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. There are a million ways to make graphics lighter or resize your file without a huge impact on the quality of the slides?—?after What should be in your deck?

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

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

JANUARY 27, 2020

In that critical first minute, no one needs to hear that you have a passionate dream of changing the world, introducing new disruptive technology, or a product with more features than competitors. 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. Solution product & technology. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Competition and sustainable advantage. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

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

AeA Los Angeles Council

JUNE 27, 2008

™s education system and immigration policies, the supply of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) workers will continue to decrease, jeopardizing the technology industry in the United States. The AeA report cautions that if changes are not made in the U.S.’s Lee Fox, Founder KooDooZ, Inc. www.koodooz.com

AeA 40

AeA Technology Education Slides 40

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

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. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

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. Just because your technology is exciting and potentially disruptive doesn’t mean you are ready to build a business.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

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. With decreased employee productivity and outdated technology, your costs go up, and income drops. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 105

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

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. With decreased employee productivity and outdated technology, your costs go up, and income drops. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding.

Startup 100

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. Still, I believe I’m offering an accurate representation of the ideal configuration of the main technology leaders. Your deepest thinkers on technology architecture are seldom good team leaders.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

As a technology buff, I’m all too sensitive to the common investor complaint that technical people often end up selling yet another “solution looking for a problem,” because they are so impressed with their technology. Certainly a slide or two needs to carry over describing the product and features at a high level.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

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

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

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. Good hooks define a real problem, followed by a specific solution (not technology).

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

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.]. From a technology perspective our journey is nowhere near over.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

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. With decreased employee productivity and outdated technology, your costs go up, and income drops. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding.

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2010

Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. With decreased employee productivity and outdated technology, your costs go up, and income drops. Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding.

Startup 57

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 57

AeA Los Angeles Council

APRIL 10, 2008

According to the AeA 2008 Cyberstate's report, California's technology workers earned an average wage of $101, 200 (112% above the state's average private-sector wage.) Competitiveness. The bad news, he told the publication, is "The tech industry and the country risk an impending slide in U.S.

High Tech 40

High Tech AeA Education Slides 40

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

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. But he didn’t grow up with technology. The Outside In organization had a one-way flow. He’s a smart guy.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

For 1991 I was very technical and also had a lot of practical business implementation experience in technology. I asked him if I could join his practice as the guy who could help him bridge technology & business. Send me in a corner to work on slides, graphs, spreadsheets and charts. My starting salary was $27,000.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

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. What was your background before this startup? From there, I was working at a starrtup here.

Startup 100

Startup Los Angeles Mobile Pricing 100

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. Storm Clouds - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 12, 2010 We have enjoyed an amazing run in the web startup and investing space over the past five or six years. This should not deter you.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

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. For example, “We just patented a new battery technology that will cut your smartphone charge time and cost in half.” and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , June 18, 2010 The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. 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.

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175