Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. So what are some of the key points that you should highlight in your investor slides to convince investors that you indeed do have a long-term competitive advantage over other alternatives in the marketplace?

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

How to Deal with Electronic Distractions Of course the biggest competition you have with the attention of your board members is their mobile phones. 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. Don’t be this team.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

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

DECEMBER 17, 2011

I am a big believer in VC pitches that the bio slide should come up front. The short answer is that by knowing the key members of the management team the VC firm can quickly identify strengths on your time and know whether you have some competitive advantage in your chose field relative to other people with whom you will compete.

Slides 296

Slides GRP Partners Venture Capital Writing 296

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. What''s your competitive advantage against others in the headset/accessories market? Our competitive advantage is fashion.

Startup 241

Startup Slides Orange County Design 241

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 Competition 239

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

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

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

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2012

The hackathon runs over 48 hours, where teams will develop a minimum viable product, produce slides, and pitch their creations to judges. Among the biggest wishes expressed by local accelerators and investors in Southern California has been to see more, technical founders from potential startups.

Southern California 145

Southern California Slides Entertainment Startup 145

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 5, 2011

As noted in Competitive Sleuthing , some partners routinely share information about the companies with whom they are working. . If the other party asks you to send them your slides, find out why they need them. At the end of the call, he requested that we, “send him the slides and a proposal.”.

Startup 216

Startup Slides Resource Organization 216

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. Give the “elevator pitch” for your startup.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

Describe technology and features, not competitiveness. It should be imbedded in the home page of your web site, the introduction section of your business plan, the heart of your executive summary, and the first slide of your investor pitch. For example, “I have patented a new tire that will double the wear mileage at half the cost.”

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

In my experience as an angel investor, the perfect pitch length is ten slides, outlining the business problem, your solution, opportunity sizing, competition, and financial projections for the next five years. This section is especially important if you intend to attract outside investors or strategic partners.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

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

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

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. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive. The details can be added later.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. Eugene Cho: We had a seed round for less than $3M, and we did a note round with the Tech Coast Angels for $2M after we won their Quick Pitch competition, over about 150 other companies. There are typically two types of microscopes.

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I started by trying to think I could explain my concept without having to patronize everybody with artificial PowerPoint slides. This approach generally works well with customers because I find it much easier to build rapport when we talk like humans than when we all stare at the PowerPoint slides being projected on the wall.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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

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. Crowd Gathers for San Diego Tech Coast Angels “Quick Pitch” Competition.

Tech Coast Angels 40

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review San Diego Software Review 40

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

One, is an upright, traditional looking microscopes, where you look at glass slides. Eugene Cho: We had a seed round for less than $3M, and we did a note round with the Tech Coast Angels for $2M after we won their Quick Pitch competition, over about 150 other companies. There are typically two types of microscopes.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

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. If you have one of the products that can neatly slide into one of their category groups, they will be really popular.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Competition 100

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

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. You need to listen to your product team, watch your competition and work hard on determining whether you’re truly providing value to your customers.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

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. In the early Internet days, it would cost a million dollars to get this far.

Funding 73

Funding Social Media Slides Platform 73

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). Note the full presentation deck with additional slides can be found on SlideShare here or you can simply scroll through it at the bottom of this post.]. We’re all socially connected (so great businesses spread faster).

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

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. We started with our financial statements. We then talked about our product roadmap.

Startup 331

Startup Slides Guide Writing 331

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. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding. Your products quickly become outdated. Change is the only constant in a successful business. 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. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding. Your products quickly become outdated. Change is the only constant in a successful business. Your income drops.

Startup 100

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

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. Highlight features rather than differentiators. Focus on the solution and skip your team.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Certainly a slide or two needs to carry over describing the product and features at a high level. Intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage. 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.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

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. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding. Your products quickly become outdated. Change is the only constant in a successful business. Your income drops.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Slides IP Competition 95

Tech Coast Venture Network

OCTOBER 25, 2010

As a consequence, small businesses should be able to get competitive insurance plans and better pricing. After the 2014 tax year, smaller businesses purchasing insurance through a state exchange will receive a credit for as much as 50% of their contributions, also on a sliding scale.

Slides 100

Slides Startup Study Resource 100

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. We called it PUCCKA.

Pricing 296

Pricing Sales Startup Customer 296

AeA Los Angeles Council

JUNE 27, 2008

The complexity and speed by which new technology is being introduced puts the United States in a position of leadership, but our competitive slide is a serious issue. The AeA report cautions that if changes are not made in the U.S.’s We’re feeding off past success rather than investing in our future. Lee Fox, Founder KooDooZ, Inc.

AeA 40

AeA Technology Education Slides 40