Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

One of the hardest things for most entrepreneurs to know is how hard to push in situations where people tell you “no.” ” But then again most entrepreneurs fail. I’d say less than 20% of of entrepreneurs fit into that bucket. But my post isn’t for the haters.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.&# If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11. It isn’t a “must&# for me but it’s certainly a huge positive when entrepreneurs have it. I met the CEO Brian Malewicz several times. That’s OK.

Entrepreneur

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

It also applies to other parts of my life such as presentations. I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. The first was to do a 5 minute “ignite&# presentation – 5 minutes, 15 slides. I left that presentation and sat down in a coffee shop.

Slides

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

When I first read this post I immediately filed away in memory that there was important information to impart on entrepreneurs and led to this post. Then I get people sending me Twitter comments, blog comments and tons & tons of email intros. Why isn’t it a good idea to rush the stage after a presentation?

Startup

Berkonomics

AUGUST 8, 2024

After speaking with many entrepreneurs over the years, each defines success in his or her unique way. We all see the examples of well-known successful entrepreneurs, many in our chosen field, who achieve success by anyone’s measure, and we optimistically expect to emulate these role models with at least some level of success.

Startup

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 18, 2012

Thursday, May 24, 2012 -- Creating and Presenting Your Business Plan. If you have a business concept and want to learn more about becoming a successful entrepreneur, you are invited to attend. Email ron.pardee@rcc.edu. Entrepreneurship @ RCC.

Email

InfoChachkie

JULY 16, 2012

Ben Kiblinger, now Coull’s North American President, proudly shared with me that, “Coull delivers on the promised future of contextual advertising presented to me when I was an early Commission Junction employee in 1999. You can also check out my blog for emerging entrepreneurs HERE. Share and Enjoy.

Customer

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Grade A Entrepreneurs , September 5, 2010 Why Krispy Kreme failed in Australia - Start Up Blog , November 3, 2010 Mellow Johnny’s: Retail Stores as Community Hubs - IDDICTIVE.COM , July 14, 2010 Is crowdfunding an option for my business?

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 19, 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012 -- Creating and Presenting Your Business Plan. If you have a business concept and want to learn more about becoming a successful entrepreneur, you are invited to attend. Email ron.pardee@rcc.edu. Entrepreneurship @ RCC.

Email

socalTECH

JUNE 14, 2011

Ryan gives seven new Do's and Don'ts for entrepreneurs. Ever since my post on Los Angeles venture capital, I’ve been getting a lot of email and phone inquiries from local entrepreneurs seeking advice. Typically the entrepreneurs that reach out want to meet in person and ask for advice. 7 DO’s: 1.

Entrepreneur

Berkonomics

APRIL 24, 2014

Often I see executive summaries from entrepreneurs who have never managed any form of business, or even managed employees in their past life, and who don’t know the first thing about business formation and managing for growth. I used to tell them to find a partner with knowledge in business creation and management.

Coach

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. Poppycock.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Somehow they imagined you didn’t notice that they were glancing beneath the table secretly firing off one-line emails. Every entrepreneur I know bitched about it and the smartest boards banned Blackberrys. They flip between your presentation and email or the Internet. Fast forward to today. We are all human.

Email

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. This is the easiest one for most entrepreneurs. But most good entrepreneurs do this naturally.

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

My pal Dave occasionally presents “headline risks” for investors. Dave is terrible with email. He’s so bad that his email auto-responder tells you he likely won’t email you back. Many through history became entrepreneurs precisely because they were unemployable. He doesn’t email you. But he knows that.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. My Skype address is bradfeld.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 16, 2010

A couple of years ago an entrepreneur had requested a meeting with me to present his business. If you need to reschedule a few days in advance - Whether you do your own scheduling or whether you have an assistant, a polite email to reschedule a meeting with a few days notice is usually acceptable. Let me give you an example.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2011

On this blog I’m often trying to combine lessons for entrepreneurs and market commentary. I have long wanted to write about FNAC (feature, not a company) because it’s part of my normal lexicon to push teams that present to me to think harder about where the economics in their industry is coming from. It lingered.

Email

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2015

I believe many entrepreneurs have ADD. Save it to Pocket, bookmark it, email it to yourself or whatever other coping mechanism you have. Email twice. I am good at cranking out documents, memos, presentations, letters and spreadsheets. I write my presentations the night before. Embrace it. Don’t worry.

Startup

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

According to Calacanis, in a letter to his private email distribution list, he is starting a new conference called the Launch Conference. Calacanis says the new conference will be "the same exact as TechCrunch50" except that he will invest all of the profits from the conference into the companies that present.

Conference

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Today we’re in a world where 10 accelerators are bombarding you with emails to meet their 10-15 companies. Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, And there’s conferences. Web Summit.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

APRIL 6, 2017

First, if your vision is limited and you will be happy with a successful local dry cleaning enterprise or small restaurant around the corner, you are not the target for this effort to help entrepreneurs build great businesses that change the world. Please take what you can from these weekly posts. Many will apply directly to you.).

Entrepreneur

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Here’s my advice: A got an email from a young, super bright entrepreneur today. He responded by emailing the COO and asking him to lunch. I get emails all the time from people asking me on a first date and saying, “how about if I buy you dinner.” They had never met. Here’s the deal. Not so much.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

A couple of years ago an entrepreneur had requested a meeting with me to present his business. I wrote him the following email. “As an entrepreneur myself I COMPLETELY understand that you wouldn’t pass up on the impromptu and opportunistic chance to meet somebody so important to your business.

Conference

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2020

Being very visible in the startup community, I still get an amazing number of badly written emails, rambling executive summaries, and business plans with one paragraph per chapter. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2010

As a startup entrepreneur you’ll have many demands for your time. The problem is that the scarcest resource in any entrepreneur’s life is your time. “Thank you for writing to me – it’s nice to hear from you (or meet you) via email. Everyone will want you to speak at conferences.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. That’s fine.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

There is one classic mistake that I see across both types of meetings – “the tell & sell&# presentation. This involves a person who leads a PowerPoint presentation in which the presenter feels more comfortable racing through pre-practiced slides and rattling off charts & bullet points than having a discussion.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. And it’s true that I still take a whole lot of first meetings with entrepreneurs.

Software Review

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

From the time we learn to manipulate our parents from the crib to the present day, we learn to negotiate to obtain our wants and needs. Email readers, continue here.] Over the years, I have been delegated by a number of entrepreneurs and boards to negotiate critical agreements, sometimes to sell the company or merge it with another.

Pricing

Berkonomics

JANUARY 5, 2012

And because you need their money, the temptation is to listen a bit too well, and take all of the advice thrown at you during your presentations and during due diligence and finally from the vantage point of a board seat. Email readers, continue here.] It is good to listen.

Entrepreneur

InfoChachkie

MAY 7, 2012

Skilled entrepreneurs bring ideas and money together by building a bridge of trust. I likewise value an entrepreneur who treats my money like their own and understands the difference between spending and investing. Confirmation from people whom the entrepreneur did not cite as a reference is vital.

Ideas

InfoChachkie

JULY 5, 2012

Coull Entrepreneurs Get More Customers. Ben Kiblinger, now Coull’s North American President, proudly shared with me that, “Coull delivers on the promised future of contextual advertising presented to me when I was an early Commission Junction employee in 1999. You can also check out my blog for emerging entrepreneurs HERE. .

Custom

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Being very visible in the startup community, I still get an amazing number of badly written emails, rambling executive summaries, and business plans with one paragraph per chapter. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2014

Many entrepreneurs fantasize about days longer than 24 hours, convinced that their new venture could change the world, if they just had more time. However, this topic is particularly critical to entrepreneurs, who struggle with challenges and crises every day that they didn’t anticipate. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur

Berkonomics

MAY 22, 2014

In most cases, those entrepreneurs choosing to raise capital using PPMs retain specialists (many of whom are lawyers) to write their PPMs – a rather expensive undertaking. Unfortunately, upon completion of the PPM, the first thing that entrepreneurs tend to do is sell shares to friends, family, friends of friends and other acquaintances.

Writing