I've spent the last hour trying to bash out a blog post summing up my mixed thoughts about last night's Real Time Christmas Crunch event, but I can pretty much sum up my feelings in one sentence.
If someone is pitching, people need to shut the f**k up.
Seriously.
Pitching your business in front of your peers and potential investors/mentors is nerve racking as it is. To have to battle against a background babble from people who decided to start their own party early is downright wrong. The majority of the pitches later in the day suffered from a not insignificant number of people deciding that they would rather hold loud conversations at the back of the venue (and in one woman's case laugh hysterically) than watch the pitches that everyone else was there to watch. I'll admit, the new startups' pitches were a little dry, but as an entrepreneur I find this utterly rude and unacceptable. How would these people like it if I rocked up to their office tomorrow morning just they start an important meeting with a client, and begin to hold AN INCREDIBLY LOUD CONVERSATION in the corner of the room? Mike, you're too polite. The startups pitching there are pitching for their livelihood, and that should be held sacred.
It was a fantastically well organised event - just a huge shame that a few people made me come away questioning whether London really is sympathetic to Tech startups, or, indeed, common decency.
