My friend was pitching on the main stage at Startup Grind so I was like omg I HAVE TO SEE THIS and it was soooo coool yayyyyy! Later he asked me how it was and I told him I thought his was the best. Out of all the pitches I felt like he had the most passion and conviction.

Here’s the thing, if you are in a position where you have to watch a bunch of pitches in a row, the one that stands out the most is the one you are going to remember the most. He came with the kind of energy that makes you sit back and think, “Damn, this guy really believes his shit!” and if everyone went in there like a level 8 (average), my friend came in at level 15.

Caveat: I’m also biased AF and I know a lot more about his stuff than I knew about anything else so there’s that too.

THAT’S THE THING THOUGH, THAT’S THE ENERGY.

Startup Grind is way earlier stage than what I saw at RSA or BSides and when you are evaluating a startup you’re also evaluating the founder.

People ask me sometimes what I look for and I tell them things that I think are non-standard like:

– speed to clarity of messaging
– how much hype wording is used
– how much friction they have

Friction btw is a big one because high-trust buyers have to track a lot of signals so you can literally feel the friction in your body if it takes too long. Like get to the damn point. This goes for in person, messaging, websites, literally anything where a customer has contact. Also high-trust buyers have stressful jobs because the risks are massive. You’re not just evaluating a product, you’re evaluating consequences. VCs are in this category.

Conversely, anything you do to shorten the time to transmit information will help you immensely. It still has to be coherent and accurate though, let’s not go crazy.

“Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?” – Kevin Malone

Anyway.

The other thing I measure is conviction. And it doesn’t have to be like evangelist conviction. You can convey conviction without being loud. It’s a tone and a confidence and humility and passion all wrapped up into one.

Because you can teach people things like what metrics to track or deck optimization or website design, but those other things are a lot harder to teach.

It’s a lot, I know. It helps if you have charisma, but it’s not necessary, for me anyway. You still have to know your shit though.

That’s why founders are fun to talk to, because they usually feel like that and dreams are some of my favorite parts of people so whenever I see someone building something they love I’m like, “Yay fun!”

Times I remembered why I did this: All of them
Times I ran out of social battery: All of them
Times I wished I was home: All of them
Times I was glad I went: All of them