OCTANe is excited to introduce our Success Series Blog which is a three part highlight of a startup’s journey through the LaunchPad process. This week we are featuring OCTANe LaunchPad SBDC company, Veracity, an Orange County startup that improves reliability, efficiency, and security of industrial networks and devices.  Part one of OCTANe’s Success Series covers the early stages of the LaunchPad SBDC program and Veracity CEO, Paul Myer’s experience with the process.

How did you hear about OCTANe & LaunchPad?Luis Vasquez at Frost Data Capital introduced us to the process.

Tell us about the application process to LaunchPad. The application process forced us to articulate all aspects of our business plan, value proposition, sales process etc.  We initially applied back in 2016 (might have been 2015), but realized as we went through the application process that we still had some work to do before we would be able to leverage the program.  We were much better prepared in 2017.

What was your relationship like with the LaunchPad team? How often did you speak and meet with them?Our Launchpad team was great.  They were a good blend of both technical, business, and marketing professionals.  The overall process forced us to focus our messaging by starting with a 30-minute pitch, then a 20-minute presentation, and finally a 10-minute iteration.  I think we met a total of 4 times, but we had some email communications during the process as well.

Tell us more about your first LaunchPad experience.The best thing about LaunchPad was the disciplined approach to honing our business plan and messaging, in order to cover all of our bases for our value proposition, go to market, marketing, and the fundraising process.  That discipline has paid off over time, in terms of our customer engagements, fund raising, and our internal processes.

Were your meetings and panels beneficial? What are two or three key items that you have kept with you after going through the meetings and panels?  Always start with the problem statement and value proposition, no matter the audience.  2.  Cover the big-picture value proposition in a way that a non-subject matter expert can understand.  3.  Never lose site of the go-to-market plan and hone it as the company grows.  4.  All investors are asking the same key questions, so address them early and often.

How did your presentation change from start to finish?We went from a 30-45 minute pitch to a 10 minute, high level summary.  It is much easier to go longer when you have the key areas covered in the initial 10 minutes.

Stay tuned for Part II.