Yesterday, we had our first cohort meeting for Startup.SC. The purpose of the meeting, as well will be the purpose of every subsequent meeting for the next two months, is to gauge progress and assure we are meeting benchmarks in our pitch presentation in November. While I am still comfortable with where Yumbev is, I am behind where it should be.
One of the biggest issues is where to start. As with any complicated machine, there are several levers that need to be pulled, while simultaneously watching a number of gears and gauges to see where the machine is heading. Compounding the progress is time constraints, though as any entrepreneur will tell you, is nothing more than an excuse. And, to a certain degree, this is true in my case.

Compounding the compounding of issues, I heard a spectacular podcast today called Startup, created by Alex Bloomburg, the produced of Planet Money and contributor to This American Life. In the podcast, Alex is documenting, via this new podcast, his decision to branch out into his own entrepreneurial venture and create a business producing, what else, podcasts.

If you have the opportunity, check out the podcast. Episode one is great because he lands the opportunity to meet with one of the most prolific angel investors in Silicon Valley, Chris Sacca ... and he subsequently bombs, in an epic manner, his pitch. Luckily, he is given amazing tips (which if you are readying yourself for a pitch is a must-listen) on how to improve.

The most profound part for me, however, was in the episode two, when he gets the redemption opportunity to meet with Chris Sacca's partner, Matt Mazzeo, and pitch his idea again. This time, Alex is prepared, and he has hyped his idea to such a grandiose idea that he himself is unsure about how he is going to pull it off. He is convinced that this idea, which he could not imagine being any bigger, would ever fly. At the end of the meeting, he is shocked by what Matt tells him.

His idea is not big enough.

And there it is. As I am crafting this idea for Yumbev to "do for craft beer what Starbucks did for coffee", as grand as that is, I am not convinced it is big enough. There has to be more to it than just brewing and selling beer. Granted, I want to change consumers' preference for beer on a grander scale ... but how?

Therein lies the challenge to consider and lose sleep over the next few days. More than likely, it will come to me, as most ideas do, over a pint of craft beer, then scribbled on a bar napkin and shoved into my pocket.

Anyway, The Startup podcast is such a good listen, I've embedded episode one for your convenience below.

Enjoy, and remember ... think BIG(GER)!