Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2022

Every startup wants to be a predictable success, yet so few ever achieve this enviable position. His studies show that companies at this stage show five key characteristics, which I believe every startup should strive to achieve from the very beginning: Decision making. As a startup, you need to walk before you can run.

Startup 140

Startup Framework Slides Resource 140

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

If a VC has read your deck and gets the basic premise they will turn up to your meeting a lot more prepared to discuss & debate the merits of your deal versus trying to think about it on the fly. These additional slides are often called “pocket slides” as in you have them in your pocket in case you need to pull them out.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Funding 261

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

Announce at the start of the meeting that you’d like the board meeting to be “electronics free” including mobile phones, laptops or tablets. You will encounter many sensible people who say versions of this: @msuster I quite often use my laptop to look up and quickly research and feedback things we are talking about in the meeting.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

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! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Executive team.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

In a VC business when you raise additional capital you need to “level up” and act the round you are. I’d say 20% of startups I see level-up early after their A round. These are important leveling-up activities but the CEO is often still up at 10pm f **g around with QuickBooks entries.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

We started with our financial statements. So I changed things up and became much happier with my results. 1. Set two strategic topics per board meeting and start with them – I bet most of you feel that you have pretty talented people around the table but you get stuck talking about the minutiae of your business.

Startup 331

Startup Slides Guide Writing 331

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

Managing Your Startup Board?—?A My talk was about “ managing your startup board ” and the full deck is on that SlideShare link and embedded below. I also wrote an entire series on the topic of Startup Boards if you want to do any more reading that link has several articles you can dig into. link] Managing Your Startup Board?—?A

Startup 234

Startup Slides Venture Capital Course 234

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! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Executive team. Marty Zwilling.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. If you plan to set one up – no problem. Advisory Board Problems : There are several problems that I have encountered myself and in my many discussions with CEO’s who have set up advisory boards. Too much effort.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Berkonomics

JANUARY 21, 2021

And if you are making a one-to-one presentation, don’t start without a conversation about the other person’s knowledge of your space. Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response. Asking the important question creates a connection. How I ask the question.

Slides 156

Slides Startup Venture Capital Email 156

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 5, 2018

The purpose of this workshop is to educate idea-to-early stage startups about investors, fundraising, and how to make a successful pitch. We're going deep into the investors' mind to understand how they analyze startups for investment. Saturday, August 11, 2018 -- Pitch Genius Workshop.

Slides 100

Slides Education Ideas Invest 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Have minimums but a sliding scale. Sometimes it actually does.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. ” We talked about my influences as a younger person and what got me started in technology and entrepreneurship. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

Many of them have their iPhones and laptops ready to command their attention the moment that you start sucking. Stories have starts, middles and ends. I They all start to blend together. In any speech I do that is information rich I often have a summary slide at the end with the key points I want them to remember.

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

socalTECH

JUNE 12, 2014

In a demonstration of the power of targeting in a world of ubiquitous computing power, Santa Monica-based ad startup GumGum is powering a new advertising campaign which is able to target ads based on hair color shown in photos. GumGum offers up in-image photo advertising technology, which slides in ads in photographs and images.

Technology 147

Technology Slides Help Santa Monica 147

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

AnyMeeting offers up an online service which lets users run webinars, run online meetings, share screens and slides, and much more. AnyMeeting got its start as Freebinar. CEO Costin Tuculescu said in an email that "We don't have anything to announce at this time." READ MORE>>.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Keiretsu Slides Pasadena Angels 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. First to market, for example, is not normally a sustainable advantage for startups. Startup team with experience and connections is this domain.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

He shared a number of witty entrepreneurial insights, including: "Startups are like high school. Note: I am an investor in Brian''s current startup via Rincon Venture Partners.). But the more I started to think about it, I said, well, why the hell not? and it was run by some college students up north (at) Stanford.

Startup 223

Startup Yahoo Santa Barbara Slides 223

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Note: This is Part I in the Startup Advantages series. Startups have few advantages. The more sensitive the data and potentially damaging to your company, the more likely it will end up in the hands of someone who can use it against you. If the other party asks you to send them your slides, find out why they need them.

Startup 216

Startup Slides Resource Organization 216

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Startup 64

Startup Slides Technical Review Research 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well. Here's an example of that kind of email.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

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. Can you just show up without one? Act I – The Discussion: You’re goal in starting the meeting is to establish rapport. I need something structured like slides or a demo to orient me.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

InfoChachkie

JULY 1, 2013

If you are forced to display financial data, ensure that the slides are unintelligible. An effective method to incite Death By PowerPoint is to deploy an extraordinary number of slides. A minimum of 20 to 30 slides per minute is a reasonable rule of thumb. Limit the use of pictures or graphs on your slides.

Slides 220

Slides Tips Startup RSS 220

SoCal Tech Calendar

APRIL 8, 2018

We're going deep into the investors mind to really understand how they analyze startups for investment. Through a slide-by-slide explanation of an investor pitch deck, learn what turns investors on, what turns them off, and what investors absolutely abhor when founders are pitching them.

Slides 100

Slides Education Invest Startup 100

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp, Sept 2009) View more documents from Dave McClure. We need to make sure we have these numbers. Great stuff.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Web 2.0 Slides 225

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

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. I recommend starting with a brief overview of you, your company and your solution. Startup Advice' Just watch Mad Men and you’ll know that.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Custom 367

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 16, 2013

Article after article points out that Los Angeles is on its way to becoming one of the most robust startup communities in the United States. It is meant to bring everyone together so that they can learn, network and leave with the sense that they now belong to a family of entrepreneurs, all trying to make LA a startup hub.

Rustic Canyon 74

Rustic Canyon Startup Los Angeles Class 74

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

We had a training session from somebody who put up the four-quadrant graph you see above. This is really important as extroverts like to have the answers presented to them up front. For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

The Quigley Report

MARCH 4, 2008

Early stage VCs typically say that the ebbs and flows of the stock market don't effect the valuations they pay in start up financings. Whereas just a few months ago it was possible to get a 3X step up in valuation from the Series A to the Series B round, it is now more likely that the step up will be 1 to 1.5X.

Startup 40

Startup Slides Marketing Clearstone 40

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. Can you just show up without one? I think the norm in the industry is still to see Powerpoint slides and I wouldn’t hold this against anybody. I funded them 8 weeks later. Call an audible.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 24, 2017

No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado on Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm. You’ll have 2 minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then 2 minutes of questions. Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement.

Slides 213

Slides Los Angeles Angel Startup 213

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2014

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. business consultant entrepreneur specialist startup'

Startup 102

Startup Slides Customer Custom 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2015

The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. If you start by pitching your extended life story, that’s the wrong point. If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. Start with the problem and your solution.

Slides 105

Slides Technical Review Startup Research 105

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