We caught up with Amber McDonald, founder of Indemnis, Inc.to glean some of the insights she gained during Access Seattle; here are her top tips for getting the most out of the event!
How did you prepare for Access? What did you do, and how much time did it take?
To be honest, I did not do anything specific for the event but I have spent a lot of time in general refining my pitch. I have a few versions and knowing that I was speaking to VCs/Investors I focused less on the technology and more on the market and go to market. Knowing your audience is the biggest piece of advice I could offer. I read your bios but then also spent some time googling them. I looked into the articles the media outlets were writing about, what the offerings of the Microsoft for Start-ups are and how we might be able to integrate. Indemnis has raised $4.2M in small investments over the last few years ($10-100K each). That is a lot of pitching, over and over and over. I feel like I could probably teach a class on the perfect pitch at this point, now I just need to use it to raise a larger round!
What advice do you have for other founders attending this event?
I would suggest that people really have a goal or objective in mind – maybe that is networking, connecting with a particular person, wanting to learn more about SAFE fundraising or a seed round, or whatever their particular interest is they focus on circling all of their conversations back around until they have all the information they want on whatever their particular goal is. They will for sure walk away with more but small goals are the key to success in running a business – for me at least.
What was your favorite part about Access?
I thought it was a great mix of many types of people. I really loved the one on one meetings.
