On Thursday, Siobhan and I presented our new guide for English-speakers in Karlsruhe to a committee of VCs, business men and women, and other start-up founders, at Elevator Pitch BW. BW stands for Baden-Württemberg, the state in Germany in which we live. Two days before entries to the competition closed, we noticed a post card that translated to "Area for your Business Idea" and a thirty minutes later, we were entered in the competition and madly collected 240 votes in 48 hours to secure our spot for the following week. The spot meant the opportunity to provide a 3 minute pitch and then engage in a 3 minute Q&A from the judging committee.

Inspiration & Preparation

• ABC's "Shark Tank"


• Business News Daily's "7 Tips for a Great Elevator Pitch"


• Houston Chronicle's many articles on Elevator Pitching


• Start Up Nation's Guide to Elevator Pitching


• Germany's census and statistics website

Before the event even began, we had to prepare our pitch. After excitedly finding out we could pitch in German, we used the above resources for inspiration and began practicing. This was our first official company pitch and I would be lying if I said we were not nervous about it.

The Event

Nine days after entering, the competition was here. I dusted off my business attire, grabbed some business cards, and we headed out to Technologie Park Karlsruhe. With beer, wine, and food to calm the nerves, we began chatting with other start-up founders and quickly felt at ease. After an hour and a half, we entered the room and after a brief introduction, the pitches began. We had the fourth slot out of ten. The whole pitch is really a blur, but we did run out of time and did not get to mention our future plans for the company. When it was over, we were all relieved. We did not win, but more importantly, we got our first pitch in the books and met lots of wonderful people with great advice and some willing to help us push Karlsresource even further.

All Photos by MicialMedia.

The Pitch

Hallo, ich heisse Siobhan.

Hallo, mein Name ist Alex.  

Ich komme aus Hong Kong.

Und ich komme aus Houston, Texas.  Wir wohnen in Karlsruhe, und sie koennen wahrscheinlisch schon hoeren, dass unser Deutsch nicht perfekt ist.

Und dabei sind wir nicht alleine, mit uns leben 40,000 Auslaender und es besuchen ueber 80,000 english-sprechende Touristen die Faecherstadt jedes Jahr. Wir haben ein grosses problem festgestellt. Es gibt nur sehr wenige Resourcen in Englischer Sprache ueber das Leben in Karlsruhe. Deswegen sind wir auf die Idee gekommen, Karlsresource zu gruenden. Da unsere Website in Englisch ist, wuerden wir jetzt gerne auf Englisch fortfahren.

Despite learning German and living in Karlsruhe for some time, we still struggle to find the answers we’re looking for.  Karlsresource is All Karlsruhe. All in English. Karlsresource.com is an online guidebook and community for English-speakers that provides a wealth of information on life in Karlsruhe and surrounding areas.  

There is no one else serving this niche exclusively.  Karlsresource is sorted by calls to action, such as Eat, Drink, Do, See, and Go and provides a breakdown of noteworthy places and events, what to expect, and how accessible they are for English-speakers. We also built up a How To section answering users’ common questions about living in Germany, like Where To Learn German in Karlsruhe.

Karlsresource currently receives traffic to the site by networking within already present English-speaking groups in Karlsruhe, word-of-mouth, social networking sites, and implementing search engine optimization. Our coming future marketing efforts include storefront “Find us on Karlsresource” window decals and call-to-action postcards and flyers.

Our near future monetization plans will occur through five income streams.

1)  Banner advertising on the homepage and category-specific advertising on sub-pages.

2) Event placement on the events calendar.

3) The directories page, which will spotlight English-speaking services in Karlsruhe from doctors and lawyers to web designers and babysitters.

4) Sponsored Giveaways and Promotions

5) Affiliate Programs

Karlsresource launched only 11 days ago and the feedback has been very encouraging. Already, we have received personal emails thanking us for creating this service and questions inspiring future articles.  

It doesn’t have to stop at English, we envision a job board, user profiles, a classifieds section, and even translating the site into other languages. With your support, the possibilities are endless.

Thank you for listening.

 

Have you ever pitched a business idea? What was your experience like?