Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

On a panel that I sat on with Ron in LA in 2008 he stated that there were no circumstances in which the founder should take money off of the table. A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. This made me think hard about the relationship between VCs and entrepreneurs.

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founder VC advice pitching 329

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” History repeated itself in September 2008 with that market crash. Conversely I offered the same deal to another entrepreneur who decided to shop around longer. History repeated itself in September 2008 with that market crash.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. It’s my job to invest wisely in entrepreneurs who are capital efficient, who innovate in ways that pay off economically in good markets or bad and who plan for worst-case scenarios. I disagree.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. 2008 App ecosystem on iOS = $0. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. Get to the entrepreneurs earlier next time. But VC is like congress.

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VC peer-to-peer entrepreneurs investing 374

Dream It

JANUARY 23, 2019

It’s exciting to watch ambitious entrepreneurs take an idea and turn it into the dominant company that reshapes an industry. “The founders of Trendkite came into Dreamit six years ago with just an idea on a napkin,” said Steve Welch, Dreamit Co-Founder and Chairman. “It

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real estate media accelerator pitching 210

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

It’s meant to be a bit provocative but the reality is that I give this advice to entrepreneurs all the the time and I usually leave the “e&# off of the end. I normally offer this advice in the capacity of really wanting to help entrepreneurs so please bear with me. It is 2010. The list goes on.

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Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

LPs failed to make capital calls in the late 90s during the dot-com bubble burst, after September 11, and during the financial crisis in 2008. In 2008-2009, the financial markets seized up, and there were quarters of complete uncertainty, but ultimately VCs started investing again and things normalized. This is not without precedent.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. 2007, 2011) and for the hottest of companies and in bad markets for fund raising (2003, 2008) prices test the bottom end of the range. There is no such thing as a uniform price.

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startup advice pitching investing 336

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JANUARY 20, 2023

It is a spirit that has contributed to the personal development of some of the world’s finest entrepreneurs making a true impact on companies, communities, and families across the globe. I flew to Washington, DC, and sat down with Warren, then-EO Director Bob Strade, and Ben Richter (who also had a programme to pitch to Warren).

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leadership board entrepreneurs education 211

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 17, 2018

The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) ’s Accelerator program empowers early-stage entrepreneurs with the tools, community and accountability necessary to aggressively grow and master their businesses. Attendees at the inaugural MyEO Deal Exchange Conference in 2018. Our clients ranged from not-for-profits to luxury boatbuilders.

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pitching accelerator investment investing 130

TechCrunch

JUNE 7, 2021

You can still shoot your shot to pitch to an amazing panel of judges and thousands of TC viewers. TechCrunch editors will select 10 founders from around the world to pitch on stage July 9th. Without further ado, here are your judges for the Early Stage Pitch-Off: Ben Sun, Primary Venture Partners. Shardul joined Index in 2008.

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pitching incubation disruption communities 57

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Mitch Allen, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Fort Worth, is founder and Head Elf of Hire Santa , a service that brings the season to life with thousands of professionally trained Santas worldwide. On December 2, 2018, Mitch pitched the company on ABC’s Shark Tank. It’s like the Super Bowl for entrepreneurs!

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pitching support entrepreneurs strategy 130

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

I know many super experienced entrepreneurs who don’t understand the basics of how fund size and age can affect them so I thought it was worth establishing a baseline. In a world of The Funded, VentureHacks and entrepreneur blogs this kind of informations spreads like wildfire. Let me explain: 1. And they don’t.

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VC venture capital entrepreneurs investment 265

Feedough

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

This stage starts with the entrepreneurs analyzing and exploring the startup idea more seriously. Tinkering ends when entrepreneurs fully commit themselves to turn the business idea into a reality. Though this stage poses the least amount of pressure on an entrepreneur, some mistakes can still upend an innovative startup idea.

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disruption sustainability entrepreneurs energy 111

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds. I’m happy to say that in 2006-2008 we has some good exits including BillMeLater, DealerTrack, UGO Networks and PrePay Technologies to name a few.

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VC venture capital investing investment 269

Ben Franklin Technology Partners

MARCH 21, 2024

.” Maggie Horne, Director of the Gannon Small Business Development Center (SBDC), echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the importance of collaborative initiatives like the TechCelerator program in fostering innovation and supporting local entrepreneurs. provides a comprehensive solution for performance measurement and job matching.

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entrepreneurial ecosystem startup economic growth economic development 98

TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2022

Serial entrepreneur Gentry Lane, who was part of the discussion and spoke with TechCrunch afterward, similarly believes that the venture industry is inherently biased against women. Instead of writing checks, investors engage in so-called virtue signaling, observed these frustrated entrepreneurs.

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founder peer-to-peer venture capital ventures 95

500

MAY 12, 2020

These highly successful technology startups were all founded during the Great Recession in 2008-2010. Entrepreneurs and small businesses are once again fighting through difficult times to both survive and transform the world. The post 5 Tips for Pitching VCs in Virtual Times appeared first on 500 Startups.

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TechCrunch

JULY 19, 2022

Everyone loves an underdog, which is why investors and tech journalists are so fond of discussing startups that launched during the Great Recession of 2008, like Airbnb, Uber, WhatsApp, Mailchimp, Square and Venmo. You may need more than one pitch deck. You may need more than one pitch deck. That would be worse.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 12, 2022

“It’s comparable to the financial crisis of 2008, when poor financial products were lumped together in order to diversify risk and make them look better than they actually were,” he writes. Pitch Deck Teardown: Five Flute’s $1.2M Five Flute’s founders shared their slightly redacted pitch deck with us.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 15, 2021

A technology executive and entrepreneur, board member and investor, she has 25 years of experience founding and helping to scale companies, including Google, Amazon and Yodlee. I continued to listen to non-e-commerce pitches as well, simply to give myself a point of reference for evaluating online shopping opportunities.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

More specifically, an SEC filing from Sound Ventures , actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher’s venture firm, confirmed plans to raise an artificial intelligence-focused venture firm. Ok, now onto the aforementioned essay! It all started with a sound.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 10, 2022

Between his roles as co-leader of Mayfield Fund’s engineering biology practice and founder at IndieBio, Arvind Gupta reviewed approximately 470 startup pitches last year. Entrepreneurs that believe they know everything had better be right, because it’s gonna be hard to learn on the fly if you already know everything.”

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

“When you can’t quite make it to product-market fit, there’s a third choice that too many entrepreneurs, and their investors, overlook: selling out,” says Kittu Kolluri, founder and managing director of Neotribe Ventures. Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

2008 and 2000), not only have we seen outstanding companies being formed, we’ve also witnessed great venture firm performance during these windows,” he said. However, many entrepreneurs have opted to remain heads down and build more efficiently instead of testing this new valuation environment. How do you prefer to receive pitches?

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Impact Hub

APRIL 16, 2019

Impact Hub Bergen was an early starter amongst social innovation spaces and joined the global Impact Hub network in 2008. Today, Impact Hub Bergen has grown into a community of more than 50 entrepreneurs and changemakers. Kolbrun Retorikk , who specialise in design and communication services for social entrepreneurs.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Pitch perfect, you might think. Between 2006 and 2008, Klarna continued to grow as more people started shopping online. ” Europe’s startup ecosystem was still immature and what now seems like aloofness was probably nothing more than a crude way to deter cold pitches from non-venture type businesses.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 9, 2022

It’s Thursday, which means that Haje also wrote another installment of his popular Pitch Deck Teardown series on our subscription site TechCrunch Plus. Before Karl Alomar became managing partner of VC firm M13, he led one company through the dotcom bust of 2000 and helped another survive the Great Recession of 2008.

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Innovation 2 Enterprise

OCTOBER 10, 2021

OKBio connects the dots in a fun way from the laboratories of our state’s ground-breaking bioscience companies to the brewing and distilling entrepreneurs who, over the last decade, have created this exciting new industry in Oklahoma, where there wasn’t one before. Connect the Dots. Luckily I had that experience, and I wasn’t afraid to start.

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innovation communities pitching financing 52

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 15, 2013

When I started at Redpoint in 2008, I wanted to find every way of analyzing companies I could. Recently I came across an old friend, a framework I studied then called McKinsey’s Three Horizons in The Lean Entrepreneur , an anthology of lean startup techniques and case studies. Credit: Karl Scotland. The Three Horizons is a simple idea.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Pitch perfect, you might think. Between 2006 and 2008, Klarna continued to grow as more people started shopping online. ” Europe’s startup ecosystem was still immature and what now seems like aloofness was probably nothing more than a crude way to deter cold pitches from non-venture type businesses.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Like always, each episode features an entrepreneur presenting their early pitch deck along with the investor who funded the company. We want to know how the founder hooked the VC, what makes their partnership work and how other founders can improve their storytelling and pitching. days of 2008.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. Spend time researching your buyers and not just pitching them. Trust doesn’t come from one 45-minute Powerpoint pitch or 30-minute demo. I never suggest that entrepreneurs just randomly pitch VCs.

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strategy development VC advice 366

Y Combinator

MAY 22, 2019

These people who never had the opportunity to start a store came onto our platform and became entrepreneurs for the first time, because we do not need them to invest any money in working capital or setting up an offline shop. Almost everyone who is using the app today has become an entrepreneur because of us. I can tell you anecdotes.

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Red Rocket

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

But, the last nine years has provided many nuggets for entrepreneurs to learn from, in terms of how to approach leadership. But, when head coach Lloyd Carr retired after the 2007 season, nobody expected it would be followed by the lackluster coaching tenures of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke between 2008 and 2014.

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leadership culture strategy media 99

TechCrunch

MAY 27, 2022

To learn more about the underlying market forces and hurdles facing entrepreneurs and investors in this maverick industry, she spoke to four investors: Jacqueline Bennett, managing partner and co-founder, Highlands Venture Partners. Pitch Deck Teardown: Lumigo’s $29M Series A deck. Eager Entrepreneur. Walter Thompson.

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