Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2017

In my activities as an angel investor, and my work with new ventures seeking investment, I find the “due diligence” stage to be fraught with the most risk. Usually this stage only really starts after an investor has expressed serious interest, or already informally agreed to invest. Update reference customers, partners, and vendors.

Invest 59

Invest Startup Doc Slides 59

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Let me show you a demo rather than a business plan.” Demos never go according to plan, and ones that work go on far too long.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I’m comfortable with introductions and then getting into the demo.&#. I believe in this so much that, despite my post advising you to be prepared for the *norm* in VC, I wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. Just jump into the demo after intros.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

There is one source that was always problematic for me – intros from investment bankers. This is no criticism of the investment banking industry (although I’m sure some will read it this way) for which there are very useful purposes. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. It’s a Demo Day thing.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

socalTECH

JUNE 2, 2010

launched earlier this year at DEMO. You go on to our site, create a project telling the world what you need, and what increments you're willing to accept it in, and what you're willing to give back for those increments, and you customize your project with your own branding and everything. What is the idea behind Invested.in?

Sites 237

Sites Startup Invest SoCalTech 237

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. This is no criticism of the investment banking industry (although I’m sure some will read it this way) for which there are very useful purposes. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. It’s a Demo Day thing.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Some readers have commented that in today’s world you shouldn’t even need a PowerPoint presentation – in this era you should always just demo your product. I also recently wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. Who are your key customers?

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

As an aspiring entrepreneur, one of the most important things you need is a memorable “ elevator pitch ,” to communicate your startup value proposition and leave a great first impression on friends, investors, employees, and future customers. Customers think about alternatives, and investors worry about competitors.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

We just had the demo day for our third batch of companies. I do think the way we work with companies is a little different from other programs, in that we view it much more like the wasyI personally think about investing and venture capital. It''s not a three month program, demo day, and folks move out or move on.

Incubator 187

Incubator Southern California Startup Ideas 187

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Packaging, pricing & discounts – In the early days of my first company we always had “list prices&# we quoted to customers and of course we were always willing to negotiate based on who the client was, how important the business was to us, who the competition was and how well the deal was negotiated.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Email readers, continue here…] Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally-generated funds. Strategic partner” investors: If you can find a strategic partner willing to invest in your enterprise, consider it a blessing.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 16, 2018

Maybe it’s time for some… Bulletproof Coffee, Modafinil, nootropics, microdoses of acid, caffeine from coffee, caffeine from bracelets , aromatherapy, noise-canceling headphones, meditation, custom co-working spaces, or productivity apps? What we seek is that elusive, perfect focus or flow state.

Research 242

Research Los Angeles Entertainment Product 242

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Let me show you a demo rather than a business plan.” Demos never go according to plan, and ones that work go on far too long.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2019

We invest both capital and an enormous amount of time and mentorship to help companies build the best businesses, as rapidly as possible. October 16th is our Demo Day, when they will share what they do, what they've accomplished, and the beginning of the next chapter for their companies. Mattt Kozlov: Yes, it's a three month format.

Southern California 124

Southern California Startup Entrepreneur Los Angeles 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Let me show you a demo rather than a business plan.” Demos never go according to plan, and ones that work go on far too long.

Entrepreneur 119

Entrepreneur Technical Review Statistics Startup 119

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There are too many deals to look at, too many seed funds or angels asking you to look at deals and weekly “demo days” with manicured and monocultural presentations crafted by experienced story tellers to help even the mundane idea sound like it will. I still plan to keep more normal pace of investment which is 1-2 deals per year.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 12, 2014

to hear about how the program is both helping the studio tap into the energy and ideas of the startup community, as well as helping those startups find new customers in the media and entertainment business. This is our second class, and it culminates in this Demo Day we just had. What''s your big goal for the program?

Startup 159

Startup Technology Hollywood Media 159

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 7, 2013

The Numbers - Most Accelerators offer participating startups a modest capital investment in exchange for a 5% to 10% equity interest. End Game - Some Accelerators spend significant time helping startups hone their pitch for a blow-out Demo Day. However, avoid any Accelerator that charges startups a fee to participate.

Incubator 238

Incubator Startup News Entrepreneur 238

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2018

If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Let me show you a demo rather than a business plan.” Demos never go according to plan, and ones that work go on far too long.

Funding 62

Funding Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 62

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

The Startup UCLA Accelerator Is About Entrepreneurship Not Investment Returns. Next → Later today, the Startup UCLA accelerator will have its inaugural demo day. Most have been involved in some capacity along the way with Startup UCLA, and all will be represented during the demo day. Post navigation. ← Previous.

UCLA 47

UCLA Invest Startup Class 47

socalTECH

APRIL 2, 2018

As part of our sponsor relationship with the conference, we're running a series of interviews with speakers from the conference about their experience in the area of recurring revenue, customer service, and similar topics. We have an incredibly passionate and dedicated team, and they are great advocates for the customer.

SaaS 100

SaaS Conference Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

You can always tell during this discussion whether the entrepreneur has logged into their products, talked to their customers, read all the news stories and gotten all of the back channel info on the competition. I once had a startup team pitch me for an investment where the President of the company led the first call with me on his own.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire Sales 286

socalTECH

MARCH 30, 2018

As part of our sponsor relationship with the conference, we're running a series of interviews with speakers from the conference about their experience in the area of recurring revenue, customer service, and similar topics. We have an incredibly passionate and dedicated team, and they are great advocates for the customer.

SaaS 100

SaaS Conference Customer Custom 100

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Apparently with a physical storefront where it can convince customers of the wonders of on-demand mobility. There will be demos, tutorials, and presentations on how to be safe.” “Lime would have an opportunity to control the narrative, engage with the local community, and invest in Santa Monica.

Santa Monica 221

Santa Monica Startup Technical Review Education 221

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yes, the investor may literally have said to you: "That is something I'd seriously think about investing in when you have your product built." Investors Really Want Evidence of Traction So you built your MVP; you bring it to the investor; you demo it; and I will guarantee they will ask you: "So how many users do you have?

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. The first attention we started getting was after we launched the company publicly at Demo on September 25th of this year. After Office 2.0

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

InfoChachkie

MARCH 16, 2015

Dreamforce was particularly important to Invoca because it has invested its precious development resources to build and support an app for the Salesforce App Exchange , which enables marketers and sales professionals to track and measure the value of their inbound calls. Sexy Slogan + Interactive Demo. OK – so what. you get the idea.

Conference 100

Conference SaaS Ideas Sales 100

socalTECH

MAY 23, 2017

Our interview this morning is with Jonathan Zweig , the CEO of Los Angeles-based AppOnboard (www.apponboard.com), which has created software which allows mobile app developers--and in particular, mobile game developers--to create demos of those games which can be played without having to download and install those apps. That's number two.

Startup 113

Startup Southern California UCLA Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Tech.Co

APRIL 24, 2018

Being one small company amongst the sea of thousands of startups vying for customers, capital, and talent, the way to get noticed above the crowd, connect with that next big partner, and raise some capital is to throw your hat in the ring to compete at Startup of the Year.

Startup 70

Startup Competition Google Capital 70

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

In his role at WBR, he helps to steer the leadership into promising technology investments and partnerships. Greg has led Series A investments in tech-based enterprises. Want to Demo Your Startup or Sponsor? Custom partnerships. That brings us to Greg Mertz, Lead Advisor for Technology Initiatives at Warner Bros.

Entertainment 40

Entertainment Media Pricing Invest 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. I think it works well for startups because in startups there are inherently less rules and with customers there is less clarity about your product category. In Summary.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2012

Many VC firms and investment banks receive as many as ten plans per day, so it’s hard to get them salivating. Remember, investors invest in people before ideas. Don’t say things about your competitors or customers that you wouldn’t be able to defend if they were in the room with you. Prototypes and demos attached.

Summary 97

Summary Technical Review .Net Ideas 97

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 8, 2014

This is the killer feature for the giant YouTuber base invested in sub-$2,000 cameras, of which most lack HD-SDI required from previous TriCaster models. The Demo unit we were shown included a battery-powered external HDMI monitor and USB wireless mouse & keyboard, allowing for a full TriCaster setup with only one power plug!

Screening 103

Screening Entertainment Content Platform 103

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

4 times / 100 means if a customer uses your app frequently (say 10-20 times / day) then they are crashing nearly every day. Customer Acquisition. At the highest level you’ll obviously want to track how many customers your adding every month (and for some businesses that have hit scale this is measured on a daily basis).

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346