Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

There are a million ways to make graphics lighter or resize your file without a huge impact on the quality of the slides?—?after Summary: Send the Deck Pitch decks are sales & marketing decks and like in any sales activity, any great sales person assumes his or her competition will eventually get their deck. A deck is a deck.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it. ” and if you can’t persuade enough potential customers they have some pain that needs fixing you probably should stick to your day job. Teams usually start with terminology that is very insular and less relevant to customers.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2013

We''ve put a spin on this, where you can use your own personalization or custom designs for your own Bluetooth headset, just like you would create a personalized case for your smartphone. What''s your competitive advantage against others in the headset/accessories market? Our competitive advantage is fashion. READ MORE>>.

Startup 241

Startup Slides Orange County Design 241

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I believe in this so much that, despite my post advising you to be prepared for the *norm* in VC, I wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. I think the norm in the industry is still to see Powerpoint slides and I wouldn’t hold this against anybody.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

One of the biggest turn offs for investors are founders who don’t know the basics of their business, especially their market and customer. They have to know their industry, know their customers, and understand what it takes to make their customers happy.”. Try to keep the presentation tight, 10 slides is ideal,” Gruber said.

Tips 70

Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

As an aspiring entrepreneur, one of the most important things you need is a memorable “ elevator pitch ,” to communicate your startup value proposition and leave a great first impression on friends, investors, employees, and future customers. Describe technology and features, not competitiveness.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model. and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In reality, they need a separate pitch about the business, carrying over only a slide or two about the solution. These don’t get funded, nor bought by customers.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

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. If you’re not “feeling it&# then you need to get to the slides or demo quickly as a means of trying to engage. I need something structured like slides or a demo to orient me.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need. Here is how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer).

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Whether you are looking for partners, investors, or future customers, you need to show a level of professionalism and leadership very early that will draw people to your idea. You really need at least a prototype product or customer to make the video come alive. Make it light, but factual. Think of it as an infomercial.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 5, 2011

As such, simply refuse any and all requests for confidential information (especially financial data) from prospective customers, partners, suppliers, etc. As noted in Competitive Sleuthing , some partners routinely share information about the companies with whom they are working. . Go To The Meeting – But Do Not Take The Materials.

Startup 216

Startup Slides Resource Organization 216

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. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. It’s when the game slows. ROI studies were published.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I recommend a pitch deck with about 10 slides backed up with a written business plan of approximately 20 pages, both containing quantified answers to the following key questions. Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Let me be quick to say that a plan doesn’t have be a book, and probably should start as a “pitch deck” of maybe a dozen slides which cover all the right bases. Since this document is outward facing, it is important to keep the terminology and tone consistent with that of your customer set, investors, and business partners.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

On the other hand, everyone is doing it, so that means more competition, and the market and technology are changing faster than ever before. Advisors and investors need to see your whole story in as few as ten slides. Validate your solution with a prototype and real customers. Ideas are not enough to gauge business potential.

Funding 73

Funding Social Media Slides Platform 73

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note.

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. I started by trying to think I could explain my concept without having to patronize everybody with artificial PowerPoint slides. I was wrong.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

The role of these investment staff varies firm-to-firm but they often entail: Sourcing deals for partners Helping with initial deal screening with a partner Helping with due diligence (competitive assessments, customer calls, reference checking, market sizing, technology reviews, etc.)

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Passionate entrepreneurs tend to talk on and on about their disruptive technology, their intent to change the world and free services, but if a business can’t provide quantifiable value to real customers, the dream will likely turn into a nightmare. Investors worry about competitors more than customer features.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Unfortunately, customers look for value in solving their problem, and new technologies alone scare them, so these solutions don’t get bought by customers, or funded. Certainly a slide or two needs to carry over describing the product and features at a high level. Intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Packaging, pricing & discounts – In the early days of my first company we always had “list prices&# we quoted to customers and of course we were always willing to negotiate based on who the client was, how important the business was to us, who the competition was and how well the deal was negotiated. I was the laggard.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2013

They envision a stable environment after that point, and may have convinced themselves that they will be safer and happier with a livable income, maintaining a loyal but flat customer base. Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 105

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Just because a product has a patent, deep complexity and an obvious competitive advantage does not mean that it can fly by itself into the market. Personally, I don't like weighty board packs and I do not wish to inflict slide preparation upon anyone. gave him my favorite, "keep it to six slides." didn’t think so.

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

They envision a stable environment after that point, and may have convinced themselves that they will be safer and happier with a livable income, maintaining a loyal but flat customer base. Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops.

Startup 100

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

They care about the quality of what is build more than they care about end customers. As you head into the phase where you’ve had real customers paying real money for a period of time you’ll have a whole new set of issues. You still have some leeway to hire above them if need be. In summary.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2011

They envision a stable environment after that point, and may have convinced themselves that they will be safer and happier with a livable income, maintaining a loyal but flat customer base. Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 95

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Investors expect a one or two-page executive summary sheet for the initial screening, backed up by a ten-slide Powerpoint investor presentation.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. Beyond that, I want lots of conversations with experts, users, customers, VCs, partners, etc. Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 2: They Raised Money With My Slides?! You’ll get suggestions for improvements. You’ll discover flaws and hopefully correct them.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Investors expect a one or two-page executive summary sheet for the initial screening, backed up by a ten-slide Powerpoint investor presentation.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. Beyond that, I want lots of conversations with experts, users, customers, VCs, partners, etc. Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 2: They Raised Money With My Slides?! You’ll get suggestions for improvements. You’ll discover flaws and hopefully correct them.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. This can be a great way to test your product and get customer feedback. Customer financing can minimize your risk, providing more cushion to meet your milestones. Use before and after slides to hit home with investors.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Investors expect a one or two-page executive summary sheet for the initial screening, backed up by a ten-slide Powerpoint investor presentation.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2010

He envisions a stable environment after that point, and may have convinced himself that he will be safer and happier with a livable income, maintaining a loyal but flat customer base. Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops.

Startup 57

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 57

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

think his slides are great (and by far much easier on the eye then mine.). think his slides are great (and by far much easier on the eye then mine.). Competing To Win Deals - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 7, 2010 The venture capital business is highly competitive. Your First Iteration of an Idea Will Be Wrong.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175