Here you’ll see an overview of everything you need to know to prepare for Seedcamp Week Berlin. If you have any additional questions let us know! Make sure to go through this thoroughly as it covers every aspect of the event and how to get the most out of it.
Seedcamp Week is extremely busy – events will run from 1 December through to 3 December and participating teams must attend all events. We will be sending you further information on the schedule shortly, here’s a sneak peek:
- Monday 1 December – Seed Prep starts at 2pm
- Tuesday 2 December – Investment Forum
- Wednesday 3 December – Mentor Day
Location:
- Monday: @The Factory – Rheinsberger Str. 76/77, Berlin
- Tuesday: Point Nine Capital – Jaegerstrasse 65, D-10117 Berlin
- Wednesday: hub:raum – Winterfeldtstraße 21, 10781 Berlin
Event Announcements
We publish a blog post on 2nd December announcing all participating teams. We coordinate our PR and blogging efforts around this time, so please widely distribute this post to gain the most possible exposure for the event and your company – and help the others. We will be in touch about it again close to the time. In the meantime please still keep your participation quiet!
Who Can Join?
Each team can bring a maximum of two members to the days. The person limit is due to the tight venue space & in our experience mentoring is optimal with 2 people from the startup. Feel free to rotate one person, but make sure that at least one of you is there for all 3 days.
Investment decisions, joining the Seedcamp Family
Investment decisions will be made during the week – not just in the investment interviews, but also based on feedback from our team, mentors, and investors. The best advice we can give you right now is not to worry too much about it – just be you natural self and show us how great your company is and how passionate you are about it. You will have an amazing week regardless of the outcomes.
Onboarding
After Seedcamp Week, winners of Seedcamp Berlin will be required to return to London the week commencing 8th December to participate in Onboarding. Check your calendar for the week of 8th December – you’ll need to free up this week for Onboarding if you win.
Prep Call
We will do a Seedcamp Week preparation call during the afternoon of Wednesday 26th November for all the selected teams. In it, we’ll walk you through the complete schedule and all materials you should prepare. Don’t worry, we will answer all of your questions. We’ll send you the meeting invite shortly.
Read about the experiences from past teams
To ensure you fully benefit from the day, below are a variety of blogs from past Seedcamp Teams. Their preparation experience and tips on how to make the most of the day are definitely worth a read:
- http://blogs.jpost.com/content/how-win-seedcamp-introducing-bukit
- http://blog.dacelab.com/2012/07/14/our-seedcamp-new-york-2012-experience/
- http://blog.pipedrive.com/post/5570789779/lessons-learned-from-y-combinator-and-seedcamp-volume-on
- more general you can check out other video’s/blogs here
What to cover in your presentation?
Presenting your company can be a stressful experience if you’re not prepared. We will be practicing and reviewing your presentations during Seedprep on the 1st December, but in the mean time we suggest you:
- Work hard on creating your deck!
- Include your twitter handle on each slide
You have strictly 3 minutes to present your company. This is your chance to introduce yourselves to the mentors and let them know why you are there, DON’T use it like an investment pitch (i.e. ask for money). A beneficial tactic can be to concisely summarise what your company does in the very beginning of your presentation. We also recommend including:
- What have you built – What problem does it solve?
- Who are you – Why can you build this business better than anyone else?
- Who are your competitors? • How do you get your product to the masses
- How will you eventually make some money?
A great question you may want to answer to set the tone for your mentoring session: What do you want to get out of the day? Keep your number of slides manageable and practice, practice, practice!
We will give you feedback during the training session, but don’t rely on this session alone to work on your presentation. Most of our venues have Internet available to demo product. HOWEVER, experience shows that it is prudent to have a slide backup, as there are often connectivity issues. Same goes for using sound and video during the presentation – usually a personal presentation is much more effective. Presentations will be in alphabetical order, and of course in English. If you’d like further guidance this is a good demo to watch. (It’s not Seedcamp’s so ignore the 90 sec rule but it might give you inspiration)
How to get the most out of mentoring
Your startup team will participate in mentoring sessions on 3rd December with experienced entrepreneurs, investors, product experts and developers. You should aim to get as much out of these sessions as possible. Each mentoring session lasts approximately 30 minutes and will contain your team and approximately 3 mentors.
Mentoring sessions are meant to give you feedback in an open and honest context. Do not pitch! Research the names and background of mentors you’ll be meeting (you will receive a list shortly) and write down potential questions you want answered. Mentors can get off topic, so asking direct questions and setting topics for individual sessions works best. Teams tend to get most out of the mentoring sessions when they take control of the discussion.
We have grouped mentors so that experts from certain fields are together, so find out what a good topic for the session could be and focus on those issues. For example, you may have a grouping of angels and VCs who you could ask for feedback on your fundraising strategy. With marketing experts, consider discussing your go-to-market strategy. In addition to open sessions where mentors choose their desired teams, breaks and the evening event provide opportunities for deeper interaction. Make sure you leverage every opportunity to interact with mentors. Form a concise description of your business and consider conveying your goals for the day during your presentation.
Take notes & Follow up
Remembering the details of an initial conversation can make a huge difference when reconnecting with mentors in the future. Always exchange business cards and be sure to take notes. Some teams choose to have one member especially accountable for taking detailed notes while the other member leads the discussion. It may also be valuable to recap each discussion with your team member after the session.
Post event if you connected with a mentor be sure to follow up! This is the key to forming mentor relationships. Make sure you connect personally with each mentor you met – it’s easy to drop an email saying how much you enjoyed the session, this keeps the door open for future meetings and queries. Mentors are interested what you do, so think about give periodic updates. Mentors may also offer to make introductions they promised during the sessions – reminding them of this could be the best way to get your feet in the door. An easy yet under-utilised tactic is to publicly thank mentors for their time on Twitter.
Business Cards
You will meet a lot of new people so ensure you have a stack of business cards available; Moo offers Seedcamp finalists’ 50 free cards for each team, so it’s a helping start! http://moo.com/link/h75g
Finally
Finalise your product, prototype, pitch, and get ready for Seedcamp!