InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As such, the primary goal of your executive summary is to open the door to an in-person meeting. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Examples include the Conscious Capitalism® movement, founded by John Mackey of Whole Foods, the B Team , founded by serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) form of business now available in 35 states. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

Education 151

Education Customer Custom Sales 151

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. Specifically, 1.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. If you work at a company that has raised $20 million in capital or more this is the likely situation unless you had overnight and meteoric growth that gave you the power to hold on to a board majority.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2014

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market-research data. Conduct your own customized market research. Modern libraries are still worth a visit.

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Statistics Research 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Capitalize on the multiplier moment. Marty Zwilling.

Customer 146

Customer Custom Startup Course 146

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Too much hesitation will kill any new venture, as markets move quickly and difficulties mount.

Startup 143

Startup Capital Resource Research 143

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

Examples include the Conscious Capitalism® movement, led by John Mackey of Whole Foods, the B Team , led by serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) form of business now available in 30 states. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

Capital 58

Capital Startup Education Customer 58

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2016

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market research data. Conduct your own customized market research. Modern libraries are still worth a visit.

Marketing 59

Marketing Startup Statistics Research 59

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2015

when a technology startup, its investors or the market believe in robust growth rates writ large. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __. __. faux·men·tum.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

On market segmentation I often recite my “ Elephants, Deer & Rabbits ” framework. On sales I often talk about “ Why Buy Anything, Why Buy Now, Why Buy Me ” as a tool to think about a sales process. On marketing I talk about “ Arming & Aiming ” 4. For example: 1.

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. In the case of Invoca we led both the seed round and the A round and didn’t wait for somebody else to come and provide more capital. Over the past 2.5

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. This is critical to build a cohesive venture capital firm. This is Sales 101. If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. These tolerate negative cash flows for growth.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Most public shells ready for sale are not listed on a national securities exchange, but are instead traded in a less glamorous setting, such as the OTC Bulletin Board. The reverse merger process itself doesn’t raise any capital. These looming constraints can turn your startup dream into a nightmare, all to increase funding.

Funding 104

Funding Summary Entrepreneur Acquisition 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

Examples include the Conscious Capitalism® movement, founded by John Mackey of Whole Foods, the B Team , founded by serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) form of business now available in 33 states. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

Startup 97

Startup Education Customer Custom 97

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Capitalize on the multiplier moment. Marty Zwilling.

Customer 124

Customer Custom Startup Course 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. For a well-funded A or B round company I have recommended “ leveling up ,” which entails many things but in summary I tell people to “act your stage.”

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Metrics Startup Sales 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2018

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Too much hesitation will kill any new venture, as markets move quickly and difficulties mount.

Startup 94

Startup Capital Resource Research 94

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2019

Most public shells ready for sale are not listed on a national securities exchange, but are instead traded in a less glamorous setting, such as the OTC Bulletin Board. The reverse merger process itself doesn’t raise any capital. These looming constraints can turn your startup dream into a nightmare, all to increase funding.

Summary 121

Summary Startup Entrepreneur Funding 121

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

Examples include the Conscious Capitalism® movement, led by John Mackey of Whole Foods, The B Team , led by serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) form of business now available in 14 states. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

Startup 117

Startup Education Customer Custom 117

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

SEO marketing vs. social marketing. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. And so is venture capital. Summary: Team Leadership skills, operating knowhow and industry knowledge are all tremendously important.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. I gave them advice I don’t think they were expecting from a VC, “Don’t raise venture capital for this business. This team is talented. They wanted advice.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

In the article it talks about Sequoia’s $19 billion sale of WhatsApp to Facebook that generated apparently $3 billion for Sequoia and its shareholders. Because VCs tend to “mark to market” for private investments so you would often value a company based on the last financing. We’ll see you in 5–10 years. Nobody knows.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Invest Funding Competition 264

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. It is on this last point where Amazon is best positioned to dominate markets. So Why Does This Matter?

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. What sized team can I afford in order to sell, market & provide service to these customers? But expanding beyond our core customers was going to take more effort than simply launching in new markets.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Or read the quick, informative summary below the image! What better than to have capital from somebody who has actually done it in the trenches? Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Here’s a summary of our interview.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. How big is the market? Bijan is right.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2016

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Too much hesitation will kill any new venture, as markets move quickly and difficulties mount.

Startup 68

Startup Capital Resource Entrepreneur 68

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Too much hesitation will kill any new venture, as markets move quickly and difficulties mount.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” ” If you don’t create the message about yourself, the market will. And if you want to be a CEO one day you need the messaging to reflect that.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. They are incredibly smart and a huge command of details of complex markets and systems. But it won’t play well in Peoria when you need to communicate with a broader market.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

InfoChachkie

JUNE 23, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : DataPop simplifies the lives of marketers and gives them the tools they need to build ads that people love to click on. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Jason’s responses. You guys did a lot of self-funding before you approached the venture capital community. It was a typical storyline.

Yahoo 210

Yahoo Startup Advertising Summary 210

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2013

If you are not computer literate in Microsoft Excel, your first task is to find someone who has the time and expertise to convert your base set of costs and revenues into projection formulas, cash flow summaries, and a profit and loss statement. Do your own, if you can, because you know the numbers. In fact, this is the easy part.

Startup 101

Startup Sample Summary Pricing 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Industry & market sizing. Start with the evolution of the overall industry, market segmentation, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Avoid any statements like “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.”

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113