FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR
Chris and Anita Nyenhuis at Demo Day in the 500 Startups accelerator in San Francisco
The Buffet
The two walked into 814 Mission St. on July 14 for their first day of the 500 Startups accelerator. “They told us on the first day, ‘Think of it as a buffet line — you can get as much or as little as you want out of this,’ ” Chris says. True to form, the accelerator made the entrepreneurs hit the ground running. At the end of their time at 500 Startups, everyone would be pitching their businesses to a room of venture capitalists during “Demo Day.” One of the first welcoming activities brought the group together to pitch their startups and start the editing process. “500 Startups does a great job in constructively tearing your pitch apart and then people like Andrea Barrica help you restructure a much better two-minute pitch for Demo Day,” Anita says. “They start this process early and encourage you to pitch frequently, so by 28
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the time you get to Demo Day, you have lost your nerves and are so comfortable with your pitch you sound like you’re telling a story, not trying to remember facts about your company.” From there, the weekly schedule was a mixture of presentations, workshops, advising sessions and interaction with the other startups in the program. Once a week, Chris and Anita spent their lunchtime learning from 500 Startups alumni, venture capital investors and other industry leaders (think Uber, Yelp, etc.). The program directors also hosted fireside chats each week, where any question was fair game. To guide the companies through the accelerator, each startup connected with a main point of contact. For Eyes on Freight, it was Entrepreneur in Residence Ed Spiegel, founder of rental marketer RentMineOnline and a former executive with RealPage and DFJ ePlanet Ventures.
Of course, Chris and Anita Nyenhuis learned tactical skills for running their business during their time at the accelerator, but 500 Startups also taught them more about what it means to be a startup today. If you’re looking for an accelerator for your company, Chris says you should be picky. “You’re so trained as a startup to get to the next level, but it’s not always numbers, numbers, numbers,” he says. “Try to find an accelerator that fits your personality.” Once you’ve chosen a program, start prepping. Though it may be tempting to sit back and act like a sponge while you’re learning all that new information, Chris says you have to be an active learner. “Come up with a strategy that can best make use of all the great information and resources you will be exposed to,” he says. “Four months sounds like a lot of time but, in reality, it will fly by and you will be busier than you think and pulled in many directions during the program. Remind yourself that throughout the chaos and experience, you still have to be building a business.” For more information about 500 Startups applications, visit www.500.co. “He was a great resource,” Chris says, “and was always telling us to make sure you make decisions that are best for you and for your business. Don’t let outside factors or influences determine what’s best for you and/or your business.” Since a major focus of 500 Startups is helping the companies develop their marketing and distribution channels, one of the highlights of the accelerator is Marketing Hell Week. A more formalized training than some of the other lessons, participants spend the week diving deep into the topics of social media, outreach, inside/outside sales and more. “We found it very helpful in so many ways,” Anita says. “Some of the brightest and most successful entrepreneurs in the world shared their insight and secrets for success.” As Demo Day grew closer, Chris and Anita leaned more and more on their coaches and colleagues in the program. Barrica — a 500 Startups venture partner and co-founder of inDinero — continued to help them hone their pitch, and Spiegel