Daniel Cronin – the «5 Premium Speakers Questions»
Daniel Cronin is an entrepreneur, lecturer, moderator, keynote speaker and he is known as “The Pitch Professor”. This honorary title was awarded to him by the Vienna University of Technology, where he teaches as a lecturer. He is considered one of the leading experts and trainers for pitching in Europe with more than 250 trainings held for start-ups and large companies.
Daniel Cronin is a founding member of the mobile agency all about apps, a joint venture of i5invest and runtastic. He is also co-founder and board member of AustrianStartups (Austria’s largest startup platform and think tank for innovative entrepreneurship) and co-founder and partner of the Vienna Mentoring Group (viemeg.com), a mentoring programme for early-stage startups.
We talked to him about his audience, mission and future prospects.
Daniel Cronin in interview:
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
Startup, Innovation and the ability to allow big ideas and the bravery to communicate them aka pitching.
My mission is to support people in having big ideas and to create the skill to structure them and communicate them in a convincing way to make others believe in them.
We all have the crazy ideas but we have the misconception of only being able to talk about them once they are perfect. And that’s way too slow.
2. Which audience or which branch do you reach with your speech?
I cater a broad audience – anyone who has considered change, is facing challenging times or simply has that one idea he or she is holding back to talk about. In the last 10 years I have work with dozens of multinationals, SMEs and Startups and have been able to witness and understand this first hand. In short: anyone who has an idea and wants to make it work.
As moderator and MC/Host I started off in the startup and innovation field having hosted hundreds of startup-events … and adding the Austrian version of Dragons Den (2 Minutes 2 Million) to my portfolio. My clients are people who are looking for a curious and unconventional host with a good portion of humor happy both on and off-air. Over time I have developed my very own style of hosting panels and discussions which I call “Driven by Curiosity.” I feel happy to work with teleprompters and in-ears but am happiest if there is room for improvisation. About 60% of the events are in English, 40% are in German however 100% are native as I was raised bilingual.
3. Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
I am a premium speaker because I speak about things that I have personally experienced and shaped from various perspectives for over a decade. I am convinced that there is great potential within each of us that just needs simple tools and models to be unlocked. And that’s exactly what I provide.
I have given hundreds of pitch trainings, met thousands of brilliant minds, and have been the lead moderator for numerous events. I have also been an integral part of building a startup ecosystem, founded multiple companies myself, lecture at several universities, have advised CEOs and high-ranking politicians, have a leading tech podcast and always been driven by passion and fire because I deeply believe in my content.”
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
The future is determined by the decisions we make today. We can actively take part in forming a future and with it a reality to be that is built upon things we believe in. However the more distant the future is the more radical our actions have to be today. And we need to be careful to understand that future is not a linear thing determined by one or two factors but rather an incredibly dynamic and highly unpredictable space, constantly being influence and shaped by new and often unpredictable elements. I believe it is hard to look into the future as such but am more than confident to predict that our decision making cycles will be shorter and the level of uncertainty will only increase. This is neither good nor bad but rather something we need to begin being confident with and if we succeed we will be able to actively shape tomorrow based on the moonshots we express today.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
“There is only one person in the world that can stop you … and that’s you. Don’t stop – go and just go for it!”
As children, we have the wildest and craziest dreams and firmly believe that they will come true… and then over the years we gradually learn the opposite until we have completely forgotten how to openly talk about ideas and often don’t even allow ourselves to entertain ideas that are too big or wild. But who says that? We must have the confidence to talk about ideas again and understand that ideas are not finished and validated plans but just ideas. I have learned one thing in over a decade of being surrounded by the greatest entrepreneurs and visionaries: the greatest thinkers and doers are also the people who dare to speak about ideas as early as possible… that’s when the magic happens: they receive feedback – good and bad – and can then slowly turn an idea into reality and gather an incredible number of people around them who help them realize this idea. We often develop the belief that we can only speak about an idea when we know every detail and have solutions for every problem. But if that were the case, we would never have landed on the moon.
My audience will understand that in order to make change they have to start talking about what they believe in. And that the one with the idea is just as important as the one who believes in the person with the idea.