Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. My partner, Brian McLoughlin , attends almost all Financial Services conference, makes a number of investments in the space and has relationships across the sector.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

That’s a reason why some are quick to portend “a new bubble” but this post sets out to show that would be a misunderstanding of the market and in fact by historic levels this may be amongst the best times to invest in seed and early-stage funds. More on that later. But there are clear pro’s and con’s. Still reading?

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

The other worthwhile exercise is to write down what your competitors uses as its USPs – even ones that you don’t think are really valuable to customers. So now you’ve got your key USPs written down and you’ve worked them into slide format to get them across to your prospects. It’s called ROI (return-on-investment) selling.

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Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

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?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Whenever you write your deck and send it out I think you should actually think to yourself, “my competitors are probably going to read this one day and this will be forwarded widely” and if your response isn’t “so what!” Because I invest in “ lines, not dots ” it’s actually the delta that I’m investing in.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. ” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.”

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Competitor: Slide.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

What Cham rarely tells people – he’s both private and humble – is that he started making some small co-investments with me in tech firms starting with Maker Studios where he was one of the earliest investors. We started hanging out a bit and discussing technology and entrepreneurship. They make a great pair.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product. Investors want to know how and when they might see some return on their investment, since startups require some event to show value. Don’t assume titles will convey this information. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Clearly a startup should consult its lawyer before filing or not filing.But the attorneys I relied on to write this piece told me that they’ve done lots of Section 4(2) deals in the past, and would recommend it to clients who had relatively simple financing agreements (not tranched-out, not too many investors, etc.) Short answer: no.

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Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. In fact, they are probably in such a hurry to give you money that they don’t want you to waste time writing anything down and passing it along to new investors.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

Because they’re street smart, most great entrepreneurs tend to prefer getting out and talking with real customers rather than sitting in a cubicle all day doing beautiful PowerPoint slides. And when they walk in my office and present you can tell that they know what they’re talking about. And the world didn’t fall apart.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Customer 306

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. Writing it down promotes both understanding and commitment.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I also find this as an invaluable source of future deal flow, future recruiting and future decisions about whom I want to co-invest with. I’m sure it’s true but consider writing yourself a note and telling them after the meeting.

Startup 251

Startup Help Technical Review Writing 251

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

RFP Generators – Another obvious investment area. Each sales person tends to slot in their own slides to win deals or to position things in their own words or style in order to win deals. The process in and of itself was pretty lengthy and at some point I’d like to write about it in more detail.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

In my experience as an angel investor, the perfect pitch length is ten slides, outlining the business problem, your solution, opportunity sizing, competition, and financial projections for the next five years. This section is especially important if you intend to attract outside investors or strategic partners.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Writing down key parameters will force you solidify the specifics, and mentally commit to them. Present at trade shows and network with your ten-slide pitch to build your following. As a result, smart investors will tell you they invest in the jockey, not the horse (people, not ideas).

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012

Business Writing for Email. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly without a big slide presentation. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Touch-Typing for Dummies.

Course 97

Course Writing Slides Email 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2013

Business Writing for Email. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly without a big slide presentation. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Touch-Typing for Dummies.

Class 93

Class Course Writing Slides 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2017

Writing a business plan is hard work, so I get lots of pushback from prospective new venture founders that it’s just a waste of their valuable time in this rapidly changing environment. They all claim to have the plan in their head, and writing it down will only slow down their success.

Writing 71

Writing Startup Slides Entrepreneur 71

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We caught up with Steve Seigel , the executive producer and one of the stars of the new startup pitch program Hatched (www.hatchedtv.com), to learn more about those areas, as well as how he ended up going from investment banking, to running a healthcare startup here in LA, to hosting a television pitch show.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Competition 100

Tech.Co

JULY 25, 2017

Luckily, there’s an abundance of lead generation tools that busy professionals can use to start building a subscriber base without investing too much time. But if you want to level things up, you can use a platform like OptinMonster to create popup forms, sliding forms, floating bars, and sidebars. GetResponse fits this bill perfectly.

Tool 37

Tool Customer Custom Sites 37

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

If you provide these slides in advance you give board members a chance to reflect and come prepared for a real discussion. In a perfect world you’d know the issues you want to discuss well in advance and you’d prepare a deck to guide the discussion. The mistake most founders make is sending out last-minute board packs. Not pushing for votes.

Guide 196

Guide Startup Metrics Conference 196

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Let me be quick to say that a plan doesn’t have be a book, and probably should start as a “pitch deck” of maybe a dozen slides which cover all the right bases. Project revenues, costs and investment needs. The details can be added later. Now let’s talk about the bases that need to be covered.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. I’m going to write a whole post on BothSid.es They controlled distribution to the masses.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

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. I think the norm in the industry is still to see Powerpoint slides and I wouldn’t hold this against anybody. I’m usually itching to just see what you’ve built. The best policy is to ask.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. Note the full presentation deck with additional slides can be found on SlideShare here or you can simply scroll through it at the bottom of this post.]. Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Many (Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, True Ventures, GRP Partners, Mike Hirshland at Polaris Ventures) do it the right way – we treat it as a normal investment and we don’t have a “options&# strategy with our investment.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

First, angel investment groups come in all sizes from a few organized angels to large groups of three hundred or more. Angel groups invest from $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more in qualified investments. You will have to hone your story well, down to fifteen minutes and perhaps fifteen slides in your presentation.

Equity 232

Equity Startup Organization Invest 232

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. think his slides are great (and by far much easier on the eye then mine.).

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. It was like nobody would give me any respect and they just saw me as the guy who goes and talks to senior people who does PowerPoint slides. If I write $2 million and we hit a bump in the road, I can write another $2 million.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

We’ve worried together about the moral obligation implicit in taking such investments from people so close, even with their promise never to expect a return. There is an exemption from the requirements that these investors be accredited with net worth or income minimums to qualify legally to invest in your company. Accelerators.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in VC funds have continued to pour money into venture – with the market returning to pre-recession levels. I would also point out that with corporates investing in more VC funds and Chinese money looking for stability, it’s entirely possible totally new money enters our system.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Course Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2013

Of course, you can’t predict everything, but writing down what you know will identify existing problems sooner, and allow other team members to help. If your execution doesn’t include the expected cash flow management, investments can get withheld, and executives lose their jobs. They pay just the smallest bills and let the rest slide.

Startup 114

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 114