Startup Aggieland- Pitched and Failed
Startup Aggieland is a business incubator in College Station. It is only for the use of teams that possess at least one student currently enrolled at Texas A&M. Those who are chosen as clients of Startup Aggieland have done extensive research on their projects and definitely deserve the position they are in.
After winning Aggies Invent, I spoke with Mr. Chuck Hinton at Startup 101, a conference hosted by Texas A&M's Entrepreneurship Society. I pitched our project in a break between speakers and earned an invitation to meet with him in his office to discuss in more detail. At the end of that meeting, Mr. Hinton recommended my team and I applied to Startup Aggieland, an organization he was a mentor.
With only approximately 2 weeks until the deadline, my team and I met and layed out a rough sketch of what our business model would look like. We were considering getting at least a provisional patent on our device, but needed funds if we were to do so. We were blessed to have wonderful mentors from Aggies Invent, but my team and I agreed that we wanted to pursue every option we could.
The application called for identifying Company Basics: 3 Main Business Objectives, a Management Team, and a Two-Line Summary of the Business. Additionally, it asked for Market Opportunity information regarding Size of the Market, Customer Needs, Current/ Potential Buyers, our Solution, Sales Strategy, Competitors, and our Competitive Advantage. Finally, it requested we provide Financial Data that made us put on paper what we had been only hypothetically speaking of: Capital Seeking, Estimated Pre-Money Valuation, and many others.
We condensed our 10 minute presentation into 5 minutes and pitched to a panel of judges involved with Startup Aggieland. This gave us even more expereience; we had pitched once before to a panel at the end of Aggies Invent, but this time was different. I cannot identify exactly what made this experience feel different than before, but it exposed me to another situation that was out of my comfort zone. I have never interviewed for something I was so passionate about and whole-heartedly believed in. It gave me a taste of what it was like for people that finally interview for their dream job in something they enjoy. It makes me excited for my future just knowing I will have the ability to identify my own "dream job" one day.
Though we were not accepted as a client of Startup Aggieland, I am so proud of our learning experience. The team was asked to participate in weekly meetings and workshops with clients to receive experience. We experience everything a client does without requirements (10 interviews per week a semester, etc.) and without funding.
I am so thankful of the experience I have learned from just a few general meetings. I have still been able to work with mentors and successful business owners that started at Startup Aggieland. They come back because they enjoy giving back to what gave them a starting point for their business, and I am learning from people who have first hand experience in the same struggles we will be facing. Startup Aggieland has been a blessing, and I owe it to my mentors Dr. Rodney Boehm, Mr. Chuck Hinton, and my kick-butt team.
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