que pasa

This week I was busy preparing for to present our company's projects to a visiting Dutch delegation. They were on tour in China to get a feel of the country, the market, and visit some companies, and I was contacted to see if our company would like to present on Friday (yesterday).

They wanted to hear from a foreign investor's perspective what it was like to deal in China, things to look out for, lessons learnt and so on. They also were interested in companies pertaining to new media and so we offered to introduce 2 of our projects to them.

Jose did the investor perspective presentation and I would prepare the material for the project companies. Since one of the project CEO's was able to speak English well enough, we let him present one and I would present the other project. So it was back to slide churning again.

After you get your final deck of slides, then it's practicing your presentation. The way I saw it, this was an opportunity to get an early stage investment partner in for our projects. And it was also an opportunity to show our value-add as an investor to this project's CEO and to the visiting delegation. So I knew I had to be good.

And now that the seminar is over, I know that my pitch worked. You can feel it when you've connected with the audience, you can feel the high attention level. And you know it for sure when you get complimented repeatedly on an entertaining and really good presentation, applause and all that.

But I know also that the project itself is interesting, it's exploring a new frontier in China. That's why it had gotten people's attention, that's why they were expressing interest. We had dinner with a small group from the delegation last night and after that, 2 of them pulled Jose aside and expressed intent to invest in this project. So there'll be more work after this.

I am encouraged because these are indicators that we are doing something right. And that we are working well together for this project. The CEO does his thing to create and deliver a project that is meaningful and valuable in China, and that as the first and main investment partner, we seek, pitch and sell the project to potential investors, and do the negotiations. 

There is still a very long way to go, and no deal has been made yet. But gosh it feels good to have a sign that says you're headed in the right direction.