Inaugural BC2 event at Luigi’s will set table for startups, investors
he image of the inventor trying to round up investor money hasn’t changed much in Atul Minocha’s 13 years as a mentor to business startups.
With minor variations, it generally comes down to a master of technology standing at the front of a room droning on about what a particular piece of equipment can do and how it works, but rarely making a strong case for how it would address a need in the marketplace.
“They’re good at that,” said Minocha, a marketer by training. “They’re usually technocrats. They’re usually engineers.”
His advice to countless entrepreneurs is that such presentations are good and helpful — up to a point. After a while it’s time to explain how the invention solves a problem in the business world.
“Market it and they’ll come doesn’t work in the startup world,” Minocha said.
Insights like that, and plenty more geared toward entrepreneurs and investors alike, are on tap from 5 to 8 p.m. May 18 at the inaugural Kern Capital Conference at Luigi’s Restaurant and Delicatessen.
The event is being hosted by Kern Venture Group, the county’s first angel investor group, together with an affiliate group called KITE, which stands for Kern Initiative for Talent + Entrepreneurship.
Apart from Minocha’s
Tpresentation, there will be a keynote speech by David Walker, co-founder of Paso Robles-based Firestone Walker Brewery. Dinner will be Luigi’s classic chicken and tri-tip meal with red pasta and white pasta, salad, pickled tongue, sacco beans, table wine and the restaurant’s ice cream with biscotti cookie and Butterfinger topping. Tickets cost $25; they can be purchased online at www.eventbrite.com/e/kerncapital-conference-kc2-tickets272305883227?aff=aff0evvnt.
Naturally, Minocha will spend some of his time at the podium on the topic of marketing, which he teaches at Hult International Business School in Dubai, London and San Francisco. He said one goal will be helping entrepreneurs get over their typically negative view of marketing.
“They’ve been burned before. They have spent money in marketing,” he said. But, he added, “being disappointed in marketing is not a way out.”
Data he expects to share at the event will highlight the importance of not neglecting marketing, which he says is the cause of eight in 10 business failures.
Another point Minocha plans to make to small business founders at the event is the danger of putting on a “oneman show” for investors.
The temptation may be for founders to put their best foot forward, which he said may be the top scientists. But the problem with that approach is that investors want to see the commercial side of the business, if only to get a feel for the diversity of expertise at the business.
“They do want to see a team,” Minocha said.