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The Artful StartUp

Lately pitching has become a focus again.

A pitch is a pitch, whether going after VC funds or grant funds or just for the shear masochistic delight of it. Every pitch is an opportunity to gain clarity and focus.

Something has been missing from my story and I have been looking in the wrong direction for that missing piece.

I suspected that my lack of essential sales knowledge was holding me back from clarity in my pitch delivery. After all these years in tech, on the dork side of the road (happily), I have not filled my cup with sales and outbound marketing knowledge.

Sales is a money minting skillset in the right hands; the clever seller deftly crafts enticing narratives around anything that needs selling. A lack of swarthy sales maneuvering however, is not the missing component causing me to confuse rather than entrance the listener when I am in the pitch hot-seat.

The latest pitch day was crafted by an incredible leader, who has been a beacon through the quagmire of tech layoffs of 2023 (Wendy, you are incredible). This remarkable leader, a dynamic woman with an impressive C.V. created a startup group for ex-techs who are ready to leave the corporate bonds for good, or at least entrepreneurially-curious.

The mega-Slack channel for laid off tech expats has been a lifeline for myself and many in my world who were made “redundant.” What an awful thing to say about a human in the midst of losing their livelihood.

Back to the pitch.

Pitching to dynamic techies is always a fun challenge— I tell myself in order to keep my lunch down before I begin.

As usual, I framed my business around the scaffolding of market demand and the differentiator that I bring to the table with my offer. Snooze-fest. Yes, this is the right framing and yes, this is necessary to have a business. But how do you tell that same story when you ARE the business? Whoops.

This is vulnerable but worth sharing, my pitch to date has been a variation on what you will see in this video—

I like this clip because it made me laugh. I am pretty funny without meaning to be. I get a little lost at the end because of a tendency many of us have, that is to remove ourselves from our words. For me this is both a protective mechanism and an assumption that I have to deliver my message in a way that isn’t authentic to me.

I failed to realize, or fully internalize, what exactly I am doing with my techno-art-strategy of brand and community wrapped around products that bring fine art from walls to wearable creations.

This creative work I am doing by means of technology is transformational and new. The words are difficult to craft using the language of the landscape as it stands presently.

Value ≠ Money

To illuminate the issue for those outside of the world of fine art, as most readers are, I present some numbers for your digestion. The sources are linked for reference.

Despite the dismal outlook for artists, especially for women, society recognizes the intrinsic value of art.

And I will leave you with a quote from the cofounder and CEO of the coding school empire, Flatiron—

Action Items Ahoy!

Stay tuned for the new and much more personal pitch for TheTechMargin.

In the meantime, take a look at my streetwear line here, buy yourself and your loved one something nifty.

Be kind to yourself because you are where the change begins.

—Sonia

What, More Art?

This video is made with my AI in The Loop editing process which I outline in my YouTube livestream if you want to come along to the dork side and watch me create for an hour and a half.

For those who prefer brevity, enjoy the Short below, music and art my own, products in collaboration with artist, Christopher O’Connor. You can check out his work in the links below the video. All products available in my streetwear line here.

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