Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 19, 2024

My first pitch was not to investors or potential clients; it was to my fiancée, convincing her to delay our wedding plans until Equifund was up and running — a promise that took significantly longer than the anticipated six months to fulfill. I was not licensed, did not have a college degree, could not code.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

The other entrepreneur quoted in the story is from a guy pitching a Pinterest clone. The last closed market we had was from about September 2008 until June 2009--10 months. We're seeing, for the first time, investment and some disruption in huge areas like education, food, healthcare, government and even hardware based startups.

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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. But there are many zombie VC’s with no more investments left in their portfolios so it’s hard to know which trend has more impact.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) You can see Zach James & Rich Raddon who are standing next to a demo table pitching a small, yet-to-be-funded company called MovieClips – now the powerhouse ZEFR. We had a specific goal in mind. Yeah, he was LA, baby!

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Dream It

APRIL 3, 2020

In this episode, the two discussed how you can effectively sell in an environment where budgets are being cut, executive decision-makers are distracted with other priorities, and companies are less inclined to invest in innovation. His strategy for selling in 2009 is relevant to any economic downturn.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 7, 2012

If they are out there, others need to hear about them more--not in a pitch but in a better way to share cutting edge ideas. It can't and won't be market scale or, in the near term, investment capital. I don't think the Valley really took New York seriously until Foursquare rose up in 2009.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 17, 2021

In 2009 he went to Silicon Valley to find seed investors. In preparation, he spent months researching who might be amenable to his pitch. In August 2010, after Thiel’s annual Singularity Summit event, Hassabis lined up along with scores of other hopefuls given literally one minute to pitch their ideas to Thiel.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

Most top tier VCs return about 3x invested capital and outlier funds (the best of a vintage) might return 6-8x. But the larger funds usually have lower returns because they are often investing bigger dollars at later stages with less risk and therefore lower returns. By 2009 had reduced to around $15 billion in capital from LPs.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 14, 2019

If you’re lacking for track record as a firm, here’s three exercises you should walk through to help turn your pitch and due diligence meetings from guesswork into something more substantive. How will you provide it across 30 investments? You take your investment model and run it against the past to see if it would have worked.

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ventures angel investing board advice 257

Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

Martino founded Bullpen in 2010 with a focus on post-seed, pre-Series A startups, and he led the fund’s investments in companies like FanDuel, Namely, Ipsy, SpotHero, Classy, and Airmap. This geographic distinction is now less about actual geography and more about mentality and style of investing of these types of firms.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

Example: if a VC is on their fourth $200 million fund that they just raised in 2009 then you might hear them talk about $800 million under management. VC’s don’t invest 100% of their own money. And funds also have investments from the partners of the firm.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

It turned out I wasn’t such a great product manager, the technical things we were doing were about two years too early—about to be made orders of magnitude easier by a lot of cloud and big data tools, and, oh, yeah, Lehman went under when I was pitching VCs for money in 2008.

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StartupNation

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

In the startup world, it’s pitch decks, not business plans that get companies funded. Making a pitch deck is an art, a science, but most importantly, a story. Angel investors and venture capitalists have also learned to expect a standard pitch deck as the first filter when evaluating a company to invest in.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

Since 2009 I have been counseling people to offer discounts to the first angel investors. And after you feel they’re bought in intellectually and emotionally you can ask them to make a small investment. The second way is to pitch them like normal but offer them a discount. This can be time consuming.

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finance financing pitching VC 294

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Ironically enough, the second nudge she gave my career also had to do with AOL--ten years later when in 2009, she introduced me to Jon Brod who was forming AOL Ventures. She also helped build up the ecosystem that I get to invest in through her work with hackNY and participation in NYC Resistor. Are there examples of that?

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data analysis venture capital communities entrepreneurs 286

Gust

MAY 22, 2012

This is a good time to reflect on my experience with locally based angel investment. I just finished with the fourth of our annual angel investment event for my local group based in Eugene and Corvallis, Oregon. We try to make our investments as convertible debt. So is that a good way to invest money, you might ask?

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 9, 2012

When I first sat down with Josh back in September of 2009 to talk about joining First Round. That's why I'm not hiring any junior investment professionals. Plus, you simply don't have the same economics--you're the rookie who is killing it but who isn't up for the fat free agent contract until they've got more years of service time.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 5, 2018

On December 2, 2018, Mitch pitched the company on ABC’s Shark Tank. There’s the all-important pitch, creative sets, unexpected reactions by five seasoned investors and the possibility of scaling growth fast with a cash infusion and industry connections. It was such a blast that I did it again in 2009. Perfecting My Pitch.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 12, 2018

Finding this is more rare than you think it would be--as many pitch meetings fall apart quickly, like someone who thinks they're passable in a foreign language until they talk to a native speaker. No amount of Googling around on my part is going to catch this team sleeping on what's going on in this space.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Geolocation is so 2009. I remember one day last summer when Dennis Crowley and I both went to pitch the same biz dev partner—me with Path 101 and him with Foursquare. Ok, so we’re all doing social TV now. Haven’t you heard? Momentum at the right time paves the way for startup success.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Year-in, year-out, the gender gap in venture capital investment continues to be a problem women founders face. In fintech, the problem is especially prominent: Women-founded fintechs have raised a meager 1% of total fintech investment in the last 10 years. of the funding raised since 2009, while Latinx female founders saw only 0.4%

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Founders Coop

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Just two years later, in 2009, we worked out a deal to create the Techstars Seattle program, with our first program running in 2010. From the beginning, we were deeply committed to Techstars’ “give first” ethos and mentorship-driven approach to startup investing. Bottom line, Techstars needed cash.

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Startup Grind

AUGUST 13, 2018

Some of Ann’s investments include Lyft, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Refinery29, JoyRun, TaskRabbit, and Modcloth. Given the success of her investments she was on the 2017 Midas List of top 100 venture capitalists. Pitch your startup for an opportunity to meet with Floodgate. What and when was your very first investment?

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Geolocation is so 2009. I remember one day last summer when Dennis Crowley and I both went to pitch the same biz dev partner—me with Path 101 and him with Foursquare. Ok, so we’re all doing social TV now. Haven’t you heard? Luckily, we didn’t pull the trigger on anything—but we were certainly early to thinking about it.

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TechCrunch

MAY 17, 2022

TechCrunch is excited to announce the six companies pitching in person and onstage at TC Sessions Mobility 2022. Hailing from around the United States and the globe, founders will pitch on the main stage, for four minutes, followed by an intense Q&A with our expert panel of judges. Startups pitching on the main stage.

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TechCrunch

MAY 11, 2021

As the company’s CEO and co-founder Shail Mehta explained in a TC Early Stage pitch-off earlier this year, The Last Gameboard is a 16-inch square touchscreen device with a custom OS and a sophisticated method of tracking game pieces and hand movements. If the pitch sounds familiar… it’s been attempted once or twice before.

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social gaming pitching VC innovation 136

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Today, Muck Rack is making another kind of connection, with investors: it’s raised $180 million in what it’s describing as its first outside funding, having been bootstrapped since being founded back in 2009. Founders Gregory Galant (the CEO) and Lee Semel (the CTO) will continue to control the company post the deal.

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media SaaS sustainability pitching 101

StartupNation

JANUARY 20, 2022

In fact, VC-based funding has boomed within the last decade, reaching a whopping $753B worth of investments since 2009. Read on to find out more about the advantages and disadvantages of VC funding and some of the smartest places to invest it within the business. Must-Read: 5 Terms That are Killing Your Startup’s Pitch.

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venture capital capital ventures startup 89

StartupNation

DECEMBER 6, 2020

According to a recent Crunchbase study , the number of companies founded by women doubled from 10 percent of global startups in 2009 to 20 percent in 2019. There’s also been tremendous growth when it comes to dollars invested in female-founded companies. Myth 3: Startup founders don’t have kids.

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innovation startup creativity startup founder 97

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

That means I do one or two investments per year, and I see a lot. ” “Well, you get to be involved with our portfolio companies after we invest.” Be an intern” And by the way, this is 2009. You remember what 2009 was like, right? [00:27:11] MARK: Well, I can say this. Maybe you misheard me.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 13, 2022

TC Sessions: Mobility will feature speakers on the main stage, a bevy of startup exhibits, demos, networking and a live pitch-off with a pretty sweet prize. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. Who will be on our stage? Turning an AV Innovation into a Product. Founders — apply here.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 10, 2021

If your startup has a clear brand pitch, “an enticing offer” and “clear next steps,” you’re ready to reach out to influencers , he says. Last week, Kickstarter announced that people have backed more than 200,000 projects with $6 billion in pledges since the company launched in 2009.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 12, 2022

TC Sessions: Mobility will feature speakers on the main stage, a bevy of startup exhibits, demos, networking and a live pitch-off with a pretty sweet prize. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. Who will be on our stage? Turning an AV Innovation into a Product. Founders — apply here.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 15, 2022

TC Sessions: Mobility will feature speakers on the main stage, a bevy of startup exhibits, demos, networking and a live pitch-off with a pretty sweet prize. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. Who will be on our stage? Turning an AV Innovation into a Product. Founders — apply here.

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micromobility transportation pitching ventures 71

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

The capital could be used potentially for normal business expenses, for acquisitions or investments, or other strategic initiatives, such as more investment into the company’s in-house Originals tour operations or new services to book last-minute experiences, he added. That could be part of the pitch for GetYouGuide, too.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JANUARY 5, 2016

Once your life shifts from pitching outbound to defending against inbound, however, you have to ruthlessly say “no” as your default. From 2007-2009 and again from 2012-2013, I said yes to way too many “cool” things. From 2007-2009 and again from 2012-2013, I said yes to way too many “cool” things.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Alongside the equity raise, the 2009-founded startup has secured another chunk of debt financing ($75M) from Blackrock. Existing investors including Atomico, DN, Infravia, Kibo and Quadrille also participated in the round — which the startup said values its business at $2.35BN (post-money).

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