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

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2013

I “second the message” that chaos never subsides, from a couple of successful entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, in their book “ Conquer the Chaos.” Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 105

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. raise money now to weather any storms). And last quarter we now know grew at just 1.6%. Such is the case with advanced batteries.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Xconomy

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla made big headlines almost six years ago when he wrote a blog post called “Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms?” Along the way, Khosla has invested in a range of startup companies—including several tackling radiology, cardiology, and mental health (see slide and list at bottom)—that are.

Artificial Inteligence 98

Artificial Inteligence Slides Blogging Entrepreneur 98

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2011

I second the message that chaos never subsides, from a couple of successful entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, in their book “ Conquer the Chaos.” Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Slides IP Technology 95

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. Entrepreneurs often proclaim that they will work harder and more efficiently than competitors, thus reducing costs and improving productivity.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2015

Equally bad is a full tutorial on your new disruptive technology. Investors are more interested in your solution and your business, rather than your technology. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time.

Slides 105

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 105

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

In most cases, these applicants for equity funding must be rooted in technology to apply to this limited discussion. You will have to hone your story well, down to fifteen minutes and perhaps fifteen slides in your presentation. Friends and family investors. Some can supply more when syndicating with other such groups.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. Specifically we talked about Slide having gotten a $550 million valuation before being sold to Google for $182 million.

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2013

Equally bad is an extended pitch on your new disruptive technology. Investors are more interested in your solution and your business, rather than your technology. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time.

Angel 102

Angel Funding Slides Technical Review 102

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

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. If you are raising funds, list “do nothing” as a viable competitor in your slide deck.

Competition 189

Competition Slides Sales Ideas 189

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I also recently wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. If you’re not “feeling it&# then you need to get to the slides or demo quickly as a means of trying to engage. I need something structured like slides or a demo to orient me.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. Some dreams sound great, but may not yet be viable or proven with today’s technology. Present at trade shows and network with your ten-slide pitch to build your following.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In reality, they need a separate pitch about the business, carrying over only a slide or two about the solution. A great entrepreneur has both, with the ability to tell the difference.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

We started hanging out a bit and discussing technology and entrepreneurship. After seeing Chamillionaire interact with several entrepreneurs both at events and as an investor I started introducing him to startups in an advisory capacity. We’ve been debating various business concepts he has and what it would take to build them.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Equally bad is a full tutorial on your new disruptive technology. Investors are more interested in your solution and your business, rather than your technology. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time.

Startup 64

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 64

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

Entrepreneurs can still build big businesses on the outskirts.” David encourages entrepreneurs to stay away from the big tech firms (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) because they are hard to compete with. As per my video, think about the data in the following slide. Where David is Totally Right.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

As an aspiring entrepreneur, one of the most important things you need is a memorable “ elevator pitch ,” to communicate your startup value proposition and leave a great first impression on friends, investors, employees, and future customers. Describe technology and features, not competitiveness.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

But at the end of the day most LPs (like most VCs we surveyed) believe that the president likely won’t have a major impact one way or the other on how the venture capital markets and therefore the underlying technology startup markets perform. If you need the original keynote slides for any reason — just ask.

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Seed Funding Capital 286

socalTECH

MARCH 18, 2009

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we are featuring a podcast from Andrew Warner founder of Mixergy, which runs a popular series of technology networking events in Los Angeles. But it turns out that parents who used the site only wanted basic features, like the ability to see a picture of their kids sliding into third base.

Mixergy 113

Mixergy Slides Company Companies 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

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.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

I “second the message” that chaos never subsides, from a couple of successful entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, in their book “ Conquer the Chaos.” Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive. Your income drops. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 100

Startup Slides Entrepreneur IP 100

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 360

Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2012

Equally bad is an extended pitch on your new disruptive technology. Investors are more interested in your solution and your business, rather than your technology. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time.

Tips 97

Tips Slides Technical Review Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2011

Equally bad is an extended pitch on your new disruptive technology. Investors are more interested in your solution and your business, rather than your technology. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time.

Slides 95

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

I’m still amazed at how many technical entrepreneurs don’t have a business pitch, and offer me their product pitch or product spec instead. Unfortunately, customers look for value in solving their problem, and new technologies alone scare them, so these solutions don’t get bought by customers, or funded. But it’s critical to have one.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

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.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

Now is the time to be an entrepreneur and create a business from your passion. On the other hand, everyone is doing it, so that means more competition, and the market and technology are changing faster than ever before. Advisors and investors need to see your whole story in as few as ten slides.

Funding 73

Funding Social Media Slides Platform 73

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We take a really friendly, Shark Tank approach that promotes young entrepreneurs, and lets them pitch to a group of seasoned investors and venture capitalists on a panel, and where they not only get an actual investment, but also go through a retail challenge, to get consumer feedback. How did you get involved with angel investing, initially?

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Competition 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

Talk us through how the person using your product is benefiting through your technology. They had slides with moving images and music. If you really get nervous and are afraid you’ll forget your lines have one 3X5 cue card in your hands for each slide. Don’t: show us every single feature – we don’t care.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I started by trying to think I could explain my concept without having to patronize everybody with artificial PowerPoint slides. This approach generally works well with customers because I find it much easier to build rapport when we talk like humans than when we all stare at the PowerPoint slides being projected on the wall.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Unless you are a serial entrepreneur with a string of successes behind you, you need a business plan to convince investors that you can build a business out of the dream that has been driving your passion to change the world. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Every entrepreneur needs a value proposition statement for his or her startup that can hook potential investors and partners in less than a minute -- the short time you might join them in an elevator on the way to their offices. Good hooks define a real problem, followed by a specific solution (not technology).

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2017

In my experience to the contrary, first-time entrepreneurs without a written plan almost always fail. A good executive summary, backed up by a few PowerPoint slides should be more than adequate. Yet it’s interesting to note that most serial entrepreneurs don’t hesitate to create or ask for detailed business plans on every new venture.

Writing 71

Writing Startup Slides Entrepreneur 71

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

If you don’t already read Chris’s blog you should – it’s very well written, often takes a strong POV and speaks from an entrepreneur’s perspective but with a huge knowledge of the technology investors as well. Sometimes it’s to play around with new technology. He is both.

Product 348

Product Startup Design Blogging 348