As we head into the final hours of the Entrepreneurs Festival after an exhausting but amazing week, we thought we’d share some thoughts from one of the great mentors who helped us out in the speed mentoring sessions on day 1&2 at RichMix. Chris Chapman, Managing Director of mybusinessFD which provides part-time FDs for growing companies, gives us his thoughts on the Entrepreneurs Festival and what it’s like hearing all those pitches in just 2 days…

Speed mentoring with Europe’s top start-ups… how could I refuse?

I was really looking forward to two days of numerous 12 minute slots of rapid fire listening and talking to some of Europe’s brightest young entrepreneurs, so I didn’t need much persuasion to get me to Rich Mix on Monday morning. I arrived ahead of time and there was a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the building. The mentors got a quick briefing, then divided into two large rooms and I grabbed a table which would be my base for the rest of the day. The doors opened to the entrepreneurs 5 minutes later and the room was soon a buzz of chatter as entrepreneurs swept through and took up positions with a mentor. There was that initial ‘so we’re here, what do we do now?’ for a few seconds, as none of us really knew how this would go, but that soon got left behind.

Lots of questions, lots of listening, a few names to pass on, snippets of feedback, businesses to look up, intro’s to make and swapping of cards, and not even enough time to fill in the score card. Oh well, that will be my homework later on. Because of the strictly enforced 12 minute deadline (who would ignore Jess shouting down the mic?!) pleasantries had to be brief and most conversations rapidly switched into the ‘so what do you guys do’. In this respect most of the entrepreneurs were pretty well prepared and able to quickly articulate what their business was all about, though personally I think the ones that come along with a screenshot, picture, live ipad demo, etc, were easier and quicker to grasp and made the 12 minutes more productive.

There was no let up and no pause between pitches; as one entrepreneur stood up at the 12 minute mark there was already another hovering a couple of feet behind ready to jump straight into the warm chair. It was certainly tiring and at times a little hard to focus with so much buzz and chatter from neighbouring tables in each direction, but I also found it exhilarating and inspiring. I counted 34 companies that I talked to across the two days, the quality was generally very high and you could feel the drive and ambition that these young entrepreneurs had. I’m not going to pick my favourites but many have been in touch since the sessions and I’m helping where I can or where I can introduce them to one of our team or contacts.

A few observations or trends; of the 34 companies I talked to, only 4 were not web-based or a smartphone app. There was no cleantech in the room or environmentally beneficial projects, no biotech, medical, life sciences, or hardware to speak of. I counted representatives from Spain, Gibraltar, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, as well as Kenya, Nigeria, Canada and the US. Another minority were those sitting in front of me without an ipad, whether or not they had their pitch or product to display on it, and those who weren’t seeking funding in some shape or form were rare. I guess that’s to be expected at this stage but I found a few at least that admitted to having picked a figure out of the air without any real financial planning.

Anyway, a huge thanks goes out to Jon and Jess and the many others for making it all happen on the day. It was indeed a little crazy, but hey, its startup land so isn’t it supposed to be? The main thing is that it happened and I think it was a roaring success. How much knowledge myself and the array of impressive mentors imparted is hard to gauge, but I will gladly do it again.

Finally I wish all those entrepreneurs that I spoke to, and those that I didn’t, a massive dose of good luck for all their future plans. Keep in touch – it’s you guys that are the inspiration!

Remember that you can keep up with Entrepreneurs Festival today by following #entfest, and tomorrow’s Silicon Valley Comes To The UK event with #svc2uk