Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2020

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing 125

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 125

Berkonomics

MARCH 23, 2017

But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Writing 243

Writing 243

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)).

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing 109

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 109

TechEmpower

MAY 17, 2013

Additionally, we have added a new test type focused on writes, wherein a variable number of database updates are executed per request. Note that the Windows configuration presently retains the Linux-hosted database server—only the web/application server is running Windows Server 2012.

Framework 524

Framework EC2 Web Writing 524

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have a piece from GRP Partners' Mark Suster , who--after watching and judging pitches at last week's Twiistup event--gives some hints and tips about how not to suck at presentations. Most people suck at presenting to big groups. No great presentation can be delivered like a conversation.

Twiistup 124

Twiistup GRP Partners Tips UCLA 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A It’s why I always work hard to find images for my blog posts & why all of my keynote presentations are visual rather than bullet points with words. When I write a blog post I often see the words before I write them.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

TechEmpower

OCTOBER 30, 2018

Write a blog entry and post the Round. For weeks, we have been stuck at step 4 waiting on me to write something, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet to get this out before Halloween. We are presently working on a few things that we hope to share with the community soon. Run the same commit on cloud (Azure). Other updates.

Framework 75

Framework Software Review TechEmpower Writing 75

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Every time I think to write a post about this I figure the most recent board meeting I’ve attended will think it’s about them so I don’t bother. So I’m going to write a series of board meetings posts unrelated to anybody or maybe an amalgamation of them all. I have much more to say on the topic.

Writing 337

Writing Venture Capital Help SaaS 337

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 15, 2010

Jason started the Open Angel Forum in response to his frustration that entrepreneurs were being charged by some angel organizations to present at their events. Asking young companies with limited capital to pay to present to a group of potential investors is insane. 5 companies presented for 7-8 minutes each followed by Q&A.

Angel 254

Angel Startup Tech Coast Angels MyShape 254

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Thursday, October 6, 2011 -- EFactor presents: 7 Steps to a Successful Startup. Entrepreneurs don't like to write business plans, but how do you know if there is real potential for you idea? Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, will also give a presentation on tips and tricks of starting your own business. See [link] (more)

TechEmpower 100

TechEmpower Startup Tips Writing 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

I often felt like it was a sort of Meeting Tourette’s Syndrome problem I had but when people present and move very slowly covering obvious ground and making no point the pressure in my builds and builds until I almost accidentally blurt out uncontrollably. ” I write. This hit me over the head. I wish I didn’t.

Startup 416

Startup Entrepreneur Writing Help 416

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. OK, well, actually the first thing I did is come up with a list of 50 posts that I wanted to write. I didn’t want to run out of things to write about in the first 6 months. My first series was the slides that go into a PowerPoint presentation.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2011

I wanted to write a quick post on a pet peeve that I have when teams present “who they are” whether in a bio slide or just in the up front introductions. For starters I think that if you bring people to the meeting with you they should all have a role in the presentation. Why is it a pet peeve?

Slides 296

Slides GRP Partners Venture Capital Writing 296

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I did a presentation about the use of Social Media to a great group of people who mostly are different kinds of service professionals (attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.). I promised that I would do a follow-up post with some thoughts out of the presentation and providing links. Be interested in what they write.

Social Media 222

Social Media Services Media Blogging 222

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I recently attended and presented at Dave McClure’s PreMoney conference in San Francisco. I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. Here is the video of the presentation that I gave that preceded our debate. tl;dr version. And we ended. Startup Lessons'

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

I’m still planning to write some in depth pieces on the topic but I thought, “given that this is about how video will consume the Internet over the next 5 years, what better way to exemplify this than with a 10-minute video.” I believe that for any innovation to take place you need a variety of factors to be present.

GRP Partners 371

GRP Partners Content Technical Review Press 371

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2023

But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Writing 177

Writing 177

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 13, 2010

I’ve always believed that you learn a great deal when you’re presenting, teaching or writing about what you know. 7 years ago when I used to publicly present what we learned at BuildOnline, team members would come up to me afterward and say, “Wow, we really have learned at lot. So it goes with blogging.

Blogging 250

Blogging Social Media Writing Startup 250

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

It also applies to other parts of my life such as presentations. I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. The first was to do a 5 minute “ignite&# presentation – 5 minutes, 15 slides. I left that presentation and sat down in a coffee shop.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

Startup Metrics with Dave McClure Dave McClure has a great presentation on Startup Metrics where he points to some additional metrics that are useful to consider: A : Acquisition - Where / what channels do users come from? Be sure to check out the entire presentation. Please write us at blog@techempower.com !

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Slides Technical Review 260

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 2, 2009

But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Startup 159

Startup Writing 159

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

When Nivi published the series he titled it “the top 10 things I look for before I write a check.&# As a result I felt compelled to add this final attribute because it matters a lot to me. If we’ve seen a company present where we feel that the CEO is shady. That in itself will be controversial, I know.

Technical Review 284

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Funding 284

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2011

What that did, is it helped us to expand the service to help publishers do the following: identify what content to write, how to distribute that content to various mediums, and how to monetize that content. Journalists are notorious for not wanting to write based on revenues or commercial intersts, or having anyone tell them what to write.

Marketing 232

Marketing Funding Content Writing 232

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 22, 2021

The theater has actually been largely unoccupied since 1988, which clearly meant even more work had to go into shining up the walls and making the grand old theater presentable for that modern retail vibe — not to mention a seismic upgrade to help make it more earthquake proof.

Education 299

Education Los Angeles Press Hollywood 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 11, 2011

We talked about a lot of great stuff in the video including how to do sales calls and a how a new “culture of writing&# is emerging as a critical skill set in business today. I’ll write a post on how to give feedback to employees and then I’ll get emails from people telling me they forwarded it to their whole team.

Buzzfeed 354

Buzzfeed Content Tips Blogging 354

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

This post covers the first out of 10 that I’ll write about. The moderator asked the question, “if an entrepreneur writes an email to a VC and doesn’t hear back what should they do?&# This VC responded, “Move on. The picture above is from the actual event courtesy of Dan Farber who was writing for ZDNet.

Entrepreneur 338

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 338

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2011

I have long wanted to write about FNAC (feature, not a company) because it’s part of my normal lexicon to push teams that present to me to think harder about where the economics in their industry is coming from. I then debate the topic in the comments section and hope that we all learn from the conversation.

Email 270

Email Writing Blogging Competition 270

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2010

I’m only writing about the product because I’m passionate about it. But I can always see the correlation between writing a blog or publishing on a social network and traffic. In fact, I’m surprised by how antiquated Google Analytics feels. Chartbeat is a relatively young company and product. Basically, it rocks!

Blogging 287

Blogging Google Screening Mahalo 287

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. You need to be very present in these periods of time. Being active, engaged, present, knowledgeable and having earned trust from the core team can make a huge difference on the eventual outcome of the companies.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2019

We know that good visual storytelling can be persuasive and we know that it is also important to retaining key information after a presentation has been completed or a report has been shared. Think of time spent outlining presentations and swapping online and offline notes with co-authors before you even start building.

Startup 191

Startup Social Media Slides Design 191

Berkonomics

AUGUST 2, 2017

Apple and Samsung do that with elegantly packaged, beautiful hardware, presented in a clean package with easy instructions and a “wow” user experience upon first use. Do you want to wait until that day to reform, and later write your own love letter to a battery backup? Didn’t think so….

Software Review 266

Software Review Screening Writing Activity 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2016

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing 62

Writing Summary Email Ideas 62

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 26, 2012

Miselu presented their first prototype, neiro, this year at SXSW for an early debut of what is to come from the company. Groesche got me intrigued with Miselu’s grand vision so I couldn’t help but ask him for a quick interview on the product: Tell us about presenting the product early at SXSW?

Press 100

Press Ideas Product Activity 100

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

I'm presenting Making Sure You Are Ready to Begin Building Your MVP next week at Coloft ( Details/Registration ). They look at the following high level definition of Lean: and they interpret that as write up an executive summary with your ideas and hand it to developers to build. What's going to go wrong?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. (This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. The first post & the full outline if you click the link.)

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261