Day 8

Pitch perfect. It's not just the feel-good comedy that has popularized a cappella all over the country. It's also one of the first lessons that the Audrey Inc. team learned during our second visit to New York City. Our day in the city began with a visit to the startup accelerator Techstars, a mentorship-driven seed-stage accelerator program. There, we met KJ Singh, who is currently the Director of Techstars, NYC. One of the most important features of this program is advising companies on how to strategically pitch their idea to potential investors. Mr. Singh gave us the opportunity to watch videos from Techstars' "Investor Day," where we saw companies like Spoon University and Stefan's Head show off their stuff, and pitch their ideas to angel investors and venture capitalists in under 4 minutes. The entire Audrey team definitely walked away from this meeting with a better understanding of how to prepare for our pitch at the end of May. We stopped at Chipotle for lunch, and got our delicious burritos just before the line got a little too crazy! 

Next, we visited Quirky, a company that helps real people with develop their ideas into items for the marketplace. Their offices were just as "quirky" as the name suggests, and we all had a blast during our tour with Sarah Bain, Quirky Outreach Manager. We loved the collaborative, open space, and the fabulous features of their offices. After seeing inventions like Pivot Power and Wink Relay, the entire team was truly inspired. We were even invited back to see their product evaluation, where industry experts and community members debate the best ideas submitted to Quirky (streamed live every Thursday 7 PM ET at https://www.quirky.com/live). After a long, but exciting day, we headed back to Penn Station (through High Line Park of course!) as a more motivated and inspired team.