Last week, the Mindlace team took their first steps as a bona fide Venture Studio. To get the ball rolling 🏀 on our first startup launch, we needed to come up with an innovative business idea that will solve a genuine problem within its target market.

Being a fairly new team, we concluded the ideal starting point was a company-wide brainstorming session🧠. We wanted a vibe devoid of corporate hierarchy, enabling everyone to get a piece of the venture pie🍕.

To do this, we hosted a virtual, in-house pitch night💻. Alas, there was no complimentary booze 🍺 or schmoozing with fellow founders. Our inaugural ‘pitch night’ was certainly unconventional and, as a trial run, potentially a tad rough around the edges.

(To be clear, whilst this event was a ‘pitch night’, this is by no means a restrictive format. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are; organising a night of collaboration for your team, might be just what you need to get the creative juices flowing. Perhaps, the night could centre around solving a company-wide problem, or a brainstorming session to determine the direction your company is set to take. The premise remains the same.)

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Nevertheless, as a remote company that rarely gets every team member on a single screen 🖥️ (let alone in one room!), the event worked wonders for our sense of team dynamic and collaborative innovation.

So, whether your business is a venture studio or not, we believe our insights from this in-house gathering will provide you with some valuable takeaways…

Gearing up the pack🐕

As a company that’s one part venture studio, and one part full-service digital agency, a pitch night has been on the cards since we launched.

So, a few weeks ago we let the team know that the event was in the diary 📆.

This gave each team member, from product developers, to engineers, to marketers, time to get their thinking hats on 🎩. The pitch night was an opportunity for everyone, including our seasoned founders and fresh graduates, to have their voices heard 🔊.

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So, let me outline the prep…

• Schedule the event in the your Teams calendar 🗓️(other platforms are available…) My advice would be to do this well in advance so you don’t get any dropouts on the night 🙄.
• Next, push out a notion database for everyone to consolidate their ideas. (Get free access to the template we used here!). This way, you have a clear layout of everyone’s thoughts, going into the evening.

The Night Itself ⭐

You might not believe me if I told you that our pitch night was the very first time I’ve seen every employee on one call 📲. A strange thought, but such is the modern digital world I guess.

Here’s the process Rami spearheaded…

1. A collaborative FigJam document was set up, giving everyone access to our timer ⌛and voting system 🗳️. Injecting visuals into any meeting adds clarity and structure, especially when ideas are being thrown back and forth quickly.
2. Each 'pitcher' was allocated 5 minutes to persuade the rest of the team ⏱️. While this may seem sufficient, time flies. We found this duration struck the right balance between maintaining the event's momentum and providing enough detail to facilitate informed decisions.
3. Post-pitch questioning initially proved chaotic 🤔. Some ideas evoked more intense reactions than others, resulting in lengthy inquiries (and occasional critiques). Consequently, we implemented a 3-question limit to streamline the process while ensuring ample elaboration and minimising digression.

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1. Following the Q&A, we conducted an anonymous vote. Although this may seem cutthroat 🔪, it was the most effective method to arrive at a 'yes', 'no', or 'maybe' verdict. However, we recommend founders lead the first few pitches to encourage candid feedback from even the youngest team members. This approach fosters a democratic atmosphere, allowing everyone to express their opinions without fear.
2. Ideas were then categorised into 'yes', 'no', and 'maybe' groups. The 'maybe' pile proved necessary for proposals that polarised the group. If an idea had legs but needed further exploration or postponement, it was set aside but not discarded.
3. From the ‘yes’ pile, we had one final (again, anonymous) vote, to secure our winner. 🏆(More on this soon 🤫)

Our Learnings📖

• Yes, the evening had scrappy moments in parts- but this is all part of finding our feet👣. Viewing this first pitch night as a first go, or trial run, we were able to learn from what worked and what didn’t.
• I’m in no way bringing the mood down here, but hosting an evening like this on the company clock can be expensive💰. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s done right, it’s money well spent. All I’m saying is that quality facilitation is crucial. Whoever is running the meeting just needs to keep the balance between letting everyone get their word in🔠, whilst managing when certain people are going off on tangents.
• Discipline is key 🔑. Not only does this stop a meeting from going on longer than intended (which isn’t ideal for team mood or idea quality), it stops dominant voices from getting too many words in. The beauty of a timer 🕰️ on FigJam, enables a level of control over your teams’ voices- sometimes this will be needed!
• You may be surprised by the excitement such an event can conjure up. An evening of collaboration, particularly for a remote company, is just what you need in order to align as a group.

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• Sometimes as a founder, you may want to inject some spark back into a team that has been working full-on 💼. Giving everyone the opportunity to get their point across, whilst being listened to by all members of the company, encourages confidence and idea refining in the best, most collaborative way.

So, whether you are a venture studio or not, the premise remains simple ✅

In running any in-house🏠, creative event (regardless of your business), the aim is to get your employees pumped💪🏼, and excited to be a part of your team. Following our ‘pitch night’, most of the team reported back to Rami that it was one of the most exciting work events they have attended. It’s not often that people are given the opportunity to put their ideas forward in such a relaxed and fair work environment.

One of our team members was even up until the early hours⏰, as he couldn’t stop going over all the venture ideas we had deliberated. It’s this kind of thing that shows our event was money well spent. Whilst it may not have been polished (as our first go), everyone left feeling like they were making a significant impact on the business.

Most people came into the meeting curious👀. I can say for sure, that everyone left feeling valued, inspired and excited to make their mark within the team✔️.

So, if you’ve been inspired by our event, but need some extra help in refining a business idea, get in contact with a member of the team today.

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