Why be a "shark" for a day?

Being such a fan of the TV series Shark Tank and having watched almost every episode of Shark Tank in the USA and Australia, I could not resist adapting it for the benefit of she1K members and mission we stand for.

How did we adapt?

It took a number of iterations before we got it out there to validate for real in Nov 2019. As we validate, we found new opportunities to grow the concept, or solidify it. Early on, we realised that not everyone had a positive association with being a "shark". All the more, we had to "sell" the value behind such a campaign.

Almost like "matchmaking", we create value for both the #investor and the #startup. Based on the constraints of our market, we tweaked. In the "original shark tank", a "shark" could bargain the valuation of the startup and each shark could opt to alone or together with another shark in a startup subject to terms agreed and due diligence passed.

Here is how we did it differently?

1. We created "C-shark" as we wanted to create a platform for corporate executives to engage with startups with some #skininthegame. Each shark participates with a minimum sum of S$10,000 each.
2. Corporate executives benefit from peer learning by committing a full day Feb 20 together with more than 20 peers to listen to startup pitches and deepdive with them. As a group, they will decide the final 3 out of 12 startups pitching. As a group, they decide the allocation of the investment pool per top 3 startup.

4. Sharks and #she1K members can top up on Feb 20 once we award the top 3 finalists.

5. We leveraged co-working space, Enterprise Singapore network and accelerator partners to scout for startups. Then we invited, on Jan 15, 60 jury members from VCs, accelerators, angels, startup mentors and corporate ventures to engage with 20 startups who pitched via zoom regardless where they are located. We placed a focus to drive a higher representation of female jury and achieved 60%. The jury helped us shortlist 12 startups to pitch live to more than 20 sharks on Feb 20, 2020.

6. Out of the top 12 startups, 4 are from outside Singapore. Not only did 60 jury get to network with each other in one full day, anyone could ask questions to the startups for 10 minutes after a 4 min pitch. All unanswered questions were addressed within 24 hours post event and posted online for jury to access. Post event we connected several jury members with the startups they expressed interests in.

7. One day before the C-shark Tank goes LIVE on Feb 20, we match startups with VCs and domain experts to prep them more and share more insights.

Our unique approach garnered lots of favourable feedback of the entire experience from the Jan 15 jury and the 20 startups who participated. Hear what VCs say.

Join us for our next C-shark Tank. Follow us on facebook and youtube.

she1K is the world's 1st corporate executive women angel network that empowers, funds and boards startups. We welcome male corporate executives and angel investors in our network as well. We invest in early stage startups and are industry agnostic and gender agnostic.

Tune in to our next update after Feb 20.

Innovation should not be gender biased.