The past weeks have been really crazy at eRepublik with the all team working round the clock not just on pre-launching our public version (more about that later) but also behind the scenes. One of the results is that I simply haven’t had the time to update the blog on stuff that has happened. On a nice train ride now so not good for vblogging (probably the one thing that is more annoying on a train than having the person next to you talking on the phone…) but I can at least type a few words.

 

First of all we were really thrilled to be recently selected by Mike from TechCrunch UK and Ryan from Carsonified and FOWA for their European Start Up pitch competition. We were chosen with 5 other finalists who posted a 60s pitch online. In a previous blog post I go over the unusual circumstances of how I posted ours from my hospital bed.

 

We were thrilled to participate, especially because the panel of judges was exceptional, including: Jason Calacanis, Mike Butcher, Ryan Carson and Brent Hoberman. As soon as we found out that Brent was on the judging panel we contacted Ryan and offered to retire from the competition, luckily for us, Ryan solved that issue by removing Brent´s vote for our specific case. (Disclosure: Brent is a friend and angel investor in eRepublik).

 

Having to pitch in 60 seconds a company that you and your team have been working on non stop for the past 18 months in front of hundreds of people from the industry and a very smart group of judges is super nerve wracking. But it’s an experience I really recommend, the great training and exposure from participating as well as the questions and feedback we got from the judging panel have proven extremely useful. Of course winning the competition was also quite a nice feeling and didn’t hurt for all the stuff we are doing behind the scenes :o)

 

You can see the video here, you can use the timeline shortcut if you just want to see the eRepublik part.