Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

You can make it 8–12 pages and the Title Page can say “YourCo Teaser Deck” or “YourCo Company Backgrounder”) so that it’s clear this isn’t your full pitch deck if you want. I would literally start the meeting with “I know you’ve seen our teaser deck but I’ve got a longer version where I’m going to share more insights with you here.”

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. I also see companies as they move from having taken $1-5 million from me to their next round where they raise $8-15 million from Series B investors and sometimes I lead at this round (we’re stage agnostic but 80% of our deals are seed & A).

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

Announce at the start of the meeting that you’d like the board meeting to be “electronics free” including mobile phones, laptops or tablets. You will encounter many sensible people who say versions of this: @msuster I quite often use my laptop to look up and quickly research and feedback things we are talking about in the meeting.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Financial projections.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

Managing Your Startup Board?—?A My talk was about “ managing your startup board ” and the full deck is on that SlideShare link and embedded below. I also wrote an entire series on the topic of Startup Boards if you want to do any more reading that link has several articles you can dig into. Below is just the highlight points.

Startup 234

Startup Slides Venture Capital Course 234

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. prominent industry luminaries to be closely associated with the company. It’s done partly in hopes of gaining their wisdom but it’s also done to portray the company in a positive light through association.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. Large companies can be strange sometimes. 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. Sometimes it actually does.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Financial projections.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

Huntington Beach-based AnyMeeting , which operates an online meeting service, has been acquired by another company, according to insiders and investors at the company. AnyMeeting offers up an online service which lets users run webinars, run online meetings, share screens and slides, and much more. READ MORE>>.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Keiretsu Slides Pasadena Angels 100

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

socalTECH

JUNE 12, 2014

In a demonstration of the power of targeting in a world of ubiquitous computing power, Santa Monica-based ad startup GumGum is powering a new advertising campaign which is able to target ads based on hair color shown in photos. GumGum offers up in-image photo advertising technology, which slides in ads in photographs and images.

Technology 147

Technology Slides Santa Monica Help 147

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Note: This is Part I in the Startup Advantages series. Startups have few advantages. A major disadvantage of a public Big Dumb Company (BDC), as well as one that works closely with governmental agencies, is the degree to which they are forced to publicly disclose otherwise confidential information.

Startup 216

Startup Slides Resource Organization 216

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

Many of them have their iPhones and laptops ready to command their attention the moment that you start sucking. Stories have starts, middles and ends. I They all start to blend together. Don’t confuse this with a tour-de-force education on the finer details of how your company operations. why does this matter?

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

He shared a number of witty entrepreneurial insights, including: "Startups are like high school. Note: I am an investor in Brian''s current startup via Rincon Venture Partners.). But the more I started to think about it, I said, well, why the hell not? and it was run by some college students up north (at) Stanford.

Startup 223

Startup Yahoo Santa Barbara Slides 223

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. First to market, for example, is not normally a sustainable advantage for startups. Startup team with experience and connections is this domain.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. Here are some ideas: In your company or other companies. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Startup 64

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 64

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

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. Can you just show up without one? Act I – The Discussion: You’re goal in starting the meeting is to establish rapport. They’re partially right. DO NOT drone on endlessly.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? This is going to be fairly specific to the company.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. ” In truth many companies had no idea why they actually needed Facebook Likes but there was still a pain point. ” It’s a reason a company would buy. This article initially appeared on Inc. Click here.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? This is going to be fairly specific to the company.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below. Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. This kind of a simple model also helps: Define the early proof points for the company. You only build what you need to prove that model.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Web 2.0 Slides 225

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Understand Personality Types – One of the benefits of working for a big company (Accenture) was that we had lots of speakers come in and train us in topics like leadership, creativity, presentations, strategy, etc. We had a training session from somebody who put up the four-quadrant graph you see above. Most of them sucked.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole notion that you even need a Powerpoint deck anymore. First, if it’s an early stage company, I don’t need to see a powerpoint deck. Can you just show up without one?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

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. You see, unless a company only plans on raising one early stage funding round, it must eventually seek capital from a different cast of characters: the later stage or 'growth capital' providers.

Startup 40

Startup Slides Marketing Clearstone 40

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2013

One of the startups to come out of that 3D printing revolution is Deka Sounds (www.dekasounds.com), which is based in Orange County. We caught up with founder and CEO Erik Adams to hear more about what is startup is up to, and how it''s trying to use the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo to raise money for its startup.

Startup 241

Startup Slides Orange County Design 241

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2015

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Slides 105

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 105

Berkonomics

APRIL 11, 2019

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. Whether you have not been able to find companies doing “something like” the plan, or you has not considered the most obvious killer of new ideas – doing nothing, it is a faux pas that should never be allowed to happen. We investors see this all the time.

Competition 120

Competition Slides Research Sales 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2014

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. Dress to fit into the company culture, no more, no less.

Startup 102

Startup Slides Email Customer 102

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. 1:20 and they turned up like clockwork.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2015

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.

Startup 104

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Slides 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

Image via Pixabay In my role as a new business advisor and occasional investor, I hear lots of people talking about their dreams of “someday” starting and running a new venture. They can talk with passion about their innovative new idea, and ask lots of questions, but never seem to really get started.

Ideas 99

Ideas Slides Writing Startup 99

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. And it’s when mediocre companies get pulverized.”

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 28, 2012

For those who haven’t heard of what Startup Weekend is all about, it’s building a company on STEROIDS! From visualization to conception, and actually taking the product to market, a company usually takes about 1-2 years to create. Friday Night, people started trickling in at Coloft at 6pm. We had exactly 54 hours!

Startup 99

Startup Technical Advisors Ideas USC 99