RiverPitch? - ?Behind the Scenes

We are so excited to be one of the 4 contenders going through to the semi-finals for RiverPitch. With so many great contestants, a bit like the Oscars, it really is an honour just to be participating!

Working with Steve Baxter, who mentored all 8 contestants with so much honesty and passion, was a unique opportunity that I relished. He is a wealth of knowledge for anyone in the start-up space and really hones in on the areas you need to work on as business.

Any time with him is a privilege and I really valued his feedback. He forced me to look closely at my pitch and structure it better for the intended audience. The first part of the day we talked about our story and our journey so far. He then helped me really focus on the numbers and impact we can have on communities, our ability to scale globally and how we can best communicate this to potential investors.

The whole day was a fantastic process and really energising. I spent a lot of time with other founders who all have fantastic vision and are really putting their ideas on the line. We spent time getting to know each other’s business concepts and models and were really able to challenge each other and bounce pitch ideas off each other. It was awesome to learn from them and I found I could offer skills and insights in areas I was strong in and the other founders offered me the same.

This is testament to the incredible Queensland start-up ecosystem.

Organisations like River City Labs (founded by Steve Baxter) provide great environments to learn, grow, collaborate and really build your business ideas and models. It’s a strong community in Queensland and I was so proud to be a part of the program.

We also really appreciated having another platform to share our vision and model, highlighting our key messages about activating dormant goods for the circular economy and the “Garage Sale in a Box” concept — taking events global with a unique licensed platform and dashboard.

We are a profit for purpose organisation enabling other communities to raise money without having to go down the typical fundraising path. Along the way we’re also providing mechanisms to ensure good products circulate for as long as possible thereby avoiding waste that would eventually end up in landfill.

We want to make this a profitable business, which is really important because profitable businesses have momentum, longevity and resources that pure charities can lose over time. By scaling the events we can greatly magnify our positive impacts to both communities and the environment and ensure the good work is self-sustaining. Platforms like RiverPitch give us the chance to turn our business plans into reality.

If anyone’s ever wondered what it takes to turn your ideas into reality and venture into the start-up space then a TV program like RiverPitch lifts the lid on what’s involved — I encourage you to watch, learn and get behind the vibrant start-up community in Queensland and Australia.

A huge thanks to Your Money, ACS — The Professional Association for Australia’s ICT sector and River City Labs for leading the way in showcasing start-ups on this platform.

For those who haven’t caught Episode 1 of RiverPitch yet, you can check it out here.

Congratulations to the whole team of QLD Entrepreneurs for being selected for #RiverPitch. While we all couldn't make it through, we had an absolute blast shooting the episode together.

• James Fielding - Audeara
• Tim Walmsley - BenchOn
• Alex Moss - Canaria
• Lachlan Spedding - OrbMaps
• Nicholas Kamols and Bradley Clair - PowerWells
• Dan Swan - Realar? Augmented Real Estate
• Lucio Piccoli - SiteSee

The 4 entrepreneurs pictured below made it through to the semi-finals.

Congratulations!