bolts of the business, rather than just thinking of it as a concept. Here is a recap of our adventures during week eight of the ARK Challenge startup accelerator program:

Invention Evaluator, Round 2 Review. We received the results from our second Invention Evaluator analysis and reviewed them with our mentors and advisors at Innovate Arkansas. We continued to discuss video verses audio merits and ultimately determined that we need to do more customer surveys and actual product testing.
Mentor Meeting, Shan Pesaru. Shan is coming into the Iceberg once a week to offer his time and advice. We intend to take full advantage of that and meet with him every week if we are able. We reviewed the beta app that Jody has been working on and I couldn't resist jotting down these quotes: "Design is part of the stickiness," and "Above the fold are precious pixels." Shan advised us to get a product out there and get people to start using it as soon as possible with us watching so we can see how they are reacting to it and learn what we can do to make their experience better. He also said that we need to prepare for the consulting and customer service work that is going to come along with publishers using our product.
The Pitch, The Pitch, The Pitch. There was a lot of focus this week on how to give a great pitch. Jeff Amerine came in and showed us videos of pitches from a recent accelerator program that he attended. After each video, we discussed the pros and cons of each pitch. Watching these pitches was a reality check for us at PressBaby. Our pitch is not nearly ready, but it is getting there. We had a pitch practice on Friday and received good feedback on what to do to take it to the next level and be more intentional with what we are saying in the eight minutes that we have to tell our story.
Offers To Be A Car Service To The Airport Can Pay Off. Permjot Valia, a mentor and investor was in town briefly this week. There were no official presentations or meetings with him, but Jody volunteered team PressBaby to give him a lift to the airport. Which means that we got a good 45 minutes of his time to get advice and feedback on our business. Permjot will be back for Mentor Camp in a couple of weeks and based on the time that we had with him in the car, I am looking forward to talking more with him when he is back in town.
Getting Investments Is Complicated. Jamie Fugitt, attorney extraordinaire, presented to our group to teach us about term sheets. I took pages and pages of notes, but the bottom line is this: "Money has consequences. Make sure you want to be in business with anyone you take money from." Jamie's advice was: "First, focus on building a great company," and "Build relationships with investors before you ask them for money."
Running The Business and Making Money. We have worked through two versions of our pro forma, one based on a tiered subscription model and another based on partnering with a major media company that owns multiple papers and becoming their production company. In both models, we make money. We reviewed our pro formas with two accountants this last week and feel good about the numbers we have in place.
Production Has Started. With our video/audio booth in place, we have officially started recording and editing content. We have found that this can happen very quickly, which we hope proves the scalability that some of our mentors have been concerned about.
Communication Matters. We have started an e-newsletter to send every other week to mentors and other interested parties. The first one is complete and queued to deliver on Monday morning. If you would like to be on this email list going forward, message us on Twitter @PressBabyCo and we will get your contact info.