Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Most advisors will tell you to write the business plan first (20-30 pages), then distill the key points into a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides for standup presentations to potential investors. Solution product & technology.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

Be super polite and not aggressive and simply make the point that you really want the most productive time from your board members. I know many executives want to “stay productive” while they’re in the meeting and not being called on but if they’re not present and participating then you might as well leave them out of the room.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 30, 2020

Join JJ Richa in a fireside chat with Scott Fox, CEO of the OC Startup Council, for a discussion of the top mistakes that early stage entrepreneurs make when pitching their startups for funding.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Startup Slides Venture Capital 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2020

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. Some entrepreneurs seem to think that their product pitch is also their investor pitch. Then match your pace to cover all the material. Check the setup and set the stage.

Startup 118

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 118

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. Remember, investors are buying into the business, not the product.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Berkonomics

APRIL 11, 2019

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. [Email readers, continue here…] Doing nothing is the main competitor for most products and services, whether a compelling new idea or a seasoned product long proven to be effective.

Competition 120

Competition Slides Sales Research 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2022

I have found it to be more productive and effective to lead with the model that no meetings will take an hour, and may be done in as little as five minutes. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive. Provide immediate direct and constructive feedback. Marty Zwilling.

Mentor 154

Mentor Technical Review Coach Slides 154

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2015

I have found it to be more productive and effective to lead with the model that no meetings will take an hour, and may be done in as little as five minutes. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive. Provide immediate direct and constructive feedback.

Product 99

Product Mentor Startup Technical Review 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Avoid PowerPoint and graphic slide presentations. He, like Steve Jobs, believes the process of generating a short written narrative forces a clarity of thinking not found in visual slide presentations. It is also a huge productivity gain, to offset PowerPoint's infamous ability to reduce organizational intelligence.

Slides 137

Slides Customer Custom Satisfaction 137

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I would argue that this mostly consists of consumer Internet companies (although not exclusively) and it is predominantly early-stage people who are product gurus and have a mildly technical bend to them. I’m a product geek more than a spreadsheet ninja. The product feedback will be invaluable. The best policy is to ask.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

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. I’m a technologist, so I always love to learn about the product, but every investor needs to make sure you have a business, as well as a product. But it’s critical to have one.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

socalTECH

APRIL 21, 2009

Hollywood-based Katalyst Media , the content production firm of Ashton Kutcher, announced a live streaming deal with Ustream, and release of the firm's KatalystHQ season finale. Separately, Katalyst and Slide said that it will release the season finale for the firm's online series KatalystHQ on Slide's FunSpace site Wednesday.

Slides 133

Slides Media Hollywood Content 133

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

But not anal if one founder who shares equity graciously with early employees who are treated as “co-founders” My idea startup team is heaving on tech personnel but also has strong product management. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use. For the wrong reasons.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

And even then Microsoft has substitute products as anyone who has taken Econ 101 will tell you. The “competition slide&# of your investment deck is such a great opportunity to talk about how you’re positioned (premium product vs. economical product? Competition. Harvey Balls.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

InfoChachkie

JULY 1, 2013

If you are forced to display financial data, ensure that the slides are unintelligible. we hope to eventually complete our development, once we begin shipping product, etc.). An effective method to incite Death By PowerPoint is to deploy an extraordinary number of slides. Limit the use of pictures or graphs on your slides.

Slides 220

Slides Tips Startup RSS 220

socalTECH

JUNE 12, 2014

Accoridng to L''Oreal Paris and GumGum, they are using image recognition technology to dynamically target product ads, based on hair color identified in photos of faces on its publisher partners'' sites. L''Oreal will show ads for dark hair coloring products based on images with brown or black hair.

Technology 147

Technology Slides Help Santa Monica 147

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

They bring your product to life. Establish the persona of the person who would be using your products. Tell us what their life is like without your product – how they struggle. Tell us about the breakthrough they’ll have when they’re using your product. Stories have starts, middles and ends.

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Some readers have commented that in today’s world you shouldn’t even need a PowerPoint presentation – in this era you should always just demo your product. 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. Very few people ask.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

The days of mass production and commodity pricing as an asset are gone. Companies that offer value beyond their product or service, for social and environmental good, are seen as leading the way forward to a shared future abundance. Develop a personal-engagement extraordinary service mentality.

Commerce 109

Commerce Customer Custom Slides 109

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. Order-of-magnitude cost reduction or productivity increase. Clear product differentiation and a singular focus.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

InfoChachkie

JULY 1, 2013

If you are forced to display financial data, ensure that the slides are unintelligible. we hope to eventually complete our development, once we begin shipping product, etc.). An effective method to incite Death By PowerPoint is to deploy an extraordinary number of slides. Limit the use of pictures or graphs on your slides.

Slides 154

Slides Tips Startup Research 154

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Almost always the CEO plus members of his or her management team including tech, marketing, sales and/or product. Assign out slides: The best way to involve your team members is to assign out slides they will own. But I find when you don’t assign slides that each person owns often the quiet team members get silenced.

Venture Capital 377

Venture Capital Slides Course Summary 377

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 20, 2013

Last week, Google hosted their annual developer’s conference Google I/O , announcing some exciting new products and releases that will likely change the world in the few years to come. And of course, one of the products that were heavily discussed about was Google+. New Google+ announced in last week’s Google I/O.

Google 83

Google Slides Design Conference 83

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2022

Lead with your two-page executive summary, be prepared to give a ten-slide investor presentation. Don’t insist on a product demo – he is buying the business, not the product. Fully prepare for the assault. Don’t try to talk and demo your way up the hill. Talk bounces off and won’t stop any bullets. Better safe than sorry.

Slides 126

Slides Outsource Summary Conference 126

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2012

The event--one of a number of events focused on LA tech, entertainment & startups tied into the Silicon Beach Fest--will award $20,000 in cash from StartEngine, $12,000 in cloud hosting services from Peak Hosting, and many other prizes to the top technical products cooked up at the event.

Southern California 145

Southern California Slides Entertainment Startup 145

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. Don’t dwell on this slide for ever. If I have an hour with you I want to maximise the time we have a discussion so I want to get through the slides quickly. It’s in their personality type.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

It’s a reminder that unless your prospect has a need to solve a problem they are not going to buy a product. Too many sales reps walk into customer meetings with their pre-canned sales decks and proudly squawk through 30 of their favorite slides without engaging the customer in a discussion.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2019

I have found it to be more productive and effective to lead with the model that no meetings will take an hour, and may be done in as little as five minutes. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive. Provide immediate direct and constructive feedback. Marty Zwilling.

Mentor 124

Mentor Technical Review Coach Slides 124

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

Management teams whisk through slides trying to get through a presentation to share how great things are going and they are eager to get through the meeting so they can get back to their real jobs. I can’t change who your board members are so let me offer some thoughts on how to make your interactions with your board more productive.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2015

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. Some entrepreneurs seem to think that their product pitch is also their investor pitch. Then match your pace to cover all the material. Check the setup and set the stage.

Slides 105

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 105

socalTECH

DECEMBER 16, 2010

San Diego-based Chumby Industries , the maker of Internet-enabled, application-capable devices, said this week that it has launched a new version of its product for Android. Chumby's software runs mini apps for viewing stock quotes, weather, video clips, slide show, and other information. ,/p>.

Avalon 160

Avalon Slides San Diego Software 160

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

Doing nothing is the main competitor for most products and services, whether a compelling new idea or a seasoned product long proven to be effective. It could be that a larger competitor has met with its customers, promising to extend its product line into this very niche.

Competition 189

Competition Slides Sales Ideas 189

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2022

Based on their years of experience as successful executives and productivity consultants, they and I agree that focusing on these key positive elements will more likely get you the accountability you desire: Set clear and high standards of performance. Moran and Michael Lennington.

Coach 145

Coach Slides Social Network Metrics 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

Even if it’s only a few PowerPoint slides or typed paragraphs, writing something down is the first step toward making it real. Before you know it, you will have a ten-slide pitch that you can use to gauge interest from potential customers, as well as friends, family, and early investors.

Ideas 99

Ideas Slides Writing Startup 99

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

I love good causes and social entrepreneurs, but a recent pitch to me about eliminating world hunger with a new product (harvesting algae at low cost) seemed to forget that really hungry people don’t have any money. 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

JANUARY 10, 2021

The days of mass production and commodity pricing as an asset are gone. Companies that offer value beyond their product or service, for social and environmental good, are seen as leading the way forward to a shared future abundance. Develop a personal-engagement extraordinary service mentality.

Customer 140

Customer Custom Slides Commerce 140

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

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. Some entrepreneurs seem to think that their product pitch is also their investor pitch. Then match your pace to cover all the material. Check the setup and set the stage.

Startup 64

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 64