Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2023

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from fellow investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Slides 147

Slides Funding Technical Review Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2020

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from fellow investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Startup 118

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 118

Berkonomics

JANUARY 21, 2021

And if you are making a one-to-one presentation, don’t start without a conversation about the other person’s knowledge of your space. Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response. Asking the important question creates a connection. How I ask the question.

Slides 156

Slides Startup Venture Capital Email 156

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) If you plan to set one up – no problem. come out of the gate strong and never let up) then you might get some attention.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. ” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Truecar 376

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. ” We talked about my influences as a younger person and what got me started in technology and entrepreneurship. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

We had a training session from somebody who put up the four-quadrant graph you see above. This is really important as extroverts like to have the answers presented to them up front. For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day. He started the call by telling me he had exciting news.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

We started with our financial statements. So I changed things up and became much happier with my results. 1. Set two strategic topics per board meeting and start with them – I bet most of you feel that you have pretty talented people around the table but you get stuck talking about the minutiae of your business.

Startup 331

Startup Slides Guide Writing 331

Berkonomics

JULY 3, 2014

If you are making a one-to-one presentation, don’t start without a conversation about the other person’s knowledge of your space. Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response. And you will not insult the industry experts by appearing to talk down to them.

Slides 201

Slides Startup Venture Capital Organization 201

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub.

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. Well obviously that’s meaningless if your startup idea sucks.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Custom 306

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Have minimums but a sliding scale. Sometimes it actually does.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

.&# It was my investment philosophy that observing teams’ performance over time was far more insightful than reacting to how good of a product demo they do, how good they present Powerpoint slides or how great tech blogs say they are. I felt the exact same way when I was an entrepreneur. Lines vs. Dots is all about people.

Entrepreneur 330

Entrepreneur Marketing Venture Capital Hulu 330

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Startup 64

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 64

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. My starting salary was $27,000. I can’t make this up. I have published many of these PR Tips before. ” F**k.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2015

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Slides 105

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

For what ever reason we’re wired to have amnesia during the run up and prescient memories of how we ‘knew it all along’ as soon as the slide begins. Once you understand both sides of the cycle you start to recognize signs of behavior during each phase. It’s when the game slows.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

But then Marc Andreessen weighed in – as did I and several others – and the media picked up on his comments. Entrepreneurs can still build big businesses on the outskirts.” So I tell entrepreneurs to either build businesses at the edge of the forrest OR focus on businesses that drive deflationary economics.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2013

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Angel 102

Angel Slides Funding Technical Review 102

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California. I recommend starting the meeting with a VERY brief introduction of your company, your background and why it’s relevant to the job you currently have.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2014

This probably seems obvious to military types, but I see entrepreneurs violating this rule all the time. They approach key potential investors way too early, trying to talk their way up the hill, with no supporting business plan, and before they have a support team around them. Don’t try to talk and demo your way up the hill.

Startup 107

Startup Venture Capital Slides Outsource 107

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2010

The reason is that conferences usually pack them up with speakers to maximize the number of high profile guests in attendance to sell more general admission tickets. Startup Matchmaking (Wed 5th Oct – Santa Monica) - The first event is tonight (Tues, Oct 5, 2010) at Wokcano in Santa Monica.

CalTech 222

CalTech Startup Santa Monica Venture Capital 222

The Quigley Report

MARCH 4, 2008

Early stage VCs typically say that the ebbs and flows of the stock market don't effect the valuations they pay in start up financings. So to some extent, entrepreneurs and VCs can comfortably ignore the chaos of currency fluctuations, interest rate changes and other macro finanicial shifts. That may be true.

Startup 40

Startup Slides Marketing Clearstone 40

Xconomy

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla made big headlines almost six years ago when he wrote a blog post called “Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms?” It’s been quite a ride since then. Read more » Reprints | Share: UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS.

Artificial Inteligence 98

Artificial Inteligence Slides Blogging Entrepreneur 98

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 28, 2010

I grew up in the US but lived in England for so long I can never remember from which country my slang comes. But then I started to see it happening internally. So we (and by we I mean “they&# ) at Accenture decided to come up with our own bull shit. Plus, everyone on Twitter egged me on and then some.

Startup 378

Startup Framework Slides Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Short summary of my posts: 1.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2011

This might be a VC meeting but also might just be a sales or biz dev meeting. It’s any meeting where you are in a small room and are being called on to present on some form of overhead slides. If you look at Diagram B you’ll see that the people you’re presenting to can look you in the eyes and glance up at the screen.

Tips 392

Tips Screening Slides Venture Capital 392

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

This seems like an obvious question but you need to be clear why you’re looking to raise in order to come up with an effective game plan and determine your best funding option. And when it comes to timing, wait until you’ve come up with a working prototype and developed your product before you seek external funding. Crowdfunding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. In that context, I offer you my latest collection of popular investor-to-entrepreneur terms and concepts. Could your startup be the next one? Sweat equity.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2022

This probably seems obvious to military types, but I see entrepreneurs violating this rule all the time. They approach key potential investors way too early, trying to talk their way up the hill, with no supporting business plan, and before they have a support team around them. Don’t try to talk and demo your way up the hill.

Slides 126

Slides Outsource Summary Conference 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2012

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Tips 97

Tips Slides Technical Review Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2011

Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point.

Slides 95

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 95

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Don’t blog about what you think would be “cool.&# I don’t think that most startup blogs should be about how to build a startup. The new stuff: How do I get started? The advantage of the hosted version is that it’s easier to get started. I was an entrepreneur. Now I’m a VC.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

The concept comes from a Stephen Covey book called “ First Things First ,&# which is a worthwhile book ( Wikipedia overview here ) but if you haven’t read his seminal book “ 7 Habits of Highly Effective People &# you should start with that. I did the outline of the 15 slides on the flight over (after a few beers).

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2012

This probably seems obvious to military types, but I see entrepreneurs violating this rule all the time. They approach key potential investors way too early, trying to talk their way up the hill, with no supporting business plan, and before they have a support team around them. Don’t try to talk and demo your way up the hill.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Slides Outsource Summary 94