SproutBox is a new type of investment firm. It’s in the same vein as Y Combinator, TechStars, DreamIt Ventures, etc. but it has its own twist. Like the others, SproutBox asks you to relocate to their headquarters (in this instance in Bloomington, IN) and then gives you just enough money to live for 3 - 6 months. The difference is, SproutBox uses its team of 10 coders, designers, and marketers to build or extend your product. For this, they take a bigger percentage of the company than the other new wave investment firms, but if you’re an idea stage company without a technical lead (like Pocket Tales was) it’s worth it. The alternative is putting together your own team of great coders and that’s just hard, risky, and costly in terms of equity (if you don’t have cash, what else are you going to pay them with?)

Pocket Tales was invited to finalist day to present to roughly 15 people on SproutBox’s advisory board which included investors and community leaders. We weren’t selected but we came away with a ton of confidence, a great new network, and some great memories, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the whole process.

1. The application is dynamite. It’s long and its grueling but if by the end you haven’t accidentally written your entire business plan you’ve filled it out wrong or you’ve cut corners.

2. Quality of presentation was one of many factors and wasn’t a deal maker or breaker. We were told by multiple people on the advisory committee we had one of if not the best presentation; however, that’s not saying much. Overall, I thought the presentations were very poor. Besides ours there was one other presentation that I thought was even good, and it was very very good (note: I did miss 2).

I point this out because I hope the presentations improve and “polite” compliments aren’t the path to improvement. While I think the advisory panel and SproutBox team made the effort to see past a lackluster presentation, it’s doubtful many other investors will. I want the entrepreneurs I met to succeed, for their own sake and for the sake of the startup community in Indiana. If SproutBox can make them better equipped to pitch their businesses, then that is a big win.

3. SproutBox is a startup too. That was something I kept in mind while preparing our presentation. You don’t pitch a startup the same way you pitch an established business.

4. Not choosing Pocket Tales was the right decision. The SproutBox team isn’t made up of career investors (ahem…venture capitalists) with their heads in the clouds or stodgy angel investors who don’t understand internet businesses. They’re entrepreneurs, and recent ones at that. They know what they’re looking for and they know what type of company they can bring value to and will likely have the most success with.

I think they could have succeeded with us. We would have found a way, but Pocket Tales really didn’t fit their model. Our path to success includes content licensing deals with book publishers and those may happen in three months, or they may not. If SproutBox choose us and they didn’t happen in time - well, the first Sprout looks like a failure (and remember, they’re a startup).

Even so, they gave us a very real chance to quell those fears. I might be wrong (and there’s a very good chance I might be wrong) but it seemed like one of the reasons their decision on a Sprout came later than expected was because they were talking to us and doing research on book licensing. The week following the presentation they called us and asked us to defend our ability to get licensing deals. We told them our “worst case scenario” plan and even though we were on the defensive, I felt like they wanted to be proven wrong. They really wanted us to convince them to choose us.

5. SproutBox is in the perfect position to connect developers with the business teams and ideas they don’t choose. With SproutBox interns coming and going and the same with startups like Pocket Tales who desperately need a quality technical lead, surely there’s a marriage to be made. A simple job board linked from the SproutBox website like the one Smaller Indiana has set up at www.indyjobboard.com, would require little to no work (and it could also help the Sprouts fill positions once they leave the Box)

6. Because of SproutBox I’d consider moving the company to Bloomington. This is especially true while Pocket Tales is in this first phase of development. It’d be the equivalent of working offsite for 3 - 6 months. It’d get our entire team away from any distractions. We’d also be close to a network of entrepreneurs and startups in the same position we are. I primarily mean the SproutBox team and the companies they’ve founded.

7. Finally, I think SproutBox is going to succeed with Proposable. It fits so well with what they’ve already developed and with what they know. Right now, I will say it doesn’t look like they’re swinging for the fences, but I’ll quickly discount my own comment. As long as they build a product people want and will pay for (which they will), they can find a way to make a home run out of it.

Hell, building something people want and will pay for is my first step too in changing the world.