Happy New Year Founders League!

We thought we’d kick 2014 off with the return of Open Coffee, in it’s new location at Succotash! Starting next Wednesday, January 15th, we’ll reconvene our bimonthly coffee gathering.

For those who haven’t been, Open Coffee is an informal gathering of entrepreneurs and startup heroes we hold on the first and third Wednesdays of every month from 8-9:30. It’s an easy way for our community to gather for conversation, networking and the almighty caffeine. Oh, and, if you arrive early enough, the sammies and coffee are on us.

Stay warm out there, and we hope to see you next Wednesday at Succotash!

The next Open Coffee will be held on February 5, same time, same place.

Succotash can be reached at 401-228-7222. They are located at 373 Richmond St., near the corner of Richmond and Point St.

Our Startup Map is updated and looking better then ever. We added a bunch more local companies to the already very-robust map. 

(Click the thumbnail to view the large-format version.)

Some of the new companies featured this go around include:

• Nalari Health
• Metryx
• Loft
• MusicTown
• Cleverhood
• GoLocal Prov

Still not on the map? Send an email to info@foundersleague.co with suggestions.

For the last few months, the Founders League and Betaspring have become home to a growing number of small trinkets and quirky projects. Around the holidays, custom-made cookie cutters seemed to appear out of thin air, and the air seemed to be constantly a-buzz with the quiet whirring of 3D printers and CNC machines.

The cause for all of this new bustle? It’s gotta be the influence of the newly moved-in Maker Media, who recently established their East Coast outpost here in Providence. For a few months now, Brian Jepson, Anna Kaziunas France, and Frank Teng have been working out of the Founders League, tweaking, tinkering, and generally just making stuff. 

For those who might not know, Maker Media is  a global platform for connecting makers with each other, and a leader in the emerging Maker movement--which combines the self-empowerment found in DIY projects, the use of cool new technologies like 3D printing, robotics, and physical computing, as well as art and design. They also publish the awesome Make: Magazine.

We’re so glad to have Make in the house--their maker orientation fits great with some of our other members like Sproutel, and we’ve already seen their technical know-how spread to other Founders League members like Scott Harris of ShutterCal (who cranked out some particularly awesome holiday gifts with our 3D printers).

Last week the news broke that Teespring, a local startup experiencing meteoric growth, closed a $20M round from Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), the hottest venture firm on the West Coast. Zoom out from Teespring and take a look at the Providence Startup Map. The Providence metro has seen an uptick in major financing events among our high-potential startups. We sensed that the last year was a major milestone, so we did some back-of-the-envelope math. The results were impressive: in aggregate, the companies on the map raised $140 Million in the last 12 months alone.

Just as impressive as the dollars invested are the blue-chip venture capitalists that have invested in Rhode Island companies. In addition to Andreesen Horowitz, Atlas, Battery, Bay City, Cue Ball, Excel, First Round, Formation 8, Greylock, Shasta, and Stata have all made investments here. All of these investors are from Tier 1 capital markets, showing that it is possible for high-potential, venture-scale companies to attract venture investment while being based in Rhode Island.

Teespring, started by two Brown grads who are Betaspring alums, and one local angel investor, is a perfect example of how the startup scene has begun to click in the Providence metro. Teespring joins Andera, GForm, Greenbytes, Mnemosyne, Nabsys, NuLabel, SendGrid, ShapeUp, Swipely, Utilidata, VoltServer, and of course Alex and Ani as the newest star in our startup constellation.

There are a lot of factors driving our community’s fundraising success--good ideas, good teams, good timing, and an equal measure of good luck. But one factor not to overlook is the overall increase in startup activity happening in the metro area. Critical mass is making a difference in encouraging new starts, enabling breakout successes, and creating a higher profile for startups of all kinds in the Providence metro.

With an election season upon us--and new leadership on the horizon--we have the opportunity to do even more to help our startup ecosystem grow. If we play our cards right, Teespring will be far from the last startup star to rise.

Hey Providence Startups, join us on March 10 at 12pm for an informal lunch to learn more about how Venture for America (VFA) can set you up with a rising star talent who WANTS to work in Providence at a growing startup. Think of VFA like Teach for America for startups: talented grads from top tier schools self select to live and work at the Providence startup...for a salary that many of us can afford.

Founded by Brown University alum Andrew Yang, Venture for America is a national nonprofit fellowship program that sends top recent college grads to startups. They recruit, select, and train young people who we think are high potential/future company founders, place them to work at startups in cities investing in entrepreneurship, and support them during their 2-year fellowship. Their mission is to train our best and brightest to contribute to job growth and new enterprise creation in cities where startups make a huge difference to a community's economic future. Currently, VFA has 106 Fellows working in startups across 8 cities, 18 of whom are in Providence working for startups like Teespring, Splitwise, and Swipely. This year, we have 100 additional Fellows and are looking to connect them with companies in Providence that are searching for talented early hires.

VFA partner startups come from a wide range of industries - any high growth company looking for talent, in sectors such as internet, biotech, manufacturing, retail, cleantech, etc., and ranging in size from 3 to 80 employees. VFA Fellows are from all backgrounds and possess many different skill sets; however, we place an emphasis on attitude and aptitude, not just technical skills accrued to date. VFA provides 5 weeks of structured training and ongoing mentorship and curriculum for our Fellows to help make them more effective contributors to the startups they're working at.

If you're a promising startup looking to grow your team, please join us for a lunchtime summit at Betaspring on Monday, 3/10 at 12pm - RSVP. Feel free to email any questions to Elisabeth Deogracias at elisabeth@ventureforamerica.org. 

It was cold in February, but Splitwise was on fire, with their newest app, Plates, ranked as #1 Best New App in the Utilities section of the Apple App Store.

The team released version 1 of Plates in July 2013 to critical and popular success; both BusinessInsider and MSN Moneycovered the tool, and user reviews in the App Store have been overwhelmingly positive (average rating 4.5).

This latest recognition from Apple is quite an accomplishment, affirming that Splitwise has indeed made a world class app to help friends avoid awkward conversations about money after enjoying a meal together. Splitwise was quick to share credit with Liz Neu, who as an intern built Plates with only limited assistance from the larger Splitwise team.

Nicely done, team Splitwise!

On Friday March 21st we were very excited to have the URI MBA students and faculty visiting Founders League for a crash course lesson on startups. These students are half way through their one-year program and are working on capstone projects with companies like Hasbro, GTech, and Fidelity.

At this meetup Founders League mentors Melissa Withers and Allan Tear spoke about the differences between large enterprises and startup companies. Allan and Melissa focused on three areas that define the differences between startups and enterprises: business models, growth strategy versus optimization, and attitudes about risk. Here's a quick summary:

Business Model: Startups are in search of a business model that works wherein large enterprise is typically focused on executing against a known business model. One of the most important things early stage ventures do is experiment with different business models until they find the one that works the best, and odds are good they will try on several models and make frequent (and significant) adjustments to how they deliver value. Larger enterprises are more entrenched in their business model and, having found product market fit, are more likely to make less dramatic changes to their models. As a side note, this dynamic is changing as larger enterprises are being forced by rapidly changing markets and emerging technologies to make business model innovation a priority. But when it comes to experimenting with new business models, startups--the drive and dynamism to experiment embedded in their more nimble DNA--have the upper hand.

Growth: Startups have one job and that is to grow. It's grow or die. Growing means getting bigger, adding capability and expanding operations and reach. Established companies do something different: they optimize on what they have built. Their aim is to squeeze the most out of the existing business models, to master efficiency, and deliver more value to shareholders by doing more with what they already have. This is why you see established companies grow by acquiring other smaller companies or startups, while startups grow through hacks and breakthroughs. 

Risk: Startups are built to take risks. The odds are almost always stacked against early stage ventures--there are so many things that can go wrong that you almost have to be crazy to start at all. Taking risks is the only way an early stage venture can go far and fast enough to cross the chasm and break through. Established companies look at risk differently: rather than actively seek out risk, large enterprises are designed to manage risk and ultimately make decisions to lower the risk and optimize the return. 

Wishing the students the best of luck as they finish their capstone projects and embark on the next big step in their careers!

This past weekend was the third annual SEEED Summit, the first national conference to focus on what is needed to build an effective social enterprise ecosystem that can drive economic development. SEEED convenes 500+ ecosystem stakeholders, including social ventures, practitioners, business leaders, academics, impact investors, students, and policymakers. The Founders League was very proud to be a sponsor again this year.

SEEED featured Keynote speakers, discussion panels, and a best practice’s session. Keynote speakers included Rob Kaplan, Co-chairman of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation; Rod Collins, Director of Innovations at Optimity Advisors; and Ira Magaziner, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

There was a diverse mix of students, rising stars, and industry experts attending. It is great to see the momentum SEEED has gathered over the past three years. It’s a sure sign of Rhode Island’s natural strength and social enterprise.

Congrats to alumni CompNet for their recent win of the Entrepreneur track of Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, clinching a $20,000 cash prize and services valued at $19,250.

CompNet has developed an online system that allows businesses to get immediate quotes on workers’ compensation insurance, thereby eliminating the need for an insurance broker.

Competition Co-chair Peggy Farrell, partner in the law of firm of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, said, “We had an especially strong group of contenders this year, which made the judging more difficult, but it’s a problem we’re happy to have.”

CompNet was in good company with grand prize winner Nordic Technology Group, a Providence-based company that is making an intelligent monitoring system that uses 3D-sensing technology to identify and alert caregivers to changes in behavior in people at risk of falling.

Nordic Technology Group, co-founded by Erik Wernevi of Providence, was named the Technology winner and received $45,000 in cash and $23,000 in professional and consulting services.

Betaspring was proud to be a sponsor of this year's competition and we congratulate all of the participants who made it to the finals!

Innovation depends on a global flow of ideas, people, and products or services. Stymied immigration policies are limiting this flow by pushing away foreign founders and startups. Welcome.us has dubbed today as the Incubator Day of Action, where collaborative organizations can help make a difference in immigration reform. Reform would allow founders and startups to enter our country more easily and, hopefully, stay longer. Having many different cultures collaborating can create innovation.

I recently listened to a speech about innovation creation by Rod Collins, Director of Innovation for Optimity Advisors, where he stated that it is not created by making an “innovation department,” it is created through serendipity (right idea, team, place, and time). Serendipity cannot be forced, but the soil in which it will thrive can be nurtured through different ideas, people, and products or services clashing together to make things that couldn’t work without a special, symbiotic relationship.

Engaging with people who have dissimilar beliefs, come from various locations, and have grown up in unique ways is one of the best ways to foster the soil for serendipity. This can be possible through immigration reform. Working together, we can make America a place for serendipity to grow and, in turn, create the innovation the country needs.

We had a great opportunity to interview Jeff Allain, founder of New Economy. Jeff is a CPA with 15 years of accounting experience from large,national CPA firms like McGladrey and Pullen to smaller, local firms like New Economy. A financial services firm providing accounting, capital raising, modeling services, and tax services to entrepreneurs. We pressed him with the following four questions:

FL:When should a founder start focusing on their financials?

Jeff: Immediately, for three reasons:

1. In order to raise capital, a founder or startup needs to articulate the mathematical equation behind their value proposition to potential investors. In simpler terms, they need to have a great vision of where their startup will go. Now just connect the vision and story to a set of pro forma financials. 
2. Depending on where the company is in its life creates insight. It allows the founder to find their runway (cash burn), track allocation of resources, and connect the business plan to the financials. It’s way for the founder to manage the capital they worked hard to raise. 
3. As a company, they have a fiduciary responsibility to file an annual tax return. Keeping monthly financials makes it much easier and will cost them a lot less to file.

FL: What are the best financial metrics for a startup to use?

Jeff: The most important financial metrics depend on what industry they are in, but no matter what industry -- cash is king. The number one reason I see startups fail is because they run out of cash. Therefore, the best metrics to know are their cash burn rate, where they are spending, and how they are tracking it against their business plan with a budget actual analysis.

FL: What accounting tools/software do you use?

Jeff: We use Xero for an accounting platform, Bill.com for billing and expenses, Expensify for expense reports, and Harvest for time tracking. We are a mobile firm and these tools allow us to access necessary information anytime, anywhere. They also provide efficiency and reduce friction with clients.

FL: What are a few accounting and financial areas that most startups need help with or should focus on more?

Jeff: Startups need to focus on managing and maintaining cap tables through funding events and options associated with it. They should track the issuance of stock options and the vesting provisions associated with the award. They need to prepare a 12 month operational budget tracked against actuals. The budget should be reviewed and discussed monthly, while going over variances and finding why they happened. They also need to focus on preparation of monthly or quarterly reporting. They can take the basic accounting information and make it into a cleaner, crisper format for the investors and board of directors.

On Tuesday, July 29, members of the Betaspring and Founders League communities were fortunate to welcome Wiley Cerilli into the space for the second time, holding an open conversation about his business experience and advice for new entrepreneurs. Cerilli, now a Venture Partner at First Round Capital, was an entrepreneur himself - CEO and Founder of SinglePlatform in 2010. After its acquisition in 2012 by Constant Contact, he acted as their VP until moving to venture capital in 2013. Because of his experience with securing funds, Cerilli’s talk was of value to our community members, helping them better understand not only how to grow their business, but also how to show potential investors their business’s growth potential.

Being a salesman at heart, Cerilli took the path less traveled by a typical entrepreneur. Instead of focusing on the product before the market for SinglePlatform, he decided to scrap the idea of “If I build it, they will come,” instead focusing on “If I sell it, then I’ll build it.” By no means, however, did he try to say that his business’s growth and product sales were entirely smooth sailing. Admitting that SinglePlatform came within two months of running out of money, he acknowledged that they went through many of the same growing pains felt by the average startup. He related the process to bowling, “Starting a business is like bowling for the first time; you throw almost all gutter balls.” But, like the game of bowling, the more you throw, the better you’ll get - eventually hitting pins.

He did have a few words of advice for those going through the same product vision and business management processes. He stressed that a business cannot be the best at everything. Instead of being mediocre at several things, Cerilli explained, it is in the business’s best interest to “be the best at one thing.” He also pressed that you cannot always say yes to each customer’s individual demands - a trap into which many startups fall. You, instead, have to work on the bigger picture and the direction your company needs to travel. It is important that you stay true to your business’s vision and not let a subset of your customer base shape the growth and development of your company.

Cerilli touched upon what he feels are the two hardest things to do as a founder, mentioning that without being able to identify talent and delegate jobs a business cannot move forward. Founders need to be able to let go of processes and be able to recognize and acquire talent for their company. As a Venture Partner at First Round Capital, these are now some of the things he looks for in small business owners. Asking himself “Can this person acquire talent?” Cerilli feels he is better able to gauge whether or not a business will be able to grow and succeed in their marketspace.

Overall, members of both Betaspring and Founders League communities are grateful that Wiley Cerilli took the time to come back to Providence for such an informative and engaging discussion. We hope those who came enjoyed the talk as much as we did. We will be looking for new faces at the next event!

Our Startup Map is updated and looking better then ever. We added a bunch more local companies to the already very-robust map.

(Click the thumbnail to view the large-format version.)

Some of the new companies featured this go around include:

• TruePreneurs
• TrashVeo
• SelaBe Fashions
• FoodTrucksIN.com
• Food4Good
• Haverhill Collection
• Managing Ecommerce
• Howell Legal
• Minted
• Intergalactic Food Fights 
• Engage Communications
• Buildium
• Xact Maps

Still not on the map? Send an email to info@foundersleague.co with suggestions.

Founders League and Betaspring have had excellent experiences with Johnson & Wales interns and, now, JWU university is making it incredibly easy to find a great intern. If you’re a startup looking for intern help, here is their quick, online recruiting process:

Post an Internship before the internship terms begin:

Winter Term: December 2, 2014 - February 26, 2015
Spring Term : March 10 - May 22, 2015
Summer Term: June 1 - August 14, 2015

To attract the best candidates, make sure to include the following details in the internship description:

• Clear description of duties
• Compensation details
• Minimum qualifications and selection criteria (if applicable)
• Any additional information that will help your internship standout such as: webinars or training provided, awards/accolades for your organization, mentoring etc.

Submitted internships will be reviewed for additional data if needed. The internship will be posted to the online system. Students apply directly to internship postings through JWU’s system, then application materials are delivered.

Finally, it is recommended to review the JWU Internship Site Manual.

In 2013-2014, JWU had over 5,000 internship opportunities posted on their internal system. At the same time, over 4,200 students participated in a credited internship opportunity. Interns are a great way to get additional help while giving the student the opportunity to gain valuable industry experience.

Founders League and Verizon have teamed up to produce a series of blogs that feature startups and leaders from Rhode Island's entrepreneurial community. The series touches on technology, techniques, and ecosystem developments that are transforming our local, regional, and national startup communities. The first in the series, Tips on Mentoring Startups by super mentor Marshall Votta is live. Marshall breaks down the more subtle aspects of being a startup champion and offers tips on how to give and get the most from mentoring relationships. Check it out.

Founders League and Verizon have teamed up to produce a series of blogs that feature startups and leaders from Rhode Island's entrepreneurial community. The series touches on technology, techniques, and ecosystem developments that are transforming our local, regional, and national startup communities. The second blog in the series was written by Founders League member (and program lead) Melissa Withers. You can read the original on Verizon's website!

After accelerating 90 companies, we have seen just about everything, from unexpected victories to painful losses, magnificent pivots to total strikeouts. Consumer behaviors and market trends change like the wind. The qualities and benchmarks investors look for before writing a check are always shifting. Meanwhile, startup knowledge and tools keep getting better and more accessible.

Despite all this flux, here’s one thing that hasn’t changed: Building a startup is a grind. Sure, one in a thousand ventures gets discovered and bought in its infancy for a zillion bucks. But the rest slog it out for months, sometimes years, before anything resembling a big payoff happens. The stuff between starting and winning can be pretty grueling.

Here are a few nuggets of wisdom I think are vital to surviving the grind and building a successful venture:

Stay on Track 

For startups, wandering can be good. Or, it can kill you. Founders who take exploring “tangential opportunities” to the extreme face two HUGE risks: The tangents suck up your resources and you die, or they become an excuse for not working on the harder (and likely more rewarding) opportunities they must confront. So, you want to be nimble and ready to seize unexpected opportunities … but successful ventures know how to pick a dot on the horizon and keep everyone aimed at getting there. If startups had autopsies, “distraction” would be a leading cause of death!

Take Advice, Leave Advice

Here’s the thing about getting advice from a network of mentors: It’s like drinking from a firehouse. A good startup community is a huge warehouse of advice, with each aisle and shelf loaded with insights and ideas. The path of startups is sure to be rocky, with good and bad days bleeding into one another. In good times as in bad, founders must learn to walk these aisles and decide what to take and what to leave.

The winning equation isn’t getting good advice. It’s getting good advice at right time. Creating strategies for managing the inflow of feedback and ideas is paramount to finding the balance between over and under-reacting. Literally, this means having a strategy, as an individual and as a team, for tracking advice and ideas, evaluating how and when to act, and developing a protocol for decision making.

Grow Up, Fast 

Time is precious, often more so than cash. For startups, every minute wasted without making progress is one minute closer that company is to death. Nothing has killed more startups than running out of runway. And ignorance is no excuse: The world is chock full of information that is no more than a click away.

If you fall down, get up. If you have an argument, resolve it. If your product or business model is knotted in a twist, straighten it out. And if you are unsure how to solve a problem or resolve an issue, do not delay in reaching out for help. That’s what good mentors will do for you. If you think are saving face by hiding your problems, there’s a good chance your venture will go down in flames.

Bring on the perks! Members of the Founders League are now eligible for $500K in perks from f6s. Spanning more than 500 service providers, perks are available for almost everything, from email support, cloud services, accounting and CRM to web hosting, SEO and analytics. From $15,000 in Microsoft BizSpark credits to two months free Shopify, these perks are awesome for ventures that are just getting started and for those looking to experiment with new approaches.

What’s f6s? f6s is the world’s largest online startup and founder community, offering resources to accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces, and startups. On f6s, founders can post profiles, connect with potential partners and apply for programs and events. Perks are offered to companies that are participants in most Global Accelerator Network accelerators (like Rhode Island’s Betaspring). Earlier this winter, Founders League earned f6s’s recognition as a qualifying program, unlocking hundreds of thousands of dollars in perks for our members!

Whether you are just getting off the ground or gearing up for another growth phase, free stuff can make a huge difference in your trajectory. We are psyched to add f6s perks to Founders League growing list of member benefits!

For more on becoming a Founders League member, drop us a line at info@foundersleague.co

Founders League and Verizon have teamed up to produce a series of blogs that feature startups and leaders from Rhode Island's entrepreneurial community. The series touches on technology, techniques, and ecosystem developments that are transforming our local, regional, and national startup communities. Here's the latest one from Founders League member Mel Rainsberger, founder of They’re Using Tools!, a video and animation production company in Pawtucket, RI.

There’s a secret about online video that no one ever talks about: No one -- -absolutely no one -- is looking for ads on the Internet. Truly viral videos are playful kittens, sneezing babies and wedding accidents. That’s not to say you can’t make a great video, but you have to do more than just make a video and throw it up on YouTube. If you want to make a video ad that has viral potential, create a conversation with your customers instead of expecting them to passively watch your content.

Analytics Should Already Be Part of Your Plan
Before you begin, have a way of measuring your video’s success. Services like YouTube and Wistia have powerful analytic tools, but those are only useful if you know what you’re analyzing. Millions of views are nice, but make sure those viewers were in the demographic you set out to reach and bought what you were offering.

At the end of the day, your video isn’t about popularity -- it’s about sales. Research your potential customer base, target those customers, and then analyze the results to see if you got their attention. Plan and research before going into production. Videos can be an expensive proposition; measure twice, cut once.

Find Them, Entertain Them and Inform Them 

The most important question to ask about your customers is, “Why are they watching a video?” There are three options: to find information, to be entertained, or both. To appeal to your customers, find out why they’re online and put you and your message in their path. Even your most loyal customers don’t want to see pretty ads about dish soap; but they might be interested in five new uses for dish soap.

Whether your video is a pre-roll (an ad before a video) on YouTube or featured in a blog post, you need to know where your audience is headed and why, and meet it there with a related message. If you’re meeting your customers in their space, you can connect with them more effectively than if you have to lure them to your own site first.

Don’t Bore Your Audience
There is no optimal length for online videos. Use long-form videos for smaller more engaged audiences looking for in-depth and technical information. Consider shorter videos for larger audiences you’re looking to attract. Can’t make it all fit into one video? When in doubt, break up your message into smaller chunks so that you catch customers before they click away. Books have chapters -- videos can, too.

Make a Connection
If your video bores you, think what it will do to your customers. Video is an emotional tool that helps connect customers. Few things are more valuable in business than an emotional connection between your customers and your brand. An emotionally invested customer is not just a loyal buyer, but can convert others to your brand by sharing and promoting your product for you. Venture to make such customers laugh; warm their hearts; and don’t be afraid to bring a tear to their eye.

It’s Ok to Start Small
Do some shorter, simpler in-house videos, and test the waters. Get some feedback from your existing customers on what messages resonate with them. Don’t be afraid of experimenting: Audiences are very forgiving of lesser-quality videos if they find the content important. Partner with a video firm to take your content and style to the next level -- but only when you know how you want to move forward with your video marketing.

Successful startups are made of more than just good ideas--they are made of great stories. A well-honed story about who you are, what you do, and why the world should care is critical to connecting with investors, customers and the strategic partners you need to succeed.

But if telling a great story were that easy, we'd all be doing it. Truth is, building a strong company narrative is hard work, requiring an equal measure of creativity, discipline and experimentation.

Join us in November for a three-part series where we will work with you to 1) zero in on your unique story 2) craft a compelling pitch, and 3) learn how to use your body (posture, voice and presentation) to seal the deal.

Even if you are just getting started, this series will help you lay a strong foundation for the future--so don't be shy. You don't need to attend all three, but we strongly recommend it to get the best benefit. The activities will be hands-on and participation is limited to ensure that we can work as a group and one-on-one with everyone.

These events are free but registration is required! At each event, we'll work hard and then reward ourselves with food, drinks and merriment.

Pitch Perfect Part 1: Building Blocks and Some Not-So-Basic Basics
November 4, 5:30pm

In this first of a three-part series on building and telling your company story, we will start with the fundamentals of building a compelling baseline for your pitch, harnessing insights into your value proposition, customers, go-to-market strategy, and other components of your "business model canvas." We will ask (and answer) questions like "who are your people," "what makes you and your team special," "why does the world need you," "how do you make money?" etc. And, we will talk about the basic "storytelling" toolkit every entrepreneur needs.

Register for Part 1

Perfect Pitch Part 2: Projection, Posture & Practice
November 10, 5:30pm

Your body is your instrument. No, really. There's a reason that professional performers train their voices and their bodies for peak performance. How you stand, how you project, how you use your voice: all of these things can be the make or break difference for how people perceive you and your business.

Spend a few hours with a professional body and voice coach and a team of startup supporters who have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in presentation styles, and you WILL be a better storyteller.

Register for Part 2

Pitch Perfect Part 3: Pitch It!
November 17, 5:30pm

There's nothing like real world feedback on your company story to refine the rough edges. Want to know if you have the right stuff? Pitch it, baby. With $500 in cash prizes on the table and panel of experimental (but friendly) judges, everyone who pitches will walk away with solid feedback they can use. Some will walk away with a cash prize!

Register for Part 3

Betaspring Chief of Staff and Founders League manager Melissa Withers took to the stage last month in Las Vegas to share her experience building a startup community in Providence.

Melissa was part of a panel that included Lisa Besserman, Founder of Startup Argentina, Matt Haggman, Program Director at the Knight Foundation, and John Curtis, Mayor of Provo Utah. The group handled some interesting questions about building startup ecosystems, and some of their answers might surprise you.

Lucky for us, the panel was captured on video. Watch Now 

The panel was part of Tech Cocktail’s Celebrate!, a two-day gathering of entrepreneurs, startup founders, creative technologists, designers, investors, and media that are focused on building thriving startup communities in the U.S. and abroad.