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This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Many entrepreneurs struggle with their setbacks.
As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. These additional slides are often called “pocket slides” as in you have them in your pocket in case you need to pull them out.
The first was to do a 5 minute “ignite&# presentation – 5 minutes, 15 slides. I did the outline of the 15 slides on the flight over (after a few beers). I tried to visualize how I was going to hit such a precise presentation where you get 20 seconds per slide and then they get auto forwarded. I couldn’t.
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. The VC might have tried a few times to prompt a discussion and you didn’t take the queue but in stead reverted back to slides.
I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day. Entrepreneurs get so used to friends and family congratulating them on their press coverage that they forget sometimes that this isn’t real. Many entrepreneurs have a PR page in the PowerPoint deck.
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?
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.
Don’t: tell us, “and now I enter my name, and then I put in my email address, and then I can pull in my social graph through Facebook Connect, and then then I can select the button here to Tweet out my actions on Twitter.&# Zzzzzzzzz. They had slides with moving images and music. But make them sparse and make the B-I-G!
Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” It is a failed litmus test for the entrepreneur, even if the plan is for a totally new device or service that could take the world by storm. Email readers, continue here.] Consider the state of the economy.
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. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. You didn’t intend it to happen that way.
And having frameworks is a useful way to standardize your customer studies so that highly intelligent, inexperienced young people can crank out PowerPoint slides with such authority and beautiful consistency. I get emails like the one above all the time. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice.
I was an entrepreneur. My first series was the slides that go into a PowerPoint presentation. Since there are 10-12 slides this gave me my first few weeks. The obvious starting point is to email a few friends and let them know you have a new blog. That way people who want to get your blog by RSS and/or email can do so.
How-to learn about angel/vc term sheets - Gabriel Weinberg , June 28, 2010 I think every startup entrepreneur (and angel investor) should have a good understanding of financing term sheets. You’re Not a Real Entrepreneur - Steve Blank , June 10, 2010 Who is an entrepreneur really? Yes, even bootstrappers. liquidation preference.
When I give a keynote address, I often start by asking my audience, by raise of hands, to tell me how many of them are angel or VC investors, how many are entrepreneurs, and how many are service providers such as attorneys. Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response.
An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur come out with that one. It is a failed litmus test for the entrepreneur, even if the plan is for a totally new device or service that could take the world by storm. We have no competition.”.
In that same post Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret where he argues to make things open, he defines only one group of people that you may want to avoid having a conversation with: The handful of people in the world who might copy your idea are entrepreneurs just starting up with a very similar idea.
Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. He covers this is the first 15 minutes or so of the video and he’s awesome to listen to (more than 25,000 people have listend to this video so far – mostly entrepreneurs ;-)). It is how angel rounds come together.&#.
In that same post Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret where he argues to make things open, he defines only one group of people that you may want to avoid having a conversation with: The handful of people in the world who might copy your idea are entrepreneurs just starting up with a very similar idea.
I know because many entrepreneurs I spend time with I can tell are in their own brains when we’re meeting rather than trying to understand what my position is. You’re in sales mode. They don’t handle Twitter feedback, emails or IM. That stuck with me long before I was ever a CEO (aka chief salesman).
I mean, that''s what entrepreneurs do every day. But that''s what entrepreneurs do everyday. And I couldn''t figure it out, so I sent an email to webmaster@yahoo.com and I got an email back and. I''m not hiding behind any slides. I think I''ll just wing it'' and of course. they all looked at me horrified.
Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it. On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover. You may assert that monitoring the entire Internet space is an impossible problem.
Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations. When your customer phones or emails you, his timer starts, so it behooves you to return his call or email quickly. business consultant entrepreneur specialist startup' Dress to fit into the company culture, no more, no less. Produce results.
We had email, instant messaging, group calendars, discussion boards, etc. They had a proprietary browser, their own search engine, their own content, chat rooms, email system, etc. But AOL brought online services, email, chat and discussion boards to the masses and thus educated a generation that paved the way for others.
Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it. On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover. business entrepreneur online reputation startup' Marty Zwilling.
Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it. On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover. business entrepreneur google reputation startup' Marty Zwilling.
Results” these days are not Powerpoint slides, or theories and recommendations. When your customer phones or emails you, his timer starts, so it behooves you to return his call or email quickly. Tags: entrepreneur expertise internet consultant business. Dress to fit into the company culture, no more, no less.
Don’t you wish that someone had prepped you on how to read the body language, interpret office gossip, and when to hit the delete key on your email rather than the send key? Business Writing for Email. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly without a big slide presentation.
If you are one of the thousands of entrepreneurs who need equity funding to get your startup going (no loans to repay), you are probably overwhelmed at the prospect of finding, contacting and pitching to the huge number of qualified angels and investment groups around the country. Prepare a slide deck to highlight product and business.
Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it. On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover. You may assert that monitoring the entire Internet space is an impossible problem.
Don’t you wish that someone had prepped you on how to read the body language, interpret office gossip, and when to hit the delete key on your email rather than the send key? Business Writing for Email. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly without a big slide presentation.
I started this series in part to help entrepreneurs but also to help newer investors because I’ve know with so many new companies you have so many new board members and many people are trying to figure out there respective roles. Very few people can resist the temptation to “just quickly check” email in the down moments.
Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it. On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover. You may assert that monitoring the entire Internet space is an impossible problem.
Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations. When your customer phones or emails you, his timer starts, so it behooves you to return his call or email quickly. Dress to fit into the company culture, no more, no less. Share the everyday life of the startup team you are working with.
What we realized is that when you add someone to your family tree, you can put in the email of any living family member, invite them to the site, and they can add information to. You could just sit and add people to your own family tree program, but people hadn't applied Web 2.0-style, Now, let's talk about Yammer. How did Yammer come about?
It is meant to bring everyone together so that they can learn, network and leave with the sense that they now belong to a family of entrepreneurs, all trying to make LA a startup hub. During his presentation, Sam Teller gave people tips on how to connect with high profile people, who are inundated with emails.
Most entrepreneurs I know are so passionate about their new idea that they are surprised when family and friends don’t line up to invest in their new venture. The reality is that investors, including myself, believe that the entrepreneur is more key to business success than the idea. Talking loudly is not enough.
According to the entrepreneurs I advise, the biggest challenge they typically face in starting a new business is funding. Yet according to recent data compiled by Fundable , 57 percent of successful entrepreneurs end up funding their startup, and that’s a good thing. Request warm investor meetings from peers and advisors.
Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it. On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover. You may assert that monitoring the entire Internet space is an impossible problem.
From LA Demo Day to Silicon Beach Fest to Crowdstart LA to hackathons to Startup Weekends, companies and entrepreneurs alike have joined forces to feed the startup ecosystem. THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: On Sunday we presented to a panel of judges consisting of entrepreneurs and a VC investor. Again, the answer I got was, “I’m on it.”
You are an entrepreneur – go for it. If you are forced to display financial data, ensure that the slides are unintelligible. An effective method to incite Death By PowerPoint is to deploy an extraordinary number of slides. A minimum of 20 to 30 slides per minute is a reasonable rule of thumb. Of course not.
Each has a process in place to accept applications or recommendations for investment into new companies, and to review these and make decisions based upon their exploration, previous experience in the field, knowledge of the company or industry, or about individual entrepreneurs. Raising money'
It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) After all, most people are good for a few introductory emails. It’s OK to have the advisor slide where you glance quickly over the names. This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards.
Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. We had several emails back and forth where he provided basic details on the concept. think his slides are great (and by far much easier on the eye then mine.).
Each has a process in place to accept applications or recommendations for investment into new companies, and to review these and make decisions based upon their exploration, previous experience in the field, knowledge of the company or industry, or about individual entrepreneurs. Some can supply more when syndicating with other such groups.
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