Do Cool Sh*t (13 page)

Get a cool venue to host the event.

To save money, call any of your friends who live or work in a cool, memorable place and explain that you want to cohost a dinner party with them and that you will bring really interesting people together who they will want to meet.

When I say “cool, memorable place,” I mean one of the following:

• a well-designed industrial loft apartment
  
• a spacious house with a big family-style table that you can deck out with candles and flowers
  
• an apartment with a patio so dinner can be served outdoors
  
• an exposed-brick apartment where you can put candles along the walls to create a really nice ambiance
  
• a party room in a friend’s apartment building
  
• a rooftop space
  
• a country-club library room
  

Get press to attend (TV, print, Web).

Getting any kind of press to attend your event will have two benefits: it will publicize your business and get people buzzing about it, and it will impress the potential investors.

I managed to get the Food Network to not only attend the dinner party but to also follow me for four months with the intention of producing a TV show focused on my business.

I sent an e-mail out to everyone I knew who may know someone who works in television. Even if you just know an assistant, they can sometimes pass your e-mail along to a more senior producer or editor.

I sent a Food Network producer a mysterious e-mail saying that I had an idea for the network’s show
Recipe for Success
and that it would be a huge win-win (an MB experience) for both of us.

The producer called me back! Somehow, when she got me on the phone I was able to talk through my nervousness and tell her that she had an opportunity to create a highly rated television show on the Food Network. This show would follow a young first-time entrepreneur and it would be great television because I didn’t know what I was doing and that I would screw up a
lot
! After all
,
I was in the process of opening up a healthy pizza restaurant in New York City, a city where there are so many other pizza places and 95 percent of restaurants close in their first year and 85 percent of restaurants close in their second year. I told them that I was a first-time businessperson, it was my first time working in a restaurant, and that this show will be the train-wreck show they’ve been waiting for. Reality TV is all about chaos, and I would give them chaos on a silver pizza tray.

The Food Network bought the idea! The next thing I knew, they were following me around, attending my investor dinner parties, and documenting the entire process! Part of me was freaking out about it, but I played along as best as I could. They followed me around for those four months and the show
Recipe for Success: Pizza Girl
aired on repeat more than fifteen times internationally because it was such a hit! You can find the episode on my YouTube page: www.youtube.com/user/mikiagrawal.

Make a cool slideshow.

My slideshow covered the basics that an investor would want to know, and this time around, I knew what to expect and was ready for all of their questions:

• What is the problem in the marketplace?
  
• How big is the potential market
  ?
  
• What is the idea?
  
• How does this idea solve the problem?
  
• Who is my target audience?
  
• Who are my competitors?
  
• How will I position my idea in the marketplace and gain a loyal client base?
  
• What are my revenue projections?
  
• What is the payback structure? (i.e., How will investors get paid back?)
  

Get someone else to present your idea for you if you get nervous giving presentations.

There is nothing worse than spending weeks and months organizing a fundraising event and then bombing the whole thing when you have to get up to present your business idea and not coming across as a confident speaker. When you sound like a not-so-confident speaker, it may make potential investors think you’ll be a not-so-confident leader.

Through my research and pitching, I noticed that sometimes other people explained my business just as well as I did, if not better. I was so deep into the process and wanted to say so much about my restaurant that it was sometimes easier for someone else to clearly distill my concept in a few easy-to-understand sentences.

I also knew that I was best at connecting with people in a relaxed setting and my most natural self came out when I wasn’t presenting my idea formally in front of people. My posh British friend, Richard (the one who branded the original Slice concept), agreed to give my presentation at the upcoming fundraising dinner and I would be there simply to answer questions and be the cheerleader for my idea. This accomplished two things:

• It made the business look more
  professional
  . It showed I’d already begun collaborating with someone and had won someone over to join my team.
  
• It gave me a chance to be my most authentic self. The more you can put yourself in a situation where your most authentic and natural self shines through, the better your success rate.
  

Do Cool Shit Takeaway

Always have an
ask
and
action
in mind for the potential investor or buyer of your product/art/mission at the event itself. You’ll want to get an answer (positive, hopefully!) as soon after they’ve been dazzled as possible. Every day after that, it becomes a tougher sell because they’ll remember less and less about their experience. If your event is unique and memorable enough, your guests will be more likely to get on board with your business idea right away.

When people’s hearts and minds are open, they are the most giving. Here are some ways to get your guests to open their hearts and minds:

• Give everyone an opportunity to share a piece of him- or herself. Have a storytelling segment at your event where everyone can share a one- to two-minute story that relates to your theme of the night. At the end of the day, everyone wants to be heard. Everyone has stories to tell. Everyone wants to be recognized. Even if people are shy, if coaxed enough times to share, they will be so happy they did in the end and will go home feeling so energized and excited to tell their friends.
  
• Make the event/fund-raiser/dinner party interactive. It shouldn’t be just a one-way conversation. You can do this by having different product pieces on the walls of the venue to get people talking and interacting. You can also place questions or clues on the wall to facilitate conversation. You goal is to get as many people walking around smiling, conversing, and having a good time.
  

Use the following as examples to create an
ask
or
action
item:

• Create a memorable postcard-size “pledge card.” This should be positioned at every place setting during the dessert portion of the evening. By this time, you and your idea would have hopefully won over everyone. The pledge card is used to close the deal.
      For example, a pledge card for potential restaurant investors would say: “
  I pledge
  to support the creators of delicious, healthy, and environmentally friendly comfort food. Please write your name, e-mail addresses, pledge amount, and a haiku about your favorite comfort food.” Always include something silly that makes people laugh. Make this pledge card memorable and creative. Add sparkles.
  
• At the end of the night, give all of your guests one to two small creative gifts that they can then give to friends they think might also pledge their support. Maybe you give them beautiful rocks that you found on the beach and painted with an inspirational word. Maybe it’s a simple card that you handwrite to each person for a personal touch. This is a great way to grow your potential investor pool in a manageable way. Ultimately, people who invest in you or your idea should genuinely like you and want to spend time with you. Try and honor that as best as you can.
  
• If you are hosting an event or fund-raiser, try to keep them small at first so that you can build traction. This will allow everyone to share a story about something relating to food or art or business or whatever it is you are trying to grow. Investors want to be heard, they want to share stories, and they want to be recognized.
  
• Call everyone you know who has the ability to invest in a new business. Start with those people who have large networks, since they may be able to bring others on board.
      Knowing people who can invest in ideas is so important. If you don’t know anyone like that, it’s time to go to events where you think potential investors may frequent. Start early, because it can take some time to make these connections. Think about all the places in your area where the wealthier community spends time. Golf courses, horse races, and fund-raisers.
  
• Go to TED.com and see if there are of the local TEDx talks in your area. Find out when angel investor conferences will be and where they will be hosted. (In case you may not be familiar with the term, an
  angel investor
  is an individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for ownership equity.) If you can’t get into the event, research the hotel bars or conference areas where the event is being held and make an appearance! Check out entrepreneurial events like the Startup Weekend (startupweekend.com), and see if you can apply to get into the conference for free. Go to special events at collaborative office spaces where angel investors come in and meet young start-ups. Basically, put yourself where the action is and that’s where you’ll find the money!
  

CONNECTING IS
NOT
NETWORKING

The most important thing I learned when it came to raising money was how to connect on a deeper level with people and investors in a way that made them want to be a part of a greater community rather than just a monetary investment.

If you connect with people in a sincere way, raising money becomes no longer about the massive and thorough business plan as much as a well-thought-out idea executed by someone who is smart, likable, and excited.

Networking is just plain uncomfortable. You walk around a room reading name tags and seeing if the other people walking around looking at name tags could be useful to you. You exchange fancy business cards (just like in the movie
American Psycho,
and we all know what came of
those
card exchanges!). When you’re networking, it’s all about “What do you do?” and “Where do you work?” I’ve built more comfortable and effective relationships with people via the very basic NST rule: no small talk.

Questions like “Where are you from?” and “What do you do?” don’t inspire people to really connect with you. Here is how to use NST to help you to connect quickly with people:

Ask pointed, more personal questions.

For example: “What are you most excited about?” or “What’s the next big thing coming up in your life?” or my favorite “What’s your dream?” It’s open-ended, and the conversation can go anywhere.

Most often I see that people immediately open up and show their true colors, energy, and excitement when they’re talking about their dreams, what they’re excited about, and what they are eager to change and work on. Once you get them talking about these things, the conversation naturally creates a shimmer of excitement to it, and it’s from that excitement that a stronger relationship can begin to grow.

Listen and genuinely show a lot of interest in the person you are connecting with.

People in general have short attention spans, and at events like these, it can be tough to make an impression.

If you truly listen to someone and are present in the conversation, people will feel good and want to continue to be around you because it’s apparent that you genuinely are interested in what they have to say. It’s natural that people feel connected to you when you honor their inherent desire to feel heard. The only time this hasn’t worked for me is when the person takes your enthusiasm to be an indication of their own greatness . . . and when that’s the case, who needs
them
?

Ask follow-up questions that incorporate their answers to show that you were listening.

Reflecting back what they say not only validates them and shows that you were listening, but it also makes them feel good about opening up to you and they will start to loosen up and connect with you.

Showing genuine interest in others, listening, and showing excitement in what you are working on yourself, is the quickest way to really connect and get them to develop a relationship with you that could then become something mutually beneficial in the future.

EXCITEMENT IS MAGNETIC

When it came to my business, I was always excited about sharing my idea. I had endless energy when it came to talking and discussing my idea and it rubbed off on my friends, colleagues, and everyone I met.

It’s even more fun to belong to an exciting group of people doing exciting things. There is real magnetism around excitement. Most people aren’t super pumped about their jobs and to find someone so excited about their idea is refreshing.

The first time I met one of my investors, it was on his second date with his girlfriend (now wife) while they were about to sit down to dinner at a restaurant. I remember they were up at the bar, sitting on two of the stools, and there was an open stool beside them. I was also waiting for a table, so I sat down. I broke the ice by commenting on what a nice-looking couple they seemed to be. When all else fails, rely on a compliment! We started to talk and I asked them about how they met and got really excited to hear about their new relationship. I started to talk about how fun relationships are early on (they are!), and, mind you, I had no intention to raise money from him; I didn’t even know he had the opportunity to invest in businesses. I was simply genuinely interested in their lives. He then asked me what I was up to and I excitedly told him about my new project. My enthusiasm was so contagious that he asked me to send him some more information about it.