socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2013

Finally, I started pushing the idea, like a vacuum cleaner sales men, showing it to retailers and vendors, and it finally caught on. 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.

Startup 241

Startup Slides Orange County Design 241

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Or on a sales campaign you’ve finally gotten your project sponsor to take you to the “executive committee&# where decisions are made and budgets are agreed.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Competition: Chegg (has raised $144 in debt and equity)—estimated by Steven Carpenter ( TechCrunch ) to be 10x more unique visitors than BookRenter (during peak book renting seasons) with nearly $140mm in revenues for 2010. Private, flash sales site focused on apparel goods (women, men and children). Competitor: Slide.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

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.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

We then walked through our sales pipeline and discussed major campaigns. Then competition. You put some update slides on things like key hires or biz dev deals being negotiated and you didn’t plan to talk about them. But they were in a slide and people asked you questions so it ended up chewing up 30 minutes.

Startup 331

Startup Slides Guide Writing 331

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 5, 2011

As noted in RIP RFPs , entrepreneurs should generally avoid RFPs because they cannot afford to expend the time and resources required to participate in such regimented and lengthy sales processes. As noted in Competitive Sleuthing , some partners routinely share information about the companies with whom they are working. .

Startup 216

Startup Slides Resource Organization 216

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. new features need to go into the sale people’s slides so that they know the latest and greatest about how to differentiate from the competition. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

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

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

If Ventro was worth $8 billion on $2 million of sales surely a paltry $1 billion would suffice. Join because you know you’ll be earning less than you could elsewhere at some meaningless job cranking out non-core code, producing Powerpoint slides or shuffling paper. rounds and still be competitive. You can always earn more.

Startup 294

Startup Sales Venture Capital Slides 294

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. Competition and sustainable advantage. List and position your competition, or alternatives available to the customer. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

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

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

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. Our sales guys were on the front line and heard what they needed to win deals. Tim started to change our processes.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. So we had to raise capital to meet orders.

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

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 Customer Custom 103

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

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. Call out your top competitors, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantage, including patents, trade secrets. and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. So we had to raise capital to meet orders.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

Send me in a corner to work on slides, graphs, spreadsheets and charts. Initially I thought it was too long of a name for a blog.When I looked at the competition it as AVC.com and Feld.com. I told her I wasn’t yet convinced that she’d make a good: product manager, designer, sales person, leader, CEO. Not operational.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. You’ll refine your sales and investor pitch. Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 2: They Raised Money With My Slides?! You’ll discover flaws and hopefully correct them. You’ll learn a lot more about the sector/industry.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. You’ll refine your sales and investor pitch. Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 2: They Raised Money With My Slides?! You’ll discover flaws and hopefully correct them. You’ll learn a lot more about the sector/industry.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

I’ve had many startup founders tell me that their startup literally has no competition,” said Frank Gruber, Cofounder of Tech.Co, Startup of the Year , and Established. “In What startup teams don’t realize is that having competition is good. Try to keep the presentation tight, 10 slides is ideal,” Gruber said.

Tips 70

Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Skip the sales pitch and avoid preaching. Your second sentence should acknowledge competition, but highlight your added value. It should be in the introduction section of your business plan, on the first slide of your investor pitch and the beginning of your executive summary. Build up for the punch line at the end.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Certainly a slide or two needs to carry over describing the product and features at a high level. Potential investors love to see gross margins in the fifty percent range or greater, with recurring revenue through subscriptions, follow-on sales, or services. Intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. Build your financial model from the bottom-up showing what your average sale looks like and how it feeds into your top level summary financial picture. Use before and after slides to hit home with investors. Thoughts on pitching?

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

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

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. Have sales bonus plans based on more than just sales targets. Sales Startup Lessons' That’s management by fire.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

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. It’s the same as in any sales-oriented meeting and make no mistake raising money is sales. I need something structured like slides or a demo to orient me. Very few people ask.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

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. I started by trying to think I could explain my concept without having to patronize everybody with artificial PowerPoint slides. Slides, please.” Page 3: Competition.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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. This is Sales 101.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Xconomy

OCTOBER 10, 2016

By popular acclaim, San Diego-based Echo Laboratories founder Eugene Cho claimed top honors, and a $15,000 check, for his two-minute presentation last week in the 10th annual “Quick Pitch” competition, hosted by San Diego’s Tech Coast Angels. Cho, a former sales manager for Nikon Instruments and Vala Sciences, founded Echo Labs in 2014.

Tech Coast Angels 40

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review San Diego Software Review 40

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 19, 2024

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. We have no competition. Widen your search to include companies with products peripheral to yours, where extension of their product would seem logical, especially if you plan to be successful early in making sales into their market.

Competition 156

Competition Slides Sales Research 156