Does Your Startup Pass “The Summer Camp Test?”
As entrepreneurship has professionalized, jargon has proliferated, and platitudes pervade pitches. One helpful tool to combat this scourge of short-hand is:
🏕️ “The Summer Camp Test” ⛺️
Let me explain:
When presenting, entrepreneurs often say something like, “We’ve unlocked product/market fit and are ready to grow!” This may be true, but it’s a claim that could as easily be made by the proprietor of a summer camp or any other small business.
Even if accurate, almost every pitch that an investor hears starts that way. Companies looking to raise VC are presumed to have a product and a plan for growth that doesn’t look like a small business. Specific pitches stand out in a field of bland startup pitches.
For instance, an entrepreneur who can explain why the product can scale and win the market won’t have a hard time getting meetings — and Camp Emerson won’t be able to make a similar claim.
My advice to entrepreneurs is to scrub your deck with this heuristic in mind. Double check the 20 headlines in your slide deck and make sure none of them could plausibly be used in a small business loan application.
Step back and think about what makes a tech startup unique. It’s probably some combination of the following:
🤖 Technology
🚀 Velocity
💪 Leverage
🐘 Scale
💲 Margin
⚔ Defensibility
🏀 Team
These concepts should be the crux of your pitch.
Note: As a proud alum of Camp Emerson, I don’t mean this as a criticism of small business owners. Mom and pop shops are the lifeblood of many towns, including mine. But those types of companies would be damaged badly by raising venture capital.
Words matter. They reveal how you think about your business. Your choice of framing showcases your analytical skills. So choose them carefully. Remember to show that you’re a CEO, not a CiT.
Managing Partner Eric Paley recently shared this as a tweetstorm. We collected the tweets as a post for your convenience. Please share it with any entrepreneurs you know who want to earn a merit badge in entrepreneurship.
