We Won Our First Pitch Ever (After 6 Days of Chaos)
How we went from rebranding confusion to winning the Gamechanger Award, and now facing the ultimate question: fundraise or stay bootstrap?
I owe you an apology for the radio silence. We promised weekly updates, but we’ve been a little quieter than expected. Not because nothing has been happening, but because everything is.
Looking back on the past month and a half, I’m still processing how much has changed. It feels like we’ve turned a huge corner - everything we’ve been working toward is finally starting to click.
We rebranded from Bloomstory to uri - an AI-powered focus group platform, after refining our MVP based on real-world feedback.
We exhibited at Pion’s Youth Marketing Strategy event - UK’s largest youth marketing festival (with just 6 days’ notice and a demo)
uri won the Gamechanger Award, for having the most potential to transform youth marketing.
I’m moving to New York to bring uri out there, whilst Jason continues to build in London
Finding Our Identity
When we first started building our AI-powered focus group tool, we referred to it as Bloomstory. But Bloomstory was just the company name at the time. We weren’t fully sure of our direction yet, so we ended up testing several different ideas, pivoting along the way, and building out a few tools.
But three months ago, we doubled down on the product we believed in most. The one that could solve some of marketing’s biggest challenges and make the most impact.
Since March, we’ve focused all of our efforts on an AI-powered focus group tool. We’ve demoed our MVP, gathered feedback, and refined everything based on real user insights. After all that validation, we knew it was time to give our product a real identity as we continue to commit to this. That’s when uri came to life.
uri is our AI-powered focus group platform that simulates real-life audiences, helping brands test their communications, content, and campaigns.
Bloomstory still exists, but now it’s our consulting and workshop arm.
We didn’t stop at just a new name.
We spent time on the brand identity, carefully picking a name, font, and color scheme that made AI feel friendly and approachable but still professional.
uri reflects who we are and the impact we want to make: a human-first company that uses AI to help brands get closer to their audience.
Taking the Leap: The 6-Day Sprint
Just when we thought things were settling down, an opportunity popped up.
One Wednesday evening, Jason called me at 10pm.
“I just spoke with Alex from co:cubed, and he offered us an opportunity to pitch and exhibit uri at Pion’s Youth Marketing Strategy (YMS) conference. Do you want to do it?” asked Jason.
This conference was all about how to market to Gen Zs and attracted some of the biggest enterprise brands and businesses from TikTok, Superdrug to Marks and Spencers.
There was just one catch: we had only six days to prepare and I was flying to Croatia the very next morning for a friend’s hen do for four days.
We had no pitch deck, no marketing materials and a half built version of uri.
We said yes.
As a bootstrap company, this was a big investment for us. It was the first time we were putting money into getting our name out there. But we felt ready. We’d spent the last two months validating our idea, and we knew this could be the next step.
Our goals for the event were clear:
Further validate our idea by seeing if larger brands and enterprises were facing challenges that uri could solve.
Test our messaging — Could people easily understand what we do?
Use uri to test our own communications — We simulated the audience (CMOs, founders, marketers) to test our messaging, pitch deck, and even the design of our t-shirts and business cards!
With barely any time to spare, we dove in - with late nights and a whole lot of adrenaline.
The Conference: Putting Ourselves Out There
On the day, Jason and I proudly wore our first-ever uri t-shirts, with “Ask our AI focus groups anything” on the back.
If only you had seen how Jason and I were scrambling in the days leading up to it - from trying to find a 24-hour printing service to debugging uri at 10pm the night before.
We were cutting it close, but thankfully, everything came together, and we looked on brand.
I’ll never forget the moment when people started coming to our booth because of how clear our value proposition was: AI simulated focus groups that help you test your content, communications and campaigns before you launch.
Some were curious, some were skeptical, some were understanding AI-powered focus groups for the first time, and many loved it. The feedback from brands, agencies, media, and education professionals was overwhelming:
"Gen Z is impossible to reach."
"Focus groups are expensive and time-consuming."
"By the time we implement insights, the trends have already shifted."
That’s exactly why we built uri. It was incredibly rewarding to see uri solving the very challenges people were facing.
I especially loved being on the ground, engaging with people and hearing their questions firsthand. It gave us valuable insights into what people really wanted to know and how we could make uri even better.
We threw ourselves into the experience - always arriving early, staying late, and talking to as many people as possible. We were determined to make the most of it.
Building an AI startup isn’t just about the technology; it’s about being personable, building real human connections, and listening. That’s what we truly stand for.
Even though we’re an AI-driven company, we firmly believe that AI can never replace the human relationships that are essential for building something great. Those conversations, that human touch, are what help us grow and refine what we do.
Winning the Gamechanger Award
We went into the pitch with no expectations, just determined to do our best. But when they announced, “The Gamechanger Award for the solution with the biggest potential to transform youth marketing goes to... uri!” - Jason and I were over the moon, especially as this was our first ever pitch so it felt so validating and rewarding.
And what made it even more meaningful was that we actually used uri to test our pitch, our messaging, and even the design of our materials before the event. We were living proof that uri works.
To see it all come together and win an award was the perfect full-circle moment.
The Road Ahead: A Crossroads
It’s crazy to think that in just three months, we’ve gone from two non-technical founders, bootstrapped, with just an idea and conviction, and used AI to build the first MVP ourselves, that’s now attracting real-world commercial interest.
Since the conference, we’ve had incredible conversations with larger brands. They understand what we’re doing and are interested in using uri to understand their audience better.
But we are now at a crossroad. It’s got us asking the big questions
Do we fundraise to take uri to enterprise level?
Do we bringin a CTO to oversee ourr product development?
Do we stick with the plan and bootstrap?
Creating Our Own Luck
Looking back on the past month and a half, I’m reminded of how much can change when you keep putting yourself out there and say yes to the right opportunities.
I’ve always believed in creating your own luck - saying “yes” even when you’re not fully ready. And saying yes to YMS pushed us to move faster than we could’ve imagined. The time pressure was tough, but it helped us get to where we needed to be quicker.
Every late night, every pivot, every moment of doubt - it’s all been worth it.
We’ve continued to attend events (MADfest the following week), meet people, and learn as we go.
Talking to people from the conference and other events has shown us that uri can serve not just one industry, but many. Never underestimate the power of putting yourself out there.
What’s Next: A New Chapter
As we continue to build uri, there are some exciting changes ahead. Jason is relentlessly working to scale and build out uri, while I’m moving to New York for the next chapter of this journey.
If you’re in New York, please reach out - I’d love to meet up. I’m excited to bring my energy to a new city, continuing to build uri and make new connections along the way.
This feels like we’re just getting started. The stakes are higher, the conversations are bigger, and the possibilities are endless.
But through it all, we’re staying true to our mission: helping brands understand their audiences better so they can tell stories that truly connect.
Follow along, and let’s see where we can go from here.
Wishing you a brilliant rest of July 💚
Vanessa Hoh is the co-founder of uri and Bloomstory, where she writes on the Founder’s Corner column - focussing on the journey of building a business as a non-techie and the intersection of business, tech and creativity.
You can follow her on LinkedIn.
At uri, we help you understand your audiences better so you can get closer to them by simulating your real life audiences so you can test your comms, content and campaigns on AI-powered focus groups.
At Bloomstory, we offer training and consulting services to help businesses explore AI applications, build MVPs from scratch, overcome stalled AI adoption planning, and select the right AI tools for their needs.
If you’re interested - let’s have a chat.