Yesterday, I learned that Pluckshot was awarded runner-up in BlackWeb2.0’s thePitch competition.  Needless to say I am proud of the accomplishment; especially since I’ve only been working on Pluckshot for about a month!  Receiving an honor like this, goes a long way towards validating our value proposition and gives that extra boost of encouragement to press forward even harder, towards our mission of dramatically enhancing the photo-viewing experience on Twitter (and eventually the web as a whole)

Here’s a little background for you: About three weeks ago, I received a direct message from a friend / mentor, informing me of the NewMEconference in Washington D.C.  They also mentioned a contest called “thePitch”, sponsored by BlackWeb2.0.  This contest was described as one in which various entrepreneurs submit 60 second pitches for their business ideas.  These ideas, however, couldn’t just be “ideas”, but actually be live, functioning products.  Three finalist would be selected to pitch their product, in person, to a panel of judges at the NewMEconference on May 5th. 

Needless to say, I was excited to have an opportunity to share Pluckshot with a greater audience and get real feedback from an experienced panel of experts on our pitch and our product as a whole. Over the next 2 weeks, I spent many nights and the next 2 weekends updating the site, trying to get it a little bit more polished.  As my grandmother would say, “We’re about to have company over, so we better get this house in order!”

I then sat down and started to work on “the pitch”.

Let me tell you something about getting this pitch together.  It was MUCH harder than I expected.  I know what my ultimate vision for Pluckshot is, but to communicate this in a compelling, 60 seconds pitch that would also be convincing and persuasive was not an easy task for me.  60 seconds?  Anyone who knows me, knows that I can tend to be long-winded, so the 60 second time limit was the first hurdle.  Next was the fact that I had to express the value with the words, but at the same time make sure that I still let the product demonstrate its value on its own.  Lastly … I kept messing up when trying to record it!  The blooper reel on this thing was reeeee-diculous.

Long story short, I submitted our pitch a couple of days before the deadline and then waited for the results.  Well, Sunday evening, I was about to go to bed, when I saw a tweet that announced the winners.  I clicked the link and saw

1. Wesley Michael, Mosion.me
2. Lisa Morales-Hellebo, ShopSuey
3. Jamal Williams, KidFit

Runners up that win the Microsoft Lifecam are:
4. Rodney, Pluckshot
5. Mandisa Turner Watkins, Bownce.com

All I could do was smile.  In my haste, I didn’t even include my name with the pitch.  Just the product name, Pluckshot.  They must have only been able to decipher my first name from the video haha!  I wasn’t even upset that we didn’t win the opportunity to pitch the idea live.  While, of course, I would have loved to do it, I was proud to have gone through the process and learn that other people see value in what I’m trying to do. 

I have to say, that this was one of the best experiences I could have gone through at this stage of developing the product.  Pluckshot was just an idea in my head a few months ago and now it is starting to become a reality.  I know there’s a long road ahead, but it wont stop me from taking a brief moment to reflect and acknowledge the progress that has been made thus far.