Dream It

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Many of these new red flags that occur during virtual pitching are easy to fix. In this Dreamit Dose, Healthtech MD Adam Dakin provides 5 simple rules to avoid giving investors the wrong impression when pitching remotely. We hear startups pitch everyday and far too often founders end up joining the meeting late.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. One example is that they introduced a program where their founders can pool together shares from their company and exchange them for a small portfolio of other First Round Capital companies. First Round Capital’s Tools, Techniques, Processes.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 26, 2012

In venture capital, you say "no" a lot. I want your pitch to be the one I say yes to--and I want you to solve the inherent problems in your business model. Take pitches? Perhaps this is why I see this behavior more in the junior folks who never have to pitch to LPs or who've never started a company.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

As a VC with scores of startups in our portfolio we have ringside seats to many, many fund raising processes plus I had to raise money across about 5 different rounds of capital as an entrepreneur so I’ve developed some thought on the process that I hope can be helpful to some of you before you start. Just remind yourself of lemons.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. There are ones I’ve worked with like True Ventures, First Round Capital, Greycroft, Rincon Ventures … just to name a few.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

A number of individuals also participated, including partners from First Round Capital and Wilson Sonsini, Wiley and Allison Cerilli, David Rose, Tom Wisniewski, Chad Stoller, and Ramesh Haridas, among others. VCs pitch for money, too. VCs pitch for money, too. It's the black box of the startup world.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. They get pitched by so many blowhards that more genuine people who aren’t in it for just a story stand out from the crowd. It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2016

Over the weekend, Rent the Runway held an event for its Project Entrepreneur initiative, which brought together over 100 female entrepreneurs looking to get education and advice on how to take their businesses to the next step. I know that white males get a majority of the venture capital funding. Not a single investor turned her down.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

Just ask the people of Portland, Seattle, Boulder, Iowa, Princeton, Dallas or countless other cities that don’t have enough venture capital. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. For starters I’d try to raise my initial capital locally.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. I’ve experienced this in many sales meetings I’ve made and unfortunately in many VC pitches I made. Congratulations. Sometimes that works.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 19, 2024

Instead, it began with 15 years of hands-on learning in capital markets, working closely with entrepreneurs, investors, and bankers. This experience allowed me to identify a critical void in financing companies: building healthy capital stacks and navigating the public offering process. I also did not have a business partner.

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Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

A founder with a startup focused on selling groceries online should begin their pitch by describing the total money projected to be spent on groceries online over the coming years. To raise capital as a very early-stage business, you have to convince investors that your current size isn’t indicative of where you will be in the future.

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This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

The point is, someone building a career in venture capital that doesn't include prior entrepreneurial success probably doesn't look like they have much to offer in the beginning. Facing live pitching is a new thing, but that's no excuse for not having an approach to hitting and studying up to face this particular pitcher.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

That's hard for me, because my initial inclination, as I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me, was to keep pushing--to keep giving the pitch, selling hard, and finding *some* way to get in. Josh gave me great advice. I replayed each pitch that I saw in my mind, thought about my swing, and made adjustments.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. My constituencies were broad and I felt like going deep into one single area would have bored large groups of the people on any topic I picked. People say this all the time.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. I think the issue I have always had with investment bank pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. It makes it extraordinarily hard to raise the next round of capital.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

But dealmaking is idiosyncratic: a few investors might be content to make a deal over coffee, but early-stage teams still need a sturdy pitch deck or memo they can leave behind. I’m going to save you some time: many (if not most) of you are not yet ready to pitch an investor. Are pitch decks still necessary?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. I think my mentality to banker pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. They know how to build pitch decks. Advice to VCs Startup Advice' What stage? What price?

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Hunter Walk

AUGUST 1, 2022

Some entrepreneurs are born salespeople, others find it more awkward but ultimately realize getting comfortable pitching — to investors, to the team, to potential employees, and so on — is part of the job. They get more capital because they’re learning, growing, achieving. faces of venture capital.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Mentors are immensely helpful, but they’re not a requirement: We run articles regularly that explain how to create pitch decks and reach out to investors. I surveyed six seed- and early-stage investors to get their tactical advice for laid-off tech workers who are thinking about starting up. “IP is important to us.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I have sat through countless pitches with Ivy League grads spewing off intellectual descriptions of the details of their product or service and why it will win in the market. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. These messages need to pass the cocktail party pitch. And I think this is a mistake.

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Startup Blogpost

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

20 Tips for Pitching New Business Ideas to Potential Investors To provide you with the best advice on pitching new business ideas to investors, we asked twenty CEOs, Founders, and other professionals for their top tips. You should highlight the potential future earnings while pitching your proposal.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

My guess is that probably only 2-3 out of every hundred pitches I receive are from women. In my post on what has changed the venture capital industry more than any other factor I talked about Amazon.com’s role. The latest entrepreneur who has been pitching me, Shahed Khan , is only 16! But then the truth sets in.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

NOVEMBER 29, 2022

You’ll receive practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. Are you actually ready to pitch? When pitching, the startup has to put a number on the table. Thankfully, seasoned investor DC Palter offers some advice: Find the deal lead?—? Did you know the average new business pitch costs $450,000?!

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2012

Are you waiting for them to pitch you? Reading their needs and responding quickly with some firsthand experience and timely, appropriate advice--that's a fulltime job. Shouldn't investors have networks of talent--since these are the same people that, theoretically, their dealflow is coming out of?

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

It’s the one bit of advice I find myself giving most frequently these days, “raise money at the top end of normal.&#. We had companies pitching us that had almost no revenue at all and they were raising $10-15 million in capital at a $40-50 million pre-money valuation. Here’s what I mean. That’s fine.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. Or “I’m a new entrepreneur, why would I offer advice on how to run a startup?&#. It really started simply enough.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. I first heard this term from the guys at First Round Capital. Incidentally, VC’s hate when they hear companies pitching who say, “ I don’t have real competitors &# as I outlined point three in the linked post). Tags: Start-up Advice. I know I didn’t.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Not everybody agrees that entrepreneurs should take investor meetings outside of “funding season&# when they’re raising capital. But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice. That’s OK, too.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. I am inspired by the constant innovation in our industry by First Round Capital like the Dorm Room Fund , their expansion to Philadelphia (I hope they also have a secret plot to replace Andy Reid while there), the exchange fund and other initiative. Board Meetings. Conferences.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

While this post is written about raising venture capital (which I always remind entrepreneurs IS a sales process) the lessons can be applied to any sale or biz dev deal. This lesson on NINAs applies to VC pitches as well as any sale. And get advice from them on how to best manage the approval process.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 14, 2022

But the rules are different in startup-land: although there are basic best practices for putting together a pitch deck or term sheet, there are no hard rules for approaching potential investors. Sarah Kunst, Cleo Capital. Sarah Kunst, managing director, Cleo Capital. Arvind Gupta, partner, Mayfield Fund.

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Dream It

APRIL 3, 2020

Do you have a track record that proves you’re a credible source of advice on this issue? Analysts on the marketing team must gain a deep understanding of industry-level issues and how to capitalize on them during the sales process. However, these executives usually have multiple lines of defense to shield them from sales pitches.

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TechCrunch

JULY 14, 2021

Pitching is perhaps the single most important skill that any founder needs to hone, so not surprisingly, we kicked off our TechCrunch Early Stage 2021 — Marketing & Fundraising event with a deep dive on all the tips and tricks required to get the most out of pitching and slide decks. What to expect when pitching European VCs.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2023

You need a solid business plan, traction to demonstrate market fit, and the skills to pitch effectively. Evaluate investors thoroughly, not just based on the size of their check, but whether they can provide strategic advice and introductions that support your vision. Seek investor advice to strengthen your business model.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There are too many pulls & tugs at our elbows for time, for coffee meetings, for advice or speaking engagements or cocktail parties or dinners. My general advice is to do less. I offer the same advice for many of my friends who are newer VCs. The best of the best in our industry are feeling it, too. Easier said than done.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

I surveyed six seed- and early-stage investors to get their tactical advice for laid-off tech workers who are thinking about starting up. Most of them were so open to receiving pitches, they said we could include their contact information. How should we think about runway and capital preservation?

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