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How to Get a VC's Attention at an IRL Event

This is going to be BIG.

What Alan recognized was that most IRL forums and networking events are absolutely awful places to pitch and here’s why: 1) When a VC shows up in person, they’re looking to replicate the kind of top of the funnel they would get in an hour or two’s worth of e-mail, and that’s not going to happen if you corral them into a corner for 30 minutes.

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Why Aren’t There More Female Entrepreneurs?

Both Sides of the Table

Even more interesting is that at GRP Partners (the VC firm where I’m a partner) our two most successful returns from our previous fund [which is ranked as the top performing fund in the country for its 2000 vintage according to Prequin] were both run by women! The latest entrepreneur who has been pitching me, Shahed Khan , is only 16!

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Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers

Both Sides of the Table

M y company had raised a seed round of capital in late 1999 even before either of us were full time in the company (ominous side note: on the way to pitch our seed investor, Delta Partners, a man walking right in front of me died of a massive heart attack making me late to the meeting. True story.)

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Sevens Don't Get Funded

This is going to be BIG.

I get 2000 things passing through my inbox in any given year, and I make about ten investments per year. How excited do you think I am if I’m only picking the top 10 out of 2000? That’s because of the simple math of competition. Do you think any of those handful of deals are seven out of ten?

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Time is the Enemy of All Deals

Both Sides of the Table

We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. Our final closure was the first week of March 2000. We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. Our final closure was the first week of March 2000. They accepted my argument.

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Does the Size of a VC Fund Matter?

Both Sides of the Table

It’s also meaningless if they had four $200 million funds and the last one they closed was in 2000. Unfortunately over the period of 2000-2010 the VC industry hasn’t performed well and therefore the number of funds going forward is likely to reduce greatly. GRP’s last fund was in 2000. What is a VC fund?

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Want to Know How First Round Capital was Started?

Both Sides of the Table

Infonautics went public in 1996 and Half.com was sold to eBay in 2000. These partners travel to a city and take ten minute pitches from the entrepreneurs. What are the most common mistakes in first pitch? Prior to First Round Capital, Howard had invested in two of Josh’s companies Infonautics Corp. and Half.com.

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