Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. Some dreams sound great, but may not yet be viable or proven with today’s technology. Present at trade shows and network with your ten-slide pitch to build your following.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In reality, they need a separate pitch about the business, carrying over only a slide or two about the solution. Partnerships, distribution channels and pricing models should be included. “If

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

I “second the message” that chaos never subsides, from a couple of successful entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, in their book “ Conquer the Chaos.” Once they see you have developed credible traction, they can grab your space with less cost (meaning lower price) than you had to put into developing it. Your income drops.

Startup 100

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

I’m still amazed at how many technical entrepreneurs don’t have a business pitch, and offer me their product pitch or product spec instead. Unfortunately, customers look for value in solving their problem, and new technologies alone scare them, so these solutions don’t get bought by customers, or funded. But it’s critical to have one.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. All of these are competitors in terms of speed, price, or luxury. competitive advantage entrepreneur investor startup' Marty Zwilling.

Competition 93

Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

Let’s start with the money slide: 10 years ago there was about the same money pouring into VC as found its way into startups but in the past two years 2.5 Leaving aside China, oil prices, Syrian refugees, a presidential election and all of the things that might feed into general market fear – this chart is telling.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Course Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Entrepreneurs who are looking to attract investors need to develop and pitch a plan -- preferably written -- that answers every potential investor question about your startup before it is asked. Just because your technology is exciting and potentially disruptive doesn’t mean you are ready to build a business.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

socalTECH

JUNE 16, 2010

My partner and I, Cliff Elion, have a patent pending neck technology, which enables the guitar to be made at a very accessible price point, and also have probably more functionality and connectivity than any device in history. Our technology allows you to not play a wrong note.

Orange County 244

Orange County Startup Slides Paramount 244

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Many firms do it in a way that can be more detrimental to entrepreneurs. VentureHacks laid out the debate in a truly awesome interview & PowerPoint slides if you really want an in-depth understanding of the issue. How this works: I try to set a price that feels like a fair balance between GRP and the company.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2010

I second the message from a couple of successful entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, in their book “ Conquer the Chaos ” that chaos never subsides. Once they see you have developed credible traction, they can grab your space with less cost (meaning lower price) than you had to put into developing it. Your income drops.

Startup 57

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 57

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

For 1991 I was very technical and also had a lot of practical business implementation experience in technology. I asked him if I could join his practice as the guy who could help him bridge technology & business. Send me in a corner to work on slides, graphs, spreadsheets and charts. I was a serial entrepreneur.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) If your valuation is already too high then seek approval to let them invest at a price lower than the current value. It’s OK to have the advisor slide where you glance quickly over the names. This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Note the full presentation deck with additional slides can be found on SlideShare here or you can simply scroll through it at the bottom of this post.]. From a technology perspective our journey is nowhere near over. Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.”

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

By that time, I had figured out the cadence of pricing for hotel rooms, and had been traveling back and forth between LA and San Francisco for three or four days each week. Plus, prices were starting at $180. Asher Hunt: Back in 2010, I was spending a lot of time at Coloft, which I think of as the Bauhaus of technology in LA.

Startup 100

Startup Los Angeles Mobile Pricing 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This involves a person who leads a PowerPoint presentation in which the presenter feels more comfortable racing through pre-practiced slides and rattling off charts & bullet points than having a discussion. The VC might have tried a few times to prompt a discussion and you didn’t take the queue but in stead reverted back to slides.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital Sales Slides Startup 275

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. Storm Clouds - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 12, 2010 We have enjoyed an amazing run in the web startup and investing space over the past five or six years. This should not deter you. This doesn’t make sense.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. That’s fine.

Startup 360

Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding. Short answer: no.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Fox bought MySpace for $580 million and then did a deal with Google worth more than the purchase price to serve up ads. MySpace would liked to have owned YouTube but didn’t have the public stock valuation to purchase them at the price that Google did. No prizes for guessing … there’s ALWAYS a second act in technology.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. It eventually closed at 11,204 in April ’10 before sliding back around 10,000 as I sit here and type. raise money now to weather any storms). And last quarter we now know grew at just 1.6%. Such is the case with advanced batteries.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc. First Principles. Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. -

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

My partnership was pretty bearish and scratched our heads a bit at price tags. I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. The following is a 2-week graph of the end-of-week price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in Autumn 2008.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305