It all began when she received e-mail encouraging her to apply
for Springboard. "I [did], and, in April, they notified me I
had made the first cut," recalls C.J. Scarlet, founder and
president of Insentric Systems in Raleigh, North Carolina. The
company acts as an intermediary to link insurance companies that
need to purchase products and services for their customers with
local companies that supply them.
Springboard is a series of nationwide forums that showcase
venture-capital-ready companies led by women. The first forum was
held in March 2000 in Silicon Valley. At last count, 22 of the 26
companies that presented there had secured investments, raising a
total of $210 million.
For Scarlet, the first stop was Washington, DC, to give a
presentation before a panel of professionals and investors who
evaluated her business plan, concept and presentation skills. In
May, Scarlet, 39, was notified that she'd been selected to
present to venture capitalists during the Springboard 2000
Mid-Atlantic forum.
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Scarlet flew to Washington, DC, with her CEO, Drew Turner, for a
boot camp on June 8. They met event sponsors, learned what was
expected of presenters, listened to a panel of venture capitalists
and female entrepreneurs, and attended a session where they drafted
a rough outline of her presentation.
Scarlet and her team then worked with volunteer coaches in
Raleigh, who critiqued and helped polish her presentation, before
heading back to DC for the input of panel members. This posed a
dilemma: "[The DC panel] told me to put it back the way it
was," says Scarlet, who tempered her frustration with humor.
"If you take yourself too seriously, you get stressed out, but
humor relaxes everyone."
Scarlet also called Robbie Hardy, a woman entrepreneur and angel
investor on the Raleigh panel, who said, "Go with what you
believe is the strongest presentation." Scarlet applied some
of the DC panel's suggestions to her presentation and prepared
justifications for the exclusion of others. The DC panel advised
only minor revisions.
On July 11, the forum's opening morning, the presenters did
a run-through. Afterward, Scarlet went to her hotel to rest, and
something strange happened.
"I bent down to pick up my shoes, and there was a purple
coin that looked like a Mardi Gras coin in one. The crown side was
up; the other side was the fool. I put it in my pocket and kept it
there all day," says Scarlet, who insists the doubloon
wasn't there before her nap. Regarding her presentation,
Scarlet says, "I've never been so nervous. When I started,
I didn't really see any of the people. The moment the first
word came out of my mouth, all that preparation just bubbled up.
From that second on, I was in control. I could see my CEO and vice
president of communications smiling and nodding. I saw other people
nodding as well.
"Springboard wasn't just about helping me create a
strong presentation-it was about honing my skills as the leader of
a company," says Scarlet. "It was validating to know that
other women who'd been there and done that saw my company's
potential." She's received about $100,000 from angel
investors so far.
Springboard echoed Scarlet's own philosophy-give a hand up,
not a handout.
Check out www.springboard2000.org for
information about future Springboard forums.
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