The Building That Will Change Your Life

This is the Alliance Center. This is the building that will change your life.

How

Can

That

Be?

There are 8 startups presenting their dreams to you on September 16th,2014 at Insight Night, during Denver Startup Week. Surely one of them will inspire you to build a stronger startup. Surely one of them will give you a

life changing message.

I will be bringing some bling or schwag for you. I'm Jana and I'm terrified to present. Not because I don't believe in my startup, but because the thought of speaking in front of a large audience, well even an empty room makes me squirm. Public speaking is not something I ever do. So here I am, terrified.

I asked myself what's to be afraid of? The answer, well nothing, they are not going to hurt me. Why is public speaking so frightening? Not sure.

Here is my speech in note cards

Here is my schwag I'm bringing for you. Not enough for everyone, but maybe it will inspire you if my 

presentation does not.

And some bookmarks, cause I know you like to read startup porn.

Traction A Must Have For Every Startup!

May Passdown make you all magical and sparkly

as

it

has done to so many already.

And cut me some slack

on my

Presentation

It's my first public presentation since

8th grade. Yep

That was a long time ago....

I won't be perfect. I may mix up the words

But your inspiration

is all I seek to

INSPIRE.

We build this gift for you ~

Traction and Schwag at Denver Insight Night

I'll be handing out a limited number of copies of the GREAT book TRACTION, By Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares after my presentation at Insight Night, during Denver Startup Week. My topic of course is: TRACTION Hopefully I will be able to inspire a few treps, if not, this book surely will.

So if you want a copy get there early. I will also be giving away Free Passdown T- shirts.
Now that's some smoking Schwag!

Denver Startup Week Rehersal

On September 16th, I will be presenting Passdown, during the Denver Startup Week. So here is my confession. I have not spoke in front of an audience since eighth grade. Gee, that's a long time.........ago

Of all the things a founder must do, public speaking is at the top of of my list of the most frightening things to do. Yet, this is one of the nineteen traction channels I have read about in my most favorite book of the moment. TRACTION by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares.

Traction is even a bigger problem than running out of money for your startup. One of the reasons I believe this to be true, is that many of the things founders must do to get traction, are extremly horrifying experiences, like public speaking. Most of us treps are introverts, or at least, we like the comfy little shell of just creating. We have no skills to tell the world about what we think is the greatest thing ever and that they need it. 

During tonight's rehearsal for the upcoming presentation, yeah, I went totally BLANK on lines I knew. I would be going along explaining Passdown, and then complete and utter darkness came over my mind and what I knew was an empty space of nothingness. Not good. You see this public speaking is like being an actor and you have to know your lines. Yet, I did know my lines, but where did they go? They alluded me to a room of emptiness. They left me standing there all alone. 

I hope that when I present Passdown at Insight Night, that I will be able to not freeze and have blank spots in my speech. I want so deeply for people to learn about Passdown. I suppose if I totally screw the presentation up, one can always go to the webside passdownapp.com and check it out. I still have yet to launch it,( launched! now live) as I have been working on this 'surprise' traction channel that fell into my lap. 

Pray for me, to not screw it up, and to NAIL IT. Because Passdown is for every connected person. It's free and it's super smoking awesome. When you understand it, I bet, you will get all magical and sparkly. That's what it seems to do, to people who get it. May you be magical and sparkly! 

Presenting Passdown At Denver Startup Week

I've been working my butt off creating 20 slides with 15 seconds in between them to present Passdown on Insight Night,during the upcoming Denver Startup Week. 

Somehow luck fell in my path. It was an email that I had almost overlooked as it was in my 'promotions' folder. That's the folder people want to sell you stuff in. Who looks at that as important?

My email system is to look at it daily, clear out the useless, respond to the needed,and be captured by those daring enough to take risk like I.

So there it was some man asking to know what my startup was and if it could inspire the world. I was so busy in the mind building my new startup Passdown that I didn't really read the email thoroughly. So I had thought he wanted to know what my company did. 

I shot off some fast typed email to him and told him exactly what Passdown was. And for some reason, I added the statement. "Hope I don't get picked" as I knew it was some kind of presentation to the public, but I really didn't give that much thought. I just knew, I haven't spoken in front of crowd since I was in eighth grade, and yes, my knees actually did knock. It was an unpleasant experience burned into my memory.

The next day Jared from Name.com wrote back and said "I hope you do get picked, I have not thought of this" 

I got picked. At moments I am terrified to speak in front of crowd. I have no experience doing it. But then that is what us founders face in the entire startup build. A founder has to wear so many hats, and yeah, some of those hats are really uncomfortable. 

Truly, I am excited to share with Denver StartUp Week, what seems to excite people immensely. My new startup Passdown. It is a baby startup, hardly two and half months old and this baby is making peoples eye's sparkle. It's making them act in ways I have never seen. When to me, it's just another idea I am chasing. With a ton of work to be done, risk to take, mistakes that feel like endless agony, problems to be solved, people to meet, triumphs followed by despair....yeah to me it's just another one of my crazy ideas. 

All my ideas have always had one thing in them for me. It's my gift I want to give humanity. Yes, I'm always wanting to help people, in some massive way. It just seems this is what one must do. I must do it. This sparkle in peoples eyes for Passdown, yes, it pleases me. Maybe Passdown is the ache inside me to build for you. Maybe it will be the one.

I don't know. I'm looking forward to finding out.