Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

For years software development worked on a “waterfall model” in which you did research, design, build, test, deploy and then watch how users reacted to your product. Often these projects took 12–18 months so by the time companies shipped product they often found out that the product didn’t meet customer needs.

Startup 234

Startup Slides Venture Capital Course 234

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Maybe add your email to receive the next post delivered to your email box? Here are some simple slides that outline the point: a. The skills in each are quite distinct, the investment strategies are different yet the connective tissues between the best firms are strong. Still reading? And this is about to grow even faster.”

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

But they can otherwise save you much time and effort, and are also safer and more productive than the old-fashioned approach of broadcast emailing or cold-calling every investor you can find in online directories, or responding to the risky spam offers you get for funding on social media.

Platform 94

Platform Equity Invest Technical Advisors 94

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Our call recovered and we spent the rest of the time talking about the development of their management team and their product. Just notice how many VC emails you get after your TechCrunch article or after you were on stage at TC50. Put up your slide with the 5-6 logos of journals that have covered you.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. Here's an example of that kind of email. I'm focusing on the sourcing ("lead gen" on her slide) aspect. Hire a Product Design Lead First Nailing that elusive technical co-founder

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2012

How do you go about getting a company product--and company--funded through crowdsourcing? First of all, tell us about what olloclip's products are? You can slide it onto the corner of your iPhone, or you can flip it over, and it you get a wide angle lens. Is it even possible, and what are the pitfalls involved? Patrick O'Neill.

Patents 191

Patents Ideas Design Startup 191

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

We then talked about our product roadmap. 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. Then competition.

Startup 331

Startup Slides Guide Writing 331

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

When I went into work today, I didn''t realize that Monday morning we''re going to be pitching UPS on a big contract, on a product that, guess what, it doesn''t even exist. 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.

Startup 223

Startup Yahoo Santa Barbara Slides 223

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. You’ll gauge people’s excitement level for the product and for various features. Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 2: They Raised Money With My Slides?! Entrepreneur: Following is an email describing my idea.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. You’ll gauge people’s excitement level for the product and for various features. Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 2: They Raised Money With My Slides?! Entrepreneur: Following is an email describing my idea.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I started with the hosted version and then migrated to an installed version so I could use Google Analytics and some other products. 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. I love their product. You then need a URL.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 28, 2010

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. But tell me how practical is the 7s’s, really? I might be wrong.

Startup 378

Startup Framework Slides Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

If you have board members you respect you owe it to yourself to run more productive sessions where board members contribute. If you provide these slides in advance you give board members a chance to reflect and come prepared for a real discussion. And half the time you know they’re zoned out and checking email.

Guide 196

Guide Startup Metrics Conference 196

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

sure, still slightly awkward to slide into your back-pocket comfortably. Air View™ allows you to hover your finger over a calendar item or email to display a preview of what’s inside without opening it. For instance, you can take notes while watching a video or search the web while responding to a text message or email.

Screening 91

Screening Press Slides Email 91

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when. I spent time with the folks (Klaus Schauser and Brian Danahoo) at AppFolio before they ever launched their products. They recorded it.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

It’s why I believe PalmPilot missed the important shifts to email that RIM (Blackberry) saw. Often entrepreneurs show me their management team slides with the names of the people who are going to join him once they’re funded. In turn Blackberry missed the Internet and still has a sucky browser after all these years.

Entrepreneur 288

Entrepreneur Startup Slides Seed Funding 288

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2016

I recommend making friends the first formal test of your elevator pitch, your investor slide deck, and your business plan, and earnestly ask for their advice (not money) early. Some entrepreneurs don’t want to put friends and family on the spot, so they keep all discussions very casual. Vision alone rarely convinces people to invest.

Funding 60

Funding Startup Ideas Slides 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Because I built two SaaS companies and sold my second one to Salesforce.com (where I then took on the role of VP Products) I am often asked to look at SaaS and/or sales-oriented deals for others. Obviously I’m assuming that you have a great product and/or strategy. They’ve raised $200k and are looking for $500k in total.&#.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Time to start thinking about how to make it more productive. 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. They’re smart people so you have an interesting discussion on the day. Too bad it was a bit superficial, though.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

One, is we plan on having a subscription product for Geni.com, sort of like a premier account, but one you can also buy for your relatives. We have a very deep relationship with our users, and our most active users have archived their entire family lives on Geni, so we think there are lots of products they'd be interested in buying.

Yammer 133

Yammer Geni Startup Southern California 133

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

It also allows you to share on Google+, Facebook or text message in the app, as well as to Twitter and email. Anil Sabharwal, Senior Product Manager in a blog post said users of iPhone or iPad, can now create a new document, edit an existing one or format text just as Android app users and with ability to see what other people are editing.

Google 69

Google Outsource Development Screening Mobile 69

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

They don’t handle Twitter feedback, emails or IM. They are seldom productive. You have target customers, you have competitors and you have a product to sell. Try to find out who in the organization is most likely to buy your product. So you’ve identified a problem. Beware of Crocodile Sales.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

CEO Flow

JUNE 8, 2009

We can develop and deploy products faster – far beyond our clients’ ability to absorb them. * It’s time to start taking regular breaths to reflect on what we’re missing – there is a better way to increase growth more productively. We have more forecasting tools – but less predictability. *

Metrics 66

Metrics Slides Competition Activity 66

CEO Flow

JUNE 8, 2009

We can develop and deploy products faster – far beyond our clients’ ability to absorb them. * It’s time to start taking regular breaths to reflect on what we’re missing – there is a better way to increase growth more productively. We have more forecasting tools – but less predictability. *

Metrics 66

Metrics Slides Competition Activity 66

CEO Flow

JUNE 8, 2009

We can develop and deploy products faster – far beyond our clients’ ability to absorb them. * It’s time to start taking regular breaths to reflect on what we’re missing – there is a better way to increase growth more productively. We have more forecasting tools – but less predictability. *

Metrics 66

Metrics Startup Slides Activity 66

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

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.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital Sales Slides Startup 275

CEO Flow

JUNE 8, 2009

We can develop and deploy products faster – far beyond our clients’ ability to absorb them. * It’s time to start taking regular breaths to reflect on what we’re missing – there is a better way to increase growth more productively. We have more forecasting tools – but less predictability. *

Metrics 40

Metrics Slides Competition Activity 40

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. 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. It may be that all the doomsayers are right. Where is it?

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

I was on the way back to LA from a ski vacation in Switzerland where I decided while sliding down a glacier that if I survived I would start my own advertising agency. A post that I like is: " Tech Companies: Can You Explain Your Product to a Six-Year-Old? Not one of these ways is low rates. It launches November 16.

Marketing 150

Marketing Social Media Blogging Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. Imagine the “typical&# deal – somebody comes into a VC’s office, they’ve never met, they’re highly referred by a friend and they’re pitching a product demo and a PPT. I’m personally 70% management, 30% product.

Startup 360

Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 28, 2012

Because we are still in idea stage, it is in the best interest of the company to keep only a few key people to work on executing the product. When I was creating the slide to introduce the team, he asked to be listed as an iOS developer instead of a designer as he was registered. Again, the answer I got was, “I’m on it.”

Startup 100

Startup Ideas San Diego Mentor 100

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Pivoting - Chris Dixon , June 14, 2010 My Hunch cofounders and I frequently ask ourselves: “If we were to start over today, would we build our product the same way we had so far?&# 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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

The bring your product to life. Establish the persona of the person who would be using your products. Tell us what their life is like without your product – how they struggle. Tell us about the breakthrough they’ll have when they’re using your product. They had slides with moving images and music.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

The need for creativity extends well beyond product design. When I need to give a speech and I’m writing a slide for my deck, I think up the story in my mind that I’m going to tell for this slide. Yet most startups seem to constrain creativity to product design. Many people are visual thinkers. No matter.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

Have calls or emails with other board members before the board meeting Equally I spend a lot of time talking with other non-management board member prior to the board meeting. If I see tons of “update slides” and know that we don’t have an important board decision I might just bite my tongue. And importantly?—?even I try not to be.

Startup 251

Startup Help Technical Review Writing 251

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

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.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

My recommendation is to have an 8-12 slide decks with only the most critical factors of your business. The great thing about the VC pitch deck is that you can have 30 slides. Each slide should be minimalist, more graphics and less text. Too many people have 15-20 slides. Give them the iPod not Microsoft Office products.

Slides 346

Slides Software Review Blogging Venture Capital 346