Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

With VCs my strong suggestion is that you be open & realistic. Leaving your real competitors off of you presentation to a VC is not recommended. The “competition slide&# of your investment deck is such a great opportunity to talk about how you’re positioned (premium product vs. economical product? Harvey Balls.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC.&#. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. A large part of my series has been outlining what the typical VC PowerPoint presentation should look like. You want to build a dialogue where you get to know the VC with whom you’re meeting.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

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. My blog was wiped out. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Slides 147

Slides Funding Technical Review Startup 147

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

Note: I invest almost exclusively in b-to-b software companies. Fool A Fool – I sold surgical robots from PowerPoint slides in the early 1990’s, before the robots existed. Because of this reality, we also seek references from customers that have an arms-length, dispassionate relationship with the company. Don’t Demo Me Bro.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub. I always wanted to have Dan on This Week in VC with Dan Primack ( to see video click link ) because he’s blunt, honest, opinionated and well informed. Question: Some people are saying traditional VC is dead.

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. If you haven’t read the other VC fund-raising posts I’ve done as part of this series you can find the whole outline and this first in the series here.]

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Startup 118

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 118

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. Don’t dwell on this slide for ever. I’ll usually tolerate this for 2-3 slides or 5-7 minutes.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

If you present slide after slide and if this becomes a download of too much information and not enough of a discussion then people’s attention spans wane. The best board meetings are discussions and debates about the business yet many executive teams spent their time wanting to walk through hours of slides on how great they’re doing.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company. So I naturally spend much time with the companies in which I invest helping them: recruit. figure out roles.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

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. In your VC pitch your PR page should take no longer than 30 seconds – Wait.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2011

. - A tale of two pitches (I eventually invested in the first company that pitched). 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. In slides, less is almost always more.

Tips 392

Tips Screening Slides Venture Capital 392

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

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. of the company – about right. Have 8 of them!

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

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

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I wish all of them well and feel confident that anybody employed at one of the most innovative companies of the past 10 years will land on his or her feet. I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. I put up this slide as part of my discussion. “Our company morale will go down!”

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Slides Capital Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

. “In order to create a successful new company, you have to find an idea that. (1) 1) has escaped the attention of the major Internet companies, which are better run than ever before; (2) is capable of being launched and proven out for ~$5M, the typical seed plus series A investment; and. (3) Is Facebook unstoppable?

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

It’s encouraging to know that there are still great VC firms like KV that are looking to make these short of big bets on shaping the future. Often these projects took 12–18 months so by the time companies shipped product they often found out that the product didn’t meet customer needs. I think this analogy can hold for boards.

Startup 234

Startup Slides Venture Capital Course 234

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Slides 105

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 105

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. Moving from a company that had less resources (and presumably by the time their raising depleted resources) to a company with newfound resources can be telling. B round companies need to also look for scaling opportunities.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. Mostly, this segment of the market (like all of VC) is stacked in favor of the few. Unfortunately that’s a myth.

Invest 306

Invest Angel Venture Capital Slides 306

Xconomy

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Along the way, Khosla has invested in a range of startup companies—including several tackling radiology, cardiology, and mental health (see slide and list at bottom)—that are. 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

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. Yet as obvious as it is to create messaging for your company, many people don’t consider their personal brands.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

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. And as I always assert, “Great companies are built in downturns. And it’s when mediocre companies get pulverized.”

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Angel 102

Angel Funding Slides Technical Review 102

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Startup 64

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 64

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

Management teams whisk through slides trying to get through a presentation to share how great things are going and they are eager to get through the meeting so they can get back to their real jobs. The board’s job is to review the company’s financial performance and strategy and help provide counsel to the executive team.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “ Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. The following are some tips for the debate style VC meeting. Tips in a debate led VC Meeting.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital Sales Slides Startup 275

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. I used to sit on the board of a company (for which I DID NOT invest) with a very smart and very likable CEO.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Tips 97

Tips Slides Technical Review Startup 97

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

In other words, it isn’t that VCs suddenly got smart, it’s that the costs of starting a company went down dramatically. With a massive increase in companies created and a huge number of sources one trend that we witnessed from 2012–2015 was the rise of the undisciplined round. Non VC Growth Rounds. VC Infighting.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Funding Seed Funding 150

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. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. Then match your pace to cover all the material.

Slides 95

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 95

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC &# tab).

Venture Capital 340

Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

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. ” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.”

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

The first was to do a 5 minute “ignite&# presentation – 5 minutes, 15 slides. I did the outline of the 15 slides on the flight over (after a few beers). I tried to visualize how I was going to hit such a precise presentation where you get 20 seconds per slide and then they get auto forwarded.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

The Quigley Report

MARCH 4, 2008

At the formation stage, when a start up is little more than a business plan and a few dedicated engineers, there are a host of other factors that influence valuations more so than PE multiples of public companies. These firms most definitely do look at public stock market valuations as a measure of how to price a private company.

Startup 40

Startup Slides Marketing Clearstone 40