One of the most frequent responses I get from people who pitch at Techpoint Pitch Friday is, “Can you connect me to VCs?” As much as I try to say we don’t do that, those questions keep coming. What we can do, though, is help you understand how VCs think and work.
Before you continue reading, here’s a shameless plug: I write a weekly column called Equity Merchants, and I speak to VCs weekly to understand parts of their profession. You can read previous stories by following this link and subscribe to the newsletter to get notified when a new story drops.
Back to Pitch Friday, last week, we had Ayobamigbe Teriba come over to share some thoughts on how VCs operate. This was in addition to the entrepreneurs who pitched their startups.
The first person to pitch was Temidayo Oloyede, who was pitching FitCon, a startup that wants to be a one-stop shop for the fitness industry in Africa. The idea is simple, more people are interested in their physical fitness, but the lack of a central resource for information tailored to their needs remains a problem. FitCon plans to solve this.
Usually, the entrepreneurs are asked questions about their business, but we were running out of time, and Oloyede could only take two questions.
The second startup pitched was Phamili, with Adeola Adeleke sharing the startup’s plan to provide a centralised database for the pharmaceutical industry. Fortunately, she didn’t mention anything about it being on the blockchain.
Fun fact: Adeleke is the first lady to pitch at Pitch Friday this year. This is also where I encourage any woman with an idea or startup to come pitch. Follow this link to submit your pitch.
Unlike Oloyede, Adeleke was peppered with questions from the audience. Because Phamili’s value proposition lies in sanitising the pharmaceutical industry, many wondered what the incentive was for smaller players to subscribe to the service.
Earlier I mentioned that Teriba gave a talk on preparing for VC investment. The session was live-streamed, and you can watch it on our YouTube channel.
We’ll be back next month with more entrepreneurs. Stay tuned for more details.
