I just received this wonderful email from Luigi Fidelio, a participant in the November 2013 Startup School session that speaks for itself. Luigi is the co-founder of VMSme!, “…the fastest push-to-talk app that will revolutionize everyday communications through its three exclusive competitive advantages: the one-tap user experience, the messages to non-app-users and the speech-to-text preview.” (his value proposition developed during the first week of Startup School).
Startup School alumni will know the “Dear Sergio” exercise: write a short email that summarizes succinctly your value proposition and conclude with a call to action. The challenge is how to best articulate the value of your product/service that your business provides to customers.
Dear Charles,
If you loved the “let’s touch base” email, please now grab a chair, prepare a glass of water with mineral salts and vitamins, ’cause that is just a scrap in comparison with what I’m going to tell you!
So, here we go: thanks to the “Dear Sergio exercise”, now I am directly in touch with the former Senior Advisor of President Obama!!!
Yes, Charles, yes! I met her two years ago at my university, she gave a lecture about entrepreneurship, then I simply kept her business card and now no introduction, no intercession, just “Dear Sergio exercise” + moxie! I basically combined an 80% of the “Dear Sergio exercise” with a 20% of personal introduction… And that’s it!
We have exchanged more than ten emails in the last days! She liked our project, our video presentation, she reviewed our executive summary, she asked information about our monetization strategy. Then she provided us with the invitations (we saved 600$!!!) for the Plug & Play EXPO and asked me to give her my feedback about the event! We went there today, yesterday actually, and we received demonstrations of interest by three angel investors and a phone manufacturer and we’ve also been invited to have lunch with the CEO this Monday! I’m still awake because I’m sending so many emails to all those people!
The “Dear Sergio exercise” never drops the ball, Charles! You provided us with a very effective tool to introduce our project, and it really really works! 🙂
Thanks Charles! I hope to see you tomorrow at the School!
Luigi Fidelio
I won’t forget Luigi’s VMSme! presentation pitch. It begins with a one-tap phone demonstration as he brings a mobile phone to his face and saying, “Honey, I’m on my way!”
He is, indeed.
Charles Versaggi
Director, MtB Startup School