Berkonomics

JANUARY 14, 2021

If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision, become excited by your enthusiasm and be willing to become the internal champion for your fund-raising effort.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Summary Email 156

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

I get questions from startup founders about executive summaries all the time. I answered some of those questions in a previous post, Crafting Your Executive Summary , so I won’t rehash them here. Here’s what not to do when crafting your executive summary. They range from “what should I include?” to “how long should it be?”

Summary 40

Summary Outsource Development Writing Outsource 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea. Venture Capital is a tricky industry. Far from it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. A deck is a deck. Just send it.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Competition 239

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. One of the most important aims of a fund-raising process is to keep similar firms at the same stage of your process. Why 8–10 and not just 3–4?

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.” I mean, in a real fund-raising process?

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2015

We will have two well-funded companies educating the market on why this market opportunity for the $24 billion US storage market is ripe for disruption. When we funded Sam , Rahul and team at MakeSpace > 2.5 ” In summary: The competitors are the incumbents. Pretending the funding didn’t happen is dumb.

Funding 150

Funding Competition Marketing Summary 150

Berkonomics

JUNE 19, 2014

If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision, become excited by your enthusiasm and be willing to become the internal champion for your fund-raising effort.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Summary Email 207

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As such, the primary goal of your executive summary is to open the door to an in-person meeting. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

Many entrepreneurs seems to be convinced that the “crowd” of regular people using the Internet will somehow solve their startup funding needs, when they sense a lack of interest from accredited investors. Amount of funding provided is usually not enough. Many fail spectacularly after exceeding their funding objectives.

Funding 101

Funding Equity Entrepreneur Invest 101

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Very few people fund individuals. Professional angels / former entrepreneurs / seed funds – In Silicon Valley there are people like Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Mike Maples and many more. And whenever I needed to round up signatures for future fund raisings it was difficult to track him down / get him to care.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). Short summary of my posts: 1. Knowing What the Seed Funding Policy of your VC is. More on this later.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2023

They don’t realize that according to statistics from Startup.co , almost 60 percent are funded with personal savings and credit, and another 25 percent get their money from friends and family. That leaves only about fifteen percent that actually get their funding from investors, through crowdfunding, banks, angels, and venture capitalists.

Statistics 98

Statistics Entrepreneur Funding Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

This is why so many great LA funds like Upfront, Greycroft and B Capital Global have all backed Bird. Summary Bird has created a brand-new transportation sector that has captured the imagination of riders and investors alike. Bird is the natural evolution in billion-dollar++ outcomes in LA.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2014

Here is a summary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends, family, or even fools: Don’t be afraid to ask, carefully. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. Ask for the minimum rather than the maximum.

Startup 106

Startup Funding Technical Review Ideas 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

With the current volatile economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or going public through the side door as a reverse merger. Marty Zwilling.

Funding 104

Funding Summary Entrepreneur Acquisition 104

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. As you can see below the number of seed funds shot up dramatically between 2006 and 2014. It’s very noticeable in terms of funds raised, dollars invested and deals completed.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2013

Many entrepreneurs seems to be convinced that the “crowd” of regular people using the Internet will somehow solve their startup funding needs, when they sense a lack of interest from accredited investors. Amount of funding provided is usually not enough. Crowd sample size and makeup not representative of market.

Funding 106

Funding Equity Entrepreneur Sample 106

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2023

There are no guarantees, but various studies have found that entrepreneurs who create a good plan generally double their chances of securing funding and building a successful business. Your idea may be technically right, but without a business plan, it could be dead right, which is not the result anyone is looking for.

Startup 102

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2014

With the uptick in the economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, and an old one long out of favor, the so-called “reverse merger.” Marty Zwilling.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Entrepreneur Summary 98

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2016

On the surface that sounds unremarkable — fundings happen daily. But this isn’t just any funding. That’s why this funding story is different. It’s a Chanukkah story where 18 months of venture capital funding ends up lasting more than 4 years and where against all odds the underdog succeeds. of credit for its success.

Venture Capital 199

Venture Capital Summary Writing Funding 199

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2023

Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan. It does need to include a high-level summary of the components in the product plan, with key additional sections as follows: Definition of customer problem, followed by your solution.

Product 112

Product Summary Activity Customer 112

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Here is a summary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends, family, or even fools: Don’t be afraid to ask, carefully. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. Ask for the minimum rather than the maximum.

Invest 135

Invest Technical Review Startup Ideas 135

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. Yet according to the latest data from AngelSoft , only about 3 out of 100 companies who initiate the formal request process actually get funded. Remember the old adage that “investors fund people, not ideas.” Build an investor presentation and summary.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below. Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Summary: Amazon.com's own entry into the online movie contest business, Amazon Studios said it will award $2.7 Summary: Openfilm has its own warchest of film financing dollars as part of its online movie competition site, saying in April that it would invest $1M into independent filmmakers who are selected through the online community.

Sites 217

Sites Hollywood Summary USC 217

TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

Due diligence prep: You’re coming up on a funding round or looking at a potential exit. We provide you with a report, written for a business audience, that includes: Executive Summary: We grade your architecture, source code, process, and teams, and provide a brief rationale for each grade. But what does the right team look like?

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review TechEmpower 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2011

At any rate, here is my summary of the top ten from my experience with hundreds of elevator pitches, business plans, and executive presentations: “Our product is truly disruptive technology.” No investor wants to wait that long for his return, or fund the years of waiting. A world-class CEO will be joining us after the funding event.”

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Funding Innocal Competition 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision.

Education 151

Education Customer Custom Sales 151

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Rolf Winkler wrote a piece in the WSJ about A16Z’s returns in which he says they “lag behind Sequoia, Benchmark and Founders Fund.” Scott Kupor of A16Z responded with a comprehensive overview of valuation methodology in a post that while accurate feels more targeted at sophisticated Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in funds.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Invest Funding Competition 264

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 24, 2023

Here is a paraphrased summary of the eight-level scale she offers, with my own insights and experience added, for your consideration in starting your own self-assessment and move up: Extreme bias toward status quo as the right way. Sustained executive sponsorship with funding. This requires dedicated resources of both time and money.

Organization 111

Organization Resource Activity Examples 111

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2011

One of the hot new approaches I have seen around the country for assisting startups looking for funding has been “crowd-sourcing” sites ( Kickstarter ) or “crowd-pitching” events ( Funding Universe ). These are variations on a “crowd-funding” theme to raise money for a startup through social networks and voting at public events.

Funding 92

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 92

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2010

Notice that I didn’t say anywhere that a good business plan has to be at least 20 pages, or have ten sections, or must start with an executive summary. You really need a business plan for you own efforts, even if external funding is not a requirement. With no plan, I hope you have unlimited personal funds or at least a rich uncle!

Startup 91

Startup Funding Sample Writing 91

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2017

Lead with your two-page executive summary, be prepared to give a ten-slide investor presentation. If the investor thinks you are coming to ask for domain advice, and you ask for money, your success probabilities are shot. Fully prepare for the assault. Don’t try to talk and demo your way up the hill.

Funding 60

Funding Slides Outsource Summary 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

He or she wants to know how long the money you will raise will last and whether this is long enough to warrant taking a risk on funding you. VCs tend not to want to fund founders who raise too much money in a given round also because they know that sometimes having too many resources will lead to founders burning through cash too quickly.

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Course 247

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

At this San Diego Event, we will be showcasing some of the newest early-stage venture funds and angel groups in the San Diego area! As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. All of the Investors will get your company description and contact info!

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100