Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. In fact, they are probably in such a hurry to give you money that they don’t want you to waste time writing anything down and passing it along to new investors.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

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.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. I think the norm in the industry is still to see Powerpoint slides and I wouldn’t hold this against anybody. I’m usually itching to just see what you’ve built. Mobile app? Bijan is right.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2022

He writes from first-hand experience, and is now a recognized business leader, motivational speaker, and mentor to many entrepreneurs. Don’t let yourself slide in making future commitments because these are the ones that can make you grow to the next level. In essence, you don’t want to risk getting pulled out of your comfort zone.

Mentor 134

Mentor Slides .Net Writing 134

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. Writing down key parameters will force you solidify the specifics, and mentally commit to them. Prepare your marketing story for customers and investors.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Whenever you write your deck and send it out I think you should actually think to yourself, “my competitors are probably going to read this one day and this will be forwarded widely” and if your response isn’t “so what!” There are a million ways to make graphics lighter or resize your file without a huge impact on the quality of the slides?—?after

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

In a two-minute video clip, you can introduce yourself, show your passion and the engaging personality you need to win over customers, partners, and employees. A perfect size is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Successful startups are all about the right people with the right stuff.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2017

Writing a business plan is hard work, so I get lots of pushback from prospective new venture founders that it’s just a waste of their valuable time in this rapidly changing environment. They all claim to have the plan in their head, and writing it down will only slow down their success.

Writing 71

Writing Startup Slides Entrepreneur 71

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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever. Chamillionaire has a way more refined sense of what customer behavior is like than most ivy league graduates with nice Powerpoint slides that I meet.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. 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. That changed very quickly.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Define your customers, partners and other relevant people to your organization (e.g. That’s blogging to the echo chamber unless they’re your target customers. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. I didn’t want to run out of things to write about in the first 6 months.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Tech.Co

JULY 25, 2017

But if you want to level things up, you can use a platform like OptinMonster to create popup forms, sliding forms, floating bars, and sidebars. It integrates with OptinMonster, allows you to craft beautiful emails, and more importantly, enables you to create automated workflows without writing a single line of code.

Tool 39

Tool Customer Custom Sites 39

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. Don’t dwell on this slide for ever. If I have an hour with you I want to maximise the time we have a discussion so I want to get through the slides quickly. It’s in their personality type.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

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

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. Writing it down promotes both understanding and commitment.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2015

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story a while back “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article on this subject, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” A perfect size is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Executive summary glossy.

Startup 104

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Slides 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2014

Another mistake many consultants make is to charge by the hour, and customers lose track and lose confidence as things change. Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. Have "customers", not "clients."

Startup 102

Startup Slides Email Customer 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2014

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story last year “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article a while back, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” A perfect size is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Executive summary glossy.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Slides 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2011

Another mistake many consultants make is to charge by the hour, and customers lose track and lose confidence as things change. Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. Have "customers", not "clients."

Startup 93

Startup Customer Custom Slides 93

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

.&# They know instinctually how customers buy and how to excite them. Because they’re street smart, most great entrepreneurs tend to prefer getting out and talking with real customers rather than sitting in a cubicle all day doing beautiful PowerPoint slides. They have a sixth sense for the competitors’ weaknesses.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Customer 306

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2012

Another mistake many consultants make is to charge by the hour, and customers lose track and lose confidence as things change. Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. Have "customers", not "clients."

Startup 85

Startup Slides Email Customer 85

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. Anything requiring lead generation and/or customer acquisition I call Matt Coffin. Go get your anchors.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2013

Of course, you can’t predict everything, but writing down what you know will identify existing problems sooner, and allow other team members to help. It could be a natural disaster, like a flood or wind storm, or loss of key personnel, equipment failure, or a major customer complaint on the Internet.

Startup 114

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 114

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

Let’s assume you run a Customer Support software company. Do you simply begin by asking, “I’d love to understand what your objectives are in customer support? You need to identify a customer problem and talk about how your solution meets the needs of that problem. Where are your current pains?&#.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. Act your stage.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2018

In a two-minute video clip, you can introduce yourself, show your passion and the engaging personality you need to win over customers, partners, and employees. A perfect size is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Successful startups are all about the right people with the right stuff.

Startup 65

Startup Entrepreneur Slides Content 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2010

Another mistake many consultants make is to charge by the hour, and customers lose track and lose confidence as things change. Results” these days are not Powerpoint slides, or theories and recommendations. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. Have "customers", not "clients."

Startup 90

Startup Slides Email Customer 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2016

Of course, you can’t predict everything, but writing down what you know will identify existing problems sooner, and allow other team members to help. It could be a natural disaster, like a flood or wind storm, or loss of key personnel, equipment failure, or a major customer complaint on the Internet.

Startup 64

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 64

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

If you provide these slides in advance you give board members a chance to reflect and come prepared for a real discussion. A board meeting shouldn’t be the place an investor questions why you’re focused on customers A and not customers B. The mistake most founders make is sending out last-minute board packs.

Guide 196

Guide Startup Metrics Conference 196

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. It was like nobody would give me any respect and they just saw me as the guy who goes and talks to senior people who does PowerPoint slides. If I write $2 million and we hit a bump in the road, I can write another $2 million.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. Send me in a corner to work on slides, graphs, spreadsheets and charts. I have published many of these PR Tips before.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A The key is channeling what you learn when you drive onto paper for retention purposes so you have to write it down soon afterward. When I write a blog post I often see the words before I write them. These are all creative processes.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Board meeting gets scheduled Nobody thinks too much about it until a week or two before Management team has a last-minute scramble to pull materials together Management is super focused on its daily work of … winning customers, signing biz dev, shipping product … so this prep is a last minute “fire drill” and is seen as a slight distraction.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226