Comfy Cup was blessed to be a presenter at 1 Million Cups KC on March 21st.
1 Million Cups is a free program designed to educate, engage and connect entrepreneurs with their communities. happens every Wednesday at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center in Kansas City, MO and in 175 other cities across the nation.
Each week, at 1 Million Cups, two entrepreneurs present their startup companies to their community and learn how their community can support them. Each presentation lasts six-minutes followed by 24-minutes of Q&A from audience members and an expert panel of seasoned entrepreneurs.
We began attending 1 Million Cups KC as audience members at the beginning of the year. The great thing about this event is that you can live stream it on the 1 Million Cups app if you are not able to attend in person. Once we observed a few presentations and made some friends (aka "caffeinators" or people who regularly attend 1MC and can help newbies navigate the event), the idea of presenting Comfy Cup LLC to a room full of people wasn’t quite as intimidating.
We conveniently applied to be presenters on the website. According to the website, companies that are less than than five years old and open to community engagement can apply to present at 1MC. All industries welcome. Applications take less than 30 minutes. Once submitted, your application is reviewed and the community organizers get back to you with any follow-up questions, Then, you work together to schedule a presentation date. After submitting our application, we were notified by email a week or two later that we were selected to be presenters and offered several dates to choose from to present. In addition, one of the 1 Million Cups organizers was assigned to walk us through the process. He gave us guidance on what to include in our presentation and what to expect the day of the event. However, nothing could have prepared us for the outpouring of support, guidance, and encouragement we received before, during and after our !MC presentation. After one week, we are still working our way through the business cards and emails of potential opportunities for Comfy Cup.
You can hear our full presentation including the valuable tips from our Q&A here:
https://www.1millioncups.com/kansascity/presentations/comfy-cup-llc-18705
1 Million Cups has been the most successful and beneficial experience for the growth of our company. If you are a small business and looking for opportunities to connect with mentors, network in your community and scale your business, we highly recommend exploring 1 Million Cups.
