Technori Pitch

Each month, I make my way down the stairs of the Chase auditorium with a few of my Kellogg School of Management buddies to listen to local startups pitch their companies at the Technori Pitch. We spent the time arguing over which companies are viable and which are not. This is by far the best pitch competition I have run across in the city of Chicago. The other great event on its level is the monthly Built in Chicago Launch Party, but BIC is more of networking/socializing/drinking/fun event while Technori is listen to 5 great startups and an awesome keynote speaker and then moving the local bar for some socializing.

But back to last nights pitch. The keynote was Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) cofounder of orbit media and he made some many good points about SEO and getting your site to the top of the google list. I used what he said and was able to get our site to come as the third option when someone googles healthify! Beyond SEO his main point was that we all know about our MVP (minimum viable product) but what about our MVA??? What is your minimum viable AUDIENCE? What customers do you need to have to actually make your company a success. Focus on interacting with your customers and you will have much more success. We at Healthify My Team focus on this every day by asking people what sort of activities they would like to see going on in their offices as a way to healthify their workspace. A recent conversation with a former professional athlete brought up the importance of warming up for a workout and wondered why people do not warm up for work? He suggested maybe offer a 30 minute early morning yoga or fitness session right before work to get people in the right mindset for their jobs. Great idea! We are certainly going to look into it and see what the minimum viable audience is for this type of activity. Can't wait until next months Technori Pitch! Tickets are not on sale yet, but get them here when they are!