My (Evolutionary) Entrepreniual Journey ??

…..and I’m delighted to share with you with no further ado that it was Vault, announced our esteemed judge Colin Spiller, making us, Team Vault, the Entrepreneurial Journey Winners 2022-23.

Standing at the Dias, pitching myself in front of a 100 people was definitely the most exciting end to my 11th of November, 2022! It was the very first EJ Pitch and Mix. A mixture for all those planning to take the Imperial College Business School’s Entrepreneurial Journey as a module during the MBA. Like every other event, we had participants from the entire Imperial College Community and the Royal College of Arts (RCA) as a part of the networking event.

One could pitch an idea or their own self as a CEO/team member. While I did not have a concrete idea to pursue I was keen on leading or being part of a venture that was driven by innovation and lets me explore new technologies. After pitching myself with a handwritten note which read Koko/Komal – FT MBA, I had amazing discussion with a lot of people during the networking event. We discussed about Metaverse, fintech revolution and I also heard some brilliant ideas – building on from the pitches that day. By January 2023, we had to form a team and move into the next stage of Idea surgeries.?

?

Jesus, Vault’s cofounder and my fellow MBA peer, pitched Vault on the second mixer in December, 2022 which I actually did not attend. During my winter break, I heard that Jesus is actually building a fintech that will be blockchain enabled, I immediately connected with him and had a formal discussion about my keen interest in joining his team. While I did not have any technological expertise to add, Jesus and Ismael (Vault’s Co-founder) found my over-enthusiastic self to add value in building their baby.?

?

Fast Forward to 24th January to Vault’s Kickoff meeting: Jesus and Ismael gathered the whole team which included Pedro (MBA peer), Dexter (RCA) and myself. While they presented their vision and roadmap for EJ<>Vault, I was dreaming of this exciting learning curve that was ahead of me. I had no active knowledge of blockchain or tokenising real world assets. My first assignment was to understand what we were building, because till I don’t believe in the idea – How can I expect a user to??

?

The team was across continents in April, when we achieved our first milestone of ?launching the website. Weeks before the launch we debated heavily on the logo, the headline, what is that we want to communicate through Vault’s website and how are we going to do that? We launched our socials, which I was handling, and a soft launch of website in the first week of April. After gathering some feedback and making the changes, we introduced vault.com.mx to the world on 12th April 2023.

?

In May we had our practice pitch which was exactly one month before the finals. While we were busy trying to speak to potential technology service providers, brainstorming on surveying look-alike projects that would be interested in raising fundraising through Vault, we knew we had to start working on putting a pitch deck together. 8 minutes of pitching followed by 12 minutes of Q&A – as I read the instructions for the practice pitch – Jesus and I were discussing on the sections we want to cover in our deck and the narrative of the Vault story!

The most crucial part of our practice pitch was the feedback we received from our panel as well from our coach, Markus Perkman. While we had a good story in place, It was the most important thing that we are able to clearly communicate the purpose of Vault’s existence.

?

Every time I posted on social media on behalf of Vault, I was wondering how else can we connect with our community of potential investors, users, fundraisers and blockchain enthusiasts. ?While Vault’s primary focus is to empower investors and fundraisers in developing markets, it was equally important for us to start engaging with various stakeholders in London, where Vault is registered and intends to have its operations run from. I proposed a Vault launch event to Jesus and Ismael, and they quickly jumped at the idea of it! After a long discussion, our event evolved into a roundtable/fireside chat focused on understanding the use cases of blockchain in financial markets.

?

As the Head of Fintech of the business school, I decided to make this a larger event collaborating with Imperial Union’s blockchain society. Jesus and I put together an agenda and it wasn’t long before that we were having a dry run with our speakers the weekend before the actual event. This was not it, while things were looking bright and ready for our pitch week I was still wondering what is the final touch that could differentiate us from the other teams? Jesus and Dexter were already working on a video, but in addition should we do Flash cards, or wait how about the good old vault team t-shirts! The founders loved the touch it would add to our pitch and so I ordered five logo embroidered t-polos for our big day.?

?

The week started with the success of our event on Monday, two days before the pitch day on 14th June 2023. The five of us as a team spent the entire Tuesday together working on our pitch deck. We also requested one of our MBA classmates to help us do a voiceover for our introduction video. Our pitch was at 3:50 pm and so we all decided to meet at 11 am to discuss the deck we had to submit a day before and rehearse till we are pitch-perfect! We spoke to a few other teams that were done with their presentations and to access the Q&A. Playing the devil’s advocate we challenged each other with the most difficult questions possible, pre-empting every move.

?

There is so much team effort that goes behind a mere 16 slides of Microsoft PowerPoint and so many variables involved that all need to work in your favor to win. An hour before the pitch, we walked around campus and sat under the sun in Dalby Court.

?

But does it always play out the way we want it to? Hell no! Despite of multiple trials our pitch started with a technical error where our introduction video was not playing. A panicked me was trying to click everywhere on the screen, while the judges asked us to continue without it since we had limited time. ?Our 8 minute timer had begun and even though we lost a few seconds, our video finally worked and we delivered the pitch we had rehearsed more than 10 times the same day. Jesus and Ismael, answered every Q&A with their chin ups and everyone in the room could see their passion for Vault. We then moved into the audience and watched the other teams pitch.

?

A week before the pitch, Jesus and Ismael had invited us for a team dinner after the pitch at Italian restaurant with the most stunning view of the city. Win or lose, we were going to head to tower bridge for our dinner. Jesus and Ismael, a cofounder pair I could see making it big. The humility and passion they add to the team was one of the biggest factors that played in our favor. Pedro’s knowledge about LATAM and the PE industry and Dexter’s unique point of view to complex topics – made it one of the most fulfilling team experiences I have ever had.

?

This wasn’t my first time working in a team as the only woman, but a rare occasion feeling more than an equal. This is what the MBA gives you, this is what London gives you, this is what Imperial gives you, this is my Evolutionary Entrepreneurial Journey.

#imperialmeansbusiness #imperialcollegelondon #imperialcollegebusinessschool #mba #womenintech