On the 15th of January 2020, we will run our first Startup Race.
If you know me, you’ll have heard me talk about how a Startup Race rewards the right behaviour in Entrepreneurs – Entrepreneurs selling stuff and making money rather than excelling at writing works of fiction or telling Jackanory stories.
At a recent Monday Motivation Meetup, Mike Davis of my Probate Partner challenged me to run a simple Startup Race with a £1,000 prize in order to find out once and for all whether our method would work. Fortunately Fraser Morrison of 1,000 Steps was also there and he said “James, I’ll donate £300 to the £1,000 prize. If you match me, then all you need to do is raise another £400.”
I said “OK guys, I’ll do it.”
After getting the approval of my team, I announced this at the League of Entrepreneurs Meetup ‘Get Up an Pitch’ section on the 5th November 2019. After I finished, James Varga who was our host and guest speaker asked me “So all you need to do is raise another £400 and you have the £1,000 prize pot?”
After I said yes, James Varga then said to the thirty or so Entrepreneurs and Investors in the room “If everyone of you here gives James a Tenner, I’ll make up the difference.”
WOW!
I felt very moved when people started nodding their heads and saying yes. and then we moved onto hearing a few other Entrepreneurs tell us about their businesses. At the end of this, Joe Trodden spoke up and said to the room “Guys, please consider giving James a Tenner or something towards that fund because he works bloody hard to put this stuff on and it’s not for himself, it’s for the Entrepreneurs so even if you want to put it online, we’ll be able to contribute later; but I’ll donate £50.”
Somebody jokingly asked if I had a hat and I said yes. The next thing I know people were putting £10 and £20 pound notes in it and soon they had contributed £145 towards the £1,000 Prize Pot!
One of my friends, later texted me to say “I’ll put £100 into your pot if your still looking for people to contribute.” I immediately texted him back saying “Wow that’s so awesome, thanks so much. My first action for tomorrow morning is to create a Stripe link for contributions.”
So I have done it.
If you didn’t have any cash last night or you weren’t event at the event, you can still help us raise the remaining £150 to achieve the £1,000 Prize Pot via one of the buttons below 🙂
If you help us to raise more than £1,000, then we will award this money to the runner ups i.e. £500 second prize, £250 third prize. Our Startup Race Competition will end with an award ceremony on Tuesday 31st March 2020.
We will also create a Supporters Hall of Fame to recognise those people who believed in my dream that there was a better way to motivate Entrepreneurs and encourage them to sell things…
Here’s a recording of my announcement.