Nick's kitchen
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"Sort of like YC for students"
Tim Armoo shared this post on LinkedIn last week and it made my LinkedIn blow up.
It was back in early 2014 that I took Tim and his co-founder Ambrose Cooke to see Nick Wheeler in Nick’s kitchen in Holland Park, London. I spent 2012 to 2014 meeting and sifting through hundreds of students and recent graduates who wanted to start a startup and absolutely loved it. Of the couple of dozen I took to Nick, Tim and Ambrose easily stood out. Ambrose flicked through the slides while holding his laptop on his lap and Tim talked through their pitch. Tim had memorised the whole thing, which was impressive enough, but Ambrose had also memorised Tim’s pitch and knew when to hit the next slide — nothing was said between them, Ambrose just casually hit ‘next’ while Tim kept talking. They didn’t skip a beat and I’ve never seen it done so well before or since.
So for Tim to thank me and call what I did, "Sort of like YC for students", was just magic. Thank you Tim.
100+ connection requests
Mustn’t grumble… and maybe it’s yet another example of the irrefutable 80/201 principle but of the 100+ people (mostly entrepreneurial students) who sent me a connection request after Tim’s post only one of them (yes, one!) included a personalised note (good on you Joshua). I’m always happy to connect with interesting people but for goodness’ sake include a personal note to give context and not waste your time.
More entrepreneurial students
Last week I visited the Durham Venture School to be on a panel to give feedback and ask questions to six pitching teams. From the lab-made, but natural/watery, substance that replaces the need for peat pellets, to luxury underwear designed for gay men plus some up-and-selling video-editing AI, all the teams were terrific.
The Computer Science department is rather different from when I was there. In 2003-06 I was in a class of 20-odd students, all male, who only really talked to each other in IRC. I was delighted to see the amazing new facilities and that there’s a third way for student careers now; they can start a startup — no longer is a graduate scheme or a Masters the only real option.
If you are, or know, an entrepreneurial student who might want to talk tell them to get in touch with me on matthew@stafford.vc
In other news
If you pre-order ‘Find your 9others’ and tell me your address I’ll post some 9others merch, below, to you.
You can pre-order my book from Amazon here.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
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Or 99/1..!