Digital Talk is the easy to consume podcast for busy digital marketers. The series aims to keep you in the know with the latest digital news and trends. From what was originally a weekly digital news summary, host Lachlan Kirkwood, now delves into engaging discussions covering a myriad of emerging digital topics.
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Episode #15
I recently had the opportunity to participate in the Advance Queensland Young Starters Competition, where I was challenged to scale what was merely a concept of mine, into a real-world solution.
Whilst in its infancy, my venture, ClickThrough, is set to be a community-based platform where Digital Marketers can create a portfolio of the real ads they bring to life. Working in the digital industry, I’m constantly in envy of both designers and developers who have dedicated platforms to showcase portfolios of their work within a community of like-minded professionals. My vision for ClickThrough is to create a platform where Digital Marketers can openly showcase and share their beautiful work, similar to what Dribble or Behance is for design professionals.
Throughout the platforms design and development phase, ClickThrough exists as a current Facebook group were Digital Marketers are encouraged to share simple screenshots of the beautiful ad experiences they create or engage with.
I made the bold move to enter the Young Starters Competition with the intention to gain valuable experience in launching my own venture. The initiative was a 2 month competition that consisted of 4 rounds, each presenting the young cohort with unique challenges to nurture both their personal and business growth.
Round #1 saw us undertake a number of startup related tasks, in which we would receive points for completing. These challenges ranged from; creating a pitch deck, to developing a business model, designing brand collateral, and even creating social accounts for our businesses.
From here, round #2 challenged the top 30 startups to create a 3-5 minute pitch video explaining their business concept and development strategy. You can watch my pitch video below.
After making it through this round, I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to a weekend-long bootcamp, set to be round #3 of the competition.
Throughout round #3, the top 20 startups participated in two full days of startup workshops, mentor sessions, and pitching practice. On the Saturday, we had the opportunity to hear from industry professionals, including the likes of Sam Joyce, Christopher Drake, Peta Ellis, and Baden U’Ren. The second half of the day was followed by the opportunity to sharpen our pitching skills throughout an accelerated pitching masterclass. In a speed-dating style workshop, each of the 20 founders had just 3 minutes to present their pitch to a single mentor at a time. At the end of our pitch, we’d receive constructive feedback, before swiftly starting our same pitch to the next allocated mentor.
This process was strenuous, but extremely valuable. The feedback I received had helped me restructure my pitch into a much more engaging presentation.
After the Saturday, we had the overnight period to polish our pitches before returning to another day full of pitching, only this time we were actually being scored by the mentors.
After another two and a half hours of pitching, just 10 founders were selected to advance through to the final round on the Monday morning… and I was fortunate enough to one of the lucky few selected!
So here I was, in the final round of 2018 Young Starters Competition. Round #4 of the competition was set to be a live pitching event hosted at River City Labs. This time, we each had 3 minutes to pitch our venture to not only just a panel of judges, but also a real audience.
As nervous as I was, I was genuinely jubilant with the delivery of my presentation. I gave it my all, and I was proud of just that. You catch the first minute of my live pitch below.
At the end of the day, ClickThrough wasn’t selected as the winning startup of the competition, and to be honest, I was well and truly satisfied with my result.
At the end of the day, ClickThrough wasn’t selected as the winning startup of the competition, and to be honest, I was well and truly satisfied with my result. As cliche as it may sound, by this point, I was well and truly a winner already. I was rapt to not only make it through to the final round of the competition, but to also be walking away with the invaluable experience that I’d acquired throughout the whole competition.
All of the competing teams did an incredible job of presenting their pitches, each showcasing their passion for solving a problem within their fields of expertise. The overall competition winner was Tom Stolberg with his venture Make It Now, who was accompanied by the people’s choice winner, Micromelon Robotics.
The Young Starters competition was a truly unforgettable experience that has helped me understand the processes involved in developing a startup. I look forward to pursuing my vision for ClickThrough as I aim to change the very way in which Digital Marketers work.
If you’d like to stay up to date with the progress of this project, I’d recommend signing up to my mailing list, or simply connecting with me on LinkedIn. You can also view my final pitch deck from the competition here.
If you enjoyed this episode and would like to stay up to date with my latest content, hit the subscribe button below and jump on board my mailing list.
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About me:
I’m a twenty-two year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible.
Lachlan Kirkwood - Digital Marketing Specialist 