Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

.&# It was my investment philosophy that observing teams’ performance over time was far more insightful than reacting to how good of a product demo they do, how good they present Powerpoint slides or how great tech blogs say they are. I felt the exact same way when I was an entrepreneur. Lines vs. Dots is all about people.

Entrepreneur 330

Entrepreneur Marketing Venture Capital Hulu 330

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. Can you just show up without one? I think the norm in the industry is still to see Powerpoint slides and I wouldn’t hold this against anybody. I funded them 8 weeks later. Call an audible.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2013

The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Angel 102

Angel Funding Slides Technical Review 102

InfoChachkie

JULY 1, 2013

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.

Slides 154

Slides Tips Startup Research 154

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded early by one of the 318,000 active Angel investors in the USA alone. Most of these investors are members of Angel groups that have a rigorous filtering and screening process, to select the top 3% and most fundable proposals. Line up an experienced team. Build a prototype product.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2012

The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Tips 97

Tips Slides Technical Review Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2011

The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Slides 95

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 95

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. The Gust Deal Funnel from the last 12 months indicates is that 70% of the interested companies never make it past the initial screening process. Line up an experienced team. Start early on this one, or you will lose the opportunity.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. The AngelSoft Deal Funnel from the last 12 months indicates is that 70% of the interested companies never make it past the initial screening process. Line up an experienced team. Start early on this one, or you will lose the opportunity.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2010

I was recently a judge at a local event where the time limit for each startup was two minutes. Yet a big complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often waste their time and forget to get to the point. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point. Check the setup and set the stage.

Tips 56

Tips Slides Startup Research 56

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

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 ;-)). Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

Francisco Dao came up with the idea of letting 10 companies that weren’t selected for Twiistup to do a presentation the night before to a group of people and let the audience pick one company to win the final slot at Twiistup. I’ll put up the video when they post it on their website. Stories have starts, middles and ends.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. It eventually closed at 11,204 in April ’10 before sliding back around 10,000 as I sit here and type. It has taken years and many false starts, but finally we are about to witness mass-produced electric cars and trucks.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298