Congratulations to Social Belly who have won the Disrupts Antipitch competition and will feature on the front cover of next month’s Disrupts magazine!
Social Belly, a new app connecting dinner party hosts with foodies looking for unique dining experiences, took on two other startups to win the prize.
Social Belly, Double (an app for finding other couples to double date with) and Comb (an app allowing users to find products for sale via keyword or photo search) were put in front of a panel of 4 industry experts and a live audience, where their business models were judged on concept, marketing, and financials.
Social Belly founder, Dimple Lalwani, stayed cool and collected throughout a series of difficult questions and was the audience favourite throughout.
“The feeling of listening to the audience cheer for Social Belly after each startup pitched was indescribable” said Dimple. “I heard people from the audience shouting, ‘we want to hear more,’ ‘go Dimple!’ I was thrilled to hear the judges’ feedback and announcement that Social Belly won the first ever anti-pitch event by Disrupts Magazine. I honestly believe in preparing for every event you pitch at. This is probably the 5th event I’ve pitched at in the past few months and it doesn’t really get any easier. It’s crucial to prepare and to anticipate the sort of questions you’re going to be asked, after all the event did say ‘interrogation.’ I believe this was part of our success that night.”
Andrei Croitor, of Disrupts said:
“One of the reasons for running ANTIPITCH is to give startups a chance to prove themselves under a little bit of pressure. We want to give strong founders the chance to show that not only their businesses, but they themselves are bulletproof. The show has an interest from a few investors and corporates, so it’s a good way to for the competitors to gain the right sort of attention. Obviously, we want them to succeed; we wouldn’t put anyone out who isn’t ready for it.
Dimple [Social Belly] rocked it because she did her homework, knew her figures, and had a solid plan. Rather than talking her way around issues with buzzwords, she was straight to the point. She humbly admitted to not being able to answer one small question, which I think worked in her favour as it showed her honesty and sincerity. Both of the the other competitors put up a good fight too, but in the end there can only be one winner.”
Congratulations Dimple and the Social Belly team!
Head on over to socialbelly.com to find out more and host and attend unique dinner parties.
