In five minutes, we wanted to show how we changed the app, explain why we did it, and what the results were to basically pitch the value of turning small business SaaS apps into networks. There really aren’t any other apps in the small biz sector doing the same thing yet (as far as I know), or at least to this extent, and so we think it’s an idea worth spreading.

We never talk about our numbers at FreshBooks, and for us, showing our actual activity and growth in that video was a big deal. I don’t think we communicated the shear awesomeness of that growth curve compared to our sector’s general baseline. That’s something I have to think hard about improving next time we do this pitch.

Thanks for your work Adil!

Concerning trying things out at DemoCamp – absolutely, and I hope my comments haven’t made anyone feel unwelcome to future DemoCamps. I’m not a professional critic by any stretch of the imagination: I’m just some guy who happened to be there that night.

Getting on stage is pretty scary. For everyone. Professional actors included, no matter what anyone tells you. It’s even more scary for the people who don’t do it for a living, so maybe what my post was missing was a big sincere nod of appreciation to all presenters for having the balls to get up there, regardless of how their presentation went.

So, to all of you presenters: thank you for your work!

Sure you might feel down about not doing your best (which I did) but its natural and ideally encouraging to continually improve. That’s what we need more of in Toronto and to a greater extent, Canada.

So thanks again for the notes and to repay you the favor, if you’d like to try us at no charge, get in touch with me and we’ll go from there.

Fantastic writeup! And I hope @Adil is ok at taking criticism. I railed on him pretty hard over the weekend. He’s a good sport, and the rules are designed to be a framework/structure for good presentations. Not all demos/presentations fit really well.

I think the biggest thing that everyone should take away (both Anand and Mike McDerment alluded to this) people should not be afraid to try things out at DemoCamp. Mike has presented 4 times, his first presentation was a home run, second one of the worst strikeouts on record, three and four gigantic imnprovements to rockstar status. Kudos to Adil and everyone for getting up on stage and sharing.

Cheers,

-Mike

In regards to what you wrote about my presentation, I agree – it was not a demo, it was a talk. If you felt like you had to ‘crawl’ through it, then it was indeed weak! The reason why I didn’t demo was because of my mistaken interpretation that I was limited to ’2 slides’ and not ’2 slides + demo’. My fault entirely. As I said, it was my first time at DC or showcasing TT to a crowd like that, so it was a great learning lesson for me. I think we’ll be at DC Guelph in July where I’ll improve upon last night’s presentation now that I have a clearer understanding what to do and feedback from people like yourself to consider. I appreciate the help, even though it wasn’t necessarily intended to be that for me

Cheers and great job to the rest of those who Demo-ed.