Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2015

If an entrepreneur can’t build a culture of excitement and commitment at a startup, the chances of long-term success are negligible. As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked what you can do to build the right culture. Written mission statements and a passionate quarterly pitch to the team is not enough.

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Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2016

A common request I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is for an assessment of their latest idea. Yet I believe that business success is more a function of the person than the idea or the plan, so the best idea is one that is a best fit for you, and only you can assess that. I can assess execution plans, if you have any.

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Entrepreneur Tips Ideas Satisfaction 62

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

However, most often, these funds are solicited by a well-meaning entrepreneur from investors who are not qualified as accredited investors under the law (currently requiring a proved income of $200,000 a year or $1 million in net worth for an individual investor). Dave’s book and ebook on raising money available on Amazon.com.

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Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

InfoChachkie

MAY 12, 2016

If you are in college, advise a High School entrepreneur club. If you are a seasoned executive, work with a team of aspiring entrepreneurs. Refine Your Personal Pitch. You can easily avoid awkward pauses by weaving your Personal Pitch into your networking conversations. Richard Marcinko , Author.

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Company Companies Startup Mentor 80

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

A common request I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is for an assessment of their latest idea. Yet I believe that business success is more a function of the person than the idea or the plan, so the best idea is one that is a best fit for you, and only you can assess that. I can assess execution plans, if you have any.

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Ideas Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 78

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Main Street Venture Fund LLC, an angel fund of about 25 private investors, was formed by Ruffolo Benson LLC in northeast Indiana with the intention of bringing together area entrepreneurs and private investors to create economic value for the region. I will share several of our group’s insights from the past two years. Business wisdom.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

Every entrepreneur wants to hear “yes” during the fund-raising process but I would argue that being too risk averse and not pushing hard enough and be willing to hear a “no” is what holds back many people from “yes.” Possibly offend and entrepreneur leading to reputation risk amongst other entrepreneurs.

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Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. They know her personally and know she cares about her constituencies even if she has to make tough trade-offs from time-to-time. And Coach Campbell.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Entrepreneur : “Sure. Some people find this elitist?—?I

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Mike Napoli: Actually, we are seeing entrepreneurs. Mike Napoli: I think it was the entrepreneur. But, the entrepreneur really understood the space, had extreme passion, and understood the challenge he was going to undertake. We've heard some entrepreneurs who have had some difficulty figuring out how to work with angels.

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Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

A common request I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is for an assessment of their latest idea. Yet I believe that business success is more a function of the person than the idea or the plan, so the best idea is one that is a best fit for you, and only you can assess that. I can assess execution plans, if you have any.

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Ideas Satisfaction Entrepreneur Activity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2017

This may seem intuitively obvious, but as an angel investor, I have heard hundreds of new business pitches that focus heavily on the product, but don’t tell the rest of the story. She speaks from years of experience coaching entrepreneurs and executives on the magic of a story. Temper your emotion with data.

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Social Media Coach Invest Media 58

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2015

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive.

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Product Mentor Startup Technical Review 99

Jason Nazar

APRIL 2, 2016

The following checklist is my comprehensive criteria for how to grade entrepreneurs. I, like many entrepreneurs, never followed directions that well. Balance “Coaching and Cheerleading” vs. “Doing and Directing” (via Bob Walters ). Have mastered the investor pitch process. Know when to set unrealistic goals. Sales / BD.

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Entrepreneur Tips Organization Sales 46

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

I feel like I know him better personally since he's always in the chat room during the show asking questions). The Exchange Fund – This allows the entrepreneurs to diversify their founders stock into other portfolio companies stock. These speakers help coach CEO’s on important executive decisions. What is ideal board structure?

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Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Technically, he filled ten roles, as he pitched left handed when facing right-handed batters and right handed with lefties at the plate. Entrepreneurs should likewise endeavor to maximize their utility by playing as many positions on their startup team as they can effectively master. free weekly Infochachkie articles! Availability.

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Startup Coach Sales Entrepreneur 222

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. We decided we would only take our accelerator to the next level if we found the perfect person to run it.

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Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

We also want to create more capital for women entrepreneurs to increase the chances of being funded and connected to a bigger network. Entrepreneurs are everywhere and capital isn’t. At the same time, I am committed to creating more capital for women entrepreneurs because they tend to not have easy access to capital and other people.

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socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

I thought it would be awesome to have a marketplace to donate your stuff, which you no longer wanted, had no personal value, but others would appreciate. Jonathan Lehmann: I was awarded the Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at UCLA, after getting amazing coaching from Matt Ridenour in our business plan development class.

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LATechDigest

MAY 22, 2016

After a prolonged divorce from her husband and business partner, Kashani has since gone on to work with 4000+ Entrepreneurs and 650+ startups, and is an advisor to Bixel Exchange, as well as an International Speaker with US State Department. It spawned from my personal story. What was the impetus for the creation of CoAccel?

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Coach Startup Tool Entrepreneur 76

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 28, 2010

They wanted to be able to say to their senior person (who had hired Accenture in the first place) that they had been good corporate citizens but they had no real intention of actually helping me with me work. I come from a world that if the coach wasn’t yelling at you, it meant he didn’t care. He had a family. Me: “LOL.

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Startup Framework Slides Coach 378

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

For this morning's interview, we thought we'd try something different, and put together a virtual panel of venture capitalists to give us a few tips on pitching your company. Let's start, and why don't you tell us what you are looking for in a pitch? What I'm looking for in companies when pitching, is, first and foremost--the founders.

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Tech Coast Angels Ideas Entrepreneur Invest 100

Tech Coast Venture Network

MARCH 9, 2011

Investors and entrepreneurs who won at the fundraising game during and after the Great Recession offer advice on landing equity money. To help you get a jump-start with fundraising, I’ve gathered tips from active early-stage investors and entrepreneurs who managed to beat the odds by raising capital during and after the Great Recession.

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Tips Capital Tech Coast Angels Screening 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

This only works if you’re not a crocodile sales person. The mistake many startup people make is they hire a “sales person&# to go out and talk with customers so they can do what they’re good at which is building product or “running the company.&# Sales people are a different breed, you say.

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Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. Keeping a blog has been great because so many entrepreneurs have written me with questions about their companies and I’ve gotten to know many of you personally through the process. I pitched Gus twice and he told me no both times.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

Having been on both sides of this sensitive topic, the following is my personal advice. I have seen some entrepreneurs go into first meetings willing to share almost anything about their company. I’ve seen this back fire on entrepreneurs who say things like, “Well, we’re not talking financials with investors yet.”.

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Technical Review Venture Capital Customer Custom 316

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Richard White, author of The Entrepreneur’s Manual , surveyed a number of venture capitalists, asking them to identify the characteristics of successful, serial entrepreneurs. In fact, several of the venture capitalists pointed out that successful entrepreneurs often have to be encouraged to spend more aggressively.

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Startup Pricing Entrepreneur Email 221

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 28, 2012

From LA Demo Day to Silicon Beach Fest to Crowdstart LA to hackathons to Startup Weekends, companies and entrepreneurs alike have joined forces to feed the startup ecosystem. I pitched an idea that was voted in the top 12 but couldn’t form a complete team. It also pains me to think that this person was there because of my invitation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2017

Others schedule long and exhaustive practice and coaching sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone tells the most positive and consistent story. Most founders consider the story already told and the deal pending, so they aren’t sure what more then can do.

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InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Do you have any advice for emerging entrepreneurs regarding how they can be frugal without compromising their company’s value prop? Bootstrapping requires that the entrepreneur go out and talk to their users or clients. Users who will not trade personal info will remain unwilling. We subscribe to the same philosophy.”.

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Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 30, 2014

But when entrepreneurs experience failure, whether it’s their first encounter with it or an especially spectacular failure, it can be a major blow financially as well as emotionally. While you’re at it, seek out advice and coaching from experts in all of the areas where you and/or your plan were deficient before starting over.

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Startup Coach Funding Course 95

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2010

By Ernst Gemassmer Some entrepreneurs are so caught up in their dream that they jump immediately into implementation, with no focus on strategy and tactics first. Thus, your initial dream gets turned into your personal vision. Tags: tactics strategy entrepreneur vision startup dream business.

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Technical Review Summary Entrepreneur Coach 91

Eric Greenspan

DECEMBER 5, 2009

Lisa is an a skilled public speaking coach. We will collaborate on ideas and projects and we created the Superfriends together, a group of local entrepreneurs that will gather to share ideas and help each other grow personally and professionally. About a month ago, I met @lewishowes at the Perfect Pitch conference in LA.

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Social Network Networking Yahoo Social Media 180

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Yet a critical mistake I see many entrepreneurs make is that they hand over too much control to their third-parties. And a key point is that when it comes down to “negotiations&# you need to turn up your personal heat and dial back the middle man. I want to judge their reaction in person and be able to react on the fly.

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I feel too many people are discouraging, and as a result, too many entrepreneurs are discouraged and give up. Sometimes we draft business plans and coach the entrepreneurs on their pitch, and sometimes we even help develop a business model. Many entrepreneurs have an idea but don’t know how to monetize it.

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Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Eric Greenspan

DECEMBER 5, 2009

Lisa is a skilled public speaking coach. We created Superfriends, a group of local entrepreneurs that will gather to share ideas and help each other grow personally and professionally. About a month ago, I met @lewishowes at the Perfect Pitch conference in LA. I’m honored. We will collaborate on ideas and projects.

Social Network 196

Social Network Networking Social Media Yahoo 196

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. I hate losing. I don’t want to lose next time.

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Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333