Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Since 2009 we’ve been in an unequivocal bull market. 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. Growth markets have a way of fooling us all.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

It is simply the most important way to proactively control your career development and how the market perceives you. That was fine with me – the market is the market. That was the market. In today’s market you can prove your worth, in 1991 that was a bit harder. It is neither. She was paid 15% more.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 19, 2011

CapLinked , the online platform for private investment funded by members of the “ PayPal Mafia “—announced that it is launching a worldwide pitch competition for entrepreneurs to present their business ideas to a panel of all-star judges from Idealab, Rincon, Rapidfire, and Actarus. The deadline for entering is November 15.

Competition 70

Competition Idealab Slides Startup 70

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. Your pitch deck should really be your best marketing tool Your pitch deck shouldn’t contain your deepest, darkest secrets and plans. What should be in your deck?

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

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

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2013

I decided we''d patent a sliding mechanism on our Bluetooth, and use 3D printers to take pictures that people send to us, and my company will design a Bluetooth based on their picture, on our 3D printer. This is a crowded market. What''s your competitive advantage against others in the headset/accessories market?

Startup 241

Startup Slides Orange County Design 241

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If they did they would be in constant violation because VCs often see 3-4+ companies in every market that they operation. They are also looking for a well-defined market opportunity, evidence of your success to date and ultimately most are looking for a large addressable market as this is the only way a VC drives returns.

Venture Capital 340

Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

.” “[Founders underestimate] how difficult it is to get a deal done, and how few deals get funded out of how many deals that are pitched,” said Thomas Flake , Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of bcause , and who has been on both sides of the table. What startup teams don’t realize is that having competition is good.

Tips 70

Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

The reason for this is that the executives who founded the company have so much tacit knowledge of how to position their product relative to the competition that they can easily win campaigns when they’re involved. So I often work with teams to get them to codify the key things they do well that the competition does not.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Custom 336

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 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. Quantify the market opportunity in business terms. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans. and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

Lead with your best marketing pitch and conviction. Of course, it’s always good to speak with conviction, but marketing terms such as “improved productivity” or “lower cost” won’t make your offering memorable. Describe technology and features, not competitiveness. Too much technology and too many features can scare off both.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

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. Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Executive team.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). But markets value high growth over short-term profitability.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

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. Competitor positioning and sustainable competitive advantage.

Product 103

Product Slides Custom Customer 103

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. Eugene Cho: I saw this market opportunity when I realized that the larger microscope companies, like Nikon, Olympus, and so on were really only focusing their efforts on high end systems, which cost $200,000 plus. How did you start the company?

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

The deck itself was produced by a committee of functional team lead who were asked to do 5–7 slides each for an update. Each section head reads his / her 5–7 slides. If you put up 5 slides on “what should we order for lunch today” the board will spend 30 minutes debating that. There are too many pages. It passes the weight test.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

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. This is also the place to first mention patents and any other differentiators that put you ahead of competition.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. Eugene Cho: I saw this market opportunity when I realized that the larger microscope companies, like Nikon, Olympus, and so on were really only focusing their efforts on high end systems, which cost $200,000 plus. How did you start the company?

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

It’s no secret that the rate of failure of new business startups may be a high as ninety percent , so we all need all the help we can get, validating the opportunity, clearly positioning against competitors, projecting financials, and planning all the necessary marketing and operating activities.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

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. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. Marketing, sales, and customer experience. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

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. had two occasions recently to review products which had clear market leadership. Yes, even bootstrappers. liquidation preference. This pitcher has retired 5 of the last 7 batters."

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

BookRenter – plus a discussion about Chegg … what is going on in the university book market? We talked about the analogies between what NetFlix achieved in movies and whether this is relevant to the book market. Metrics: 50mm users (up from 40mm in Dec 2009), -Competition includes: Spotify , Last.fm. Competitor: Slide.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

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. If the questions aren’t organically flowing you have “pocket slides” after the main deck you can pull out to share more information or analysis.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

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. A local pilot is a necessary move to test your manufacturing, operational, and marketing assumptions.

Funding 73

Funding Social Media Slides Platform 73

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

They looked nervous at having to speak with me impromptu and without the benefit of financial figures to scoff at, product pitches that they’ve seen 100 times and a market sizing to unpick. I started by trying to think I could explain my concept without having to patronize everybody with artificial PowerPoint slides. Slides, please.”

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Certainly a slide or two needs to carry over describing the product and features at a high level. Here are the unique business elements that I expect to hear as a potential investor: Target market size and growth projections. Intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2016

There are a lot of other competition shows and reality show, which are much more predatory and cut-throat, and it's nice for our entrepreneurs to not only get a real investment, but get great feedback. Lots of these guys come on the show, already have a niche market, but need some help to step it up to the next level.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Rely on marketing content and emotion vs. facts. For example, “I have patented a new LCD with double the intensity at half the cost, already proven locally, and I just need resources to scale for this market.” Your second sentence should acknowledge competition, but highlight your added value.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2013

Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. The only real solution is to conquer the chaos, while continually expanding your reach into the available market, and into the improvements in technology. Your income drops.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. The only real solution is to conquer the chaos, while continually expanding your reach into the available market, and into the improvements in technology. Your income drops.

Startup 100

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

I’m not recommending that you saturate your discussions with lingo, but responding with a blank stare once-too-often won’t convince anyone that you can build the next world-changing business or outpace the market. Growth-hacking” marketing. Deep-dive meeting. Although the term may sound negative, it’s actually a very positive sign.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Another impetus for this was I saw some of the slides that Mary Meeker had done in the Kleiner Perkins annual PDF that they send around, and I realized that the market was being underserved by Airbnb and other key players in the market. You mentioned some of the other big players in the market, like Airbnb.

Startup 100

Startup Los Angeles Mobile Pricing 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

One of the most obvious places where you see this is in sales & marketing. So he hired an intern plus a junior marketing person and tasked them with mechanising responses. Each sales person tends to slot in their own slides to win deals or to position things in their own words or style in order to win deals.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2011

Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. The only real solution is to conquer the chaos, while continually expanding your reach into the available market, and into the improvements in technology. Your income drops.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 95

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

The bottom line is that you should raise to accelerate growth and in order to optimize market timing. There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. There’s always competition, even if it’s unrelated alternatives for your customer’s time and money, so don’t try to gloss over this aspect.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I have a few slides later that address that.&# (obviously if you say that you need to come back to the question either later or after the meeting. If it’s OK with you I’d love to answer it in just a couple of minutes after the next few slides. Do you mind if I answer that a little later in the presentation?

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318