Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

Along with detail orientation I have a strong bias for “doers.&# When I ask for a quick demo and the CEO tells me that he’ll schedule a follow-on meeting with his sales rep because, “I’m not a demo guy. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Unfortunately.

entrepreneurs 286

entrepreneurs advice pitching VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

” The other Paul Graham quote from the article is this: “The other thing they say is that they can’t tell on Demo Day which are the good start-ups. So I stand by my well-read Quora post of why I don’t attend demo days. It’s a Demo Day thing. Advice to VCs Startup Advice' That’s OK, too.

VC 347

VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 347

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. So if you present to me and the CEO can’t drive the demo or the financial model themselves it is a BIG RED FLAG. Tags: Start-up Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But my point is that I flipped burgers from day 1. I did the grunt work.

startup founder 299

startup founder founder startup VC 299

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

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. Demo’d to death. We’ve all been demo-day’d to death. Yeah, he was LA, baby! It’s where their passions are, too. Quality endures.

accelerator 290

accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Some readers have commented that in today’s world you shouldn’t even need a PowerPoint presentation – in this era you should always just demo your product. 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. Act III – The Demo.

VC 238

VC advice pitching venture capital 238

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Demo days at startup accelerators are a pretty big deal around here. Here’s just one example from Y Combinator’s Summer 2013 Demo Day: Positioning itself as the “FedEx of today,” it hopes to provide a logistics framework that goes beyond food and can be used for any type of on-demand order. Omnitron Sensors. Apothecary.

SaaS 113

SaaS startup pitching education 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I’m comfortable with introductions and then getting into the demo.&#. I believe in this so much that, despite my post advising you to be prepared for the *norm* in VC, I wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. Just jump into the demo after intros.

VC 299

VC board pitching venture capital 299

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2012

Given the proliferation of accelerators and incubators that pre-vet entrepreneurs, roll up their sleeves to help companies, and dress them up for demo days, the best and brightest are being showcased to look better than ever. It's happening on their side, too. Need an even more Seamless-like experience?

VC 272

VC incubation construction networking 272

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2013

In my post I noted the bias in his accent comments and also called b t on his statements that Demo Days are great because “the bad companies look good” and that VCs should compete to “pay the highest price & offer the best terms.” Startup Advice' They know how much opportunity we afford them. Thank you, Om.

innovation 391

innovation culture advice education 391

Dream It

AUGUST 10, 2020

Luckily, he’s a pro when it comes to pitching investors and distills the advice so it’s easy to avoid. Instead of using superlatives, a strong competitor slide or use case demo is much more effective. Adam Dakin , Managing Director of Dreamit Healthtech, sees founders make the same common pitch mistakes over and over.

pitching 341

pitching disruption startup advice 341

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Demos – One of the things that most people are bad at and that are hard to standardize is the demo. I have written about how to do a demo before (even though this was in the context of a VC pitch much of it applies). A good demo tells a story. 80% of demos I see are features, functions & benefits.

advice 296

advice SaaS startup pitching 296

500

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Under no circumstances should any of the below content be construed as legal, tax or investment advice from 500 Startups or any of its affiliates. The outcome was that it was both – and when you’re at Demo Day, you’re going to be grateful to the part that’s ‘too challenging’. What Alluva is.

startup 183

startup advice opportunity investment 183

TechCrunch

APRIL 7, 2023

Y Combinator’s Demo Day took place this week , and although the event itself was virtual-only, 86% of the founders in YC’s winter 2023 batch lived in SF while participating. Please note that these are for entertainment purposes only, as “we’re not offering investing advice or recommending anyone join or back a startup.”

pitching 98

pitching frameworks VC ventures 98

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2023

And now we’re getting our first look at them through Demo Day. The first day’s demos included a healthy dose of artificial intelligence and open source, which is different from years past that were dominated by new fintech companies. Check out our favorites from the second day of demos below and see for yourself. Is crypto back?

startup 100

startup advice investment investing 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Even though my wife thinks my true mental age is still around 13, sadly I am not in this youth demo. Startup Advice' And of course we also think about the fact that as many entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial concepts gear towards a younger generation we also needed investment professionals who are in that demographic.

investment 365

investment investing VC board 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

Get yourself in a big demo day competition. Startup Advice' What kind of message does that send to the party faithful who slave away loyally to hit targets for BigCo? I’ll tell you what is says. It says if you want to make “real” money - quit. Go do a startup. Get some famous angel or seed money. Woo the press.

strategy 357

strategy venture capital advice entrepreneurs 357

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

The presenter comes out of the meeting proud at having gotten through all 30 slides (and maybe even a demo) with a bunch of smiling faces and nodding heads and no discussion. The advice I gave to my sales execs is the same advice I would give to you: smiling, nodding heads are normally not a great sign.

VC 275

VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Don’t even get me started on Demo Days. You could spent 20 days / year at Demo Days now. And why my advice to newer VCs would be not to feel bad if you’re missing out on what is perceived as a few hot deals. I guess if you’re in high-volume, low-differentiation mode perhaps this is efficient for you.

VC 374

VC investment investing entrepreneurs 374

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

Give everybody pages of the deck they’re to cover or parts of the demo for which they are to talk. Can’t you just demo & talk? Demo could go here]. Equally likely you show your inability to listen to your team and your over dominance of conversations. This isn’t weakness – it’s leadership.

VC 340

VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

They’re great at orchestrating your company to deliver product demos. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Sales & Marketing Advice. They set up “ tickler &# lists to remind them of calls and they always make the calls they say they are going to make. They’re always on time. LOVING Balsamiq!

startup 350

startup frameworks advice entrepreneurs 350

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

I refuse to go to demo days. Not just TechStars but any demo day, really. So I promised the guys that I would come and hang out with companies well before their demo days. I can’t really change it because we had a super long lease. But that expires soon and I hope to get back to the right side of the Haimish line.

pitching 319

pitching culture entrepreneurs mentorship 319

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. Imagine the “typical&# deal – somebody comes into a VC’s office, they’ve never met, they’re highly referred by a friend and they’re pitching a product demo and a PPT. That’s OK, too.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

I attended the Facebook Fund Demo day about a month ago in Palo Alto and it blew me away the pace of innovation and the focus on monetization that came out of this group. million even before the demo day to help you integrate your social network with dating ambitions. Seems an obvious fit.

VC 255

VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Venture Hacks

APRIL 17, 2019

Incentives make for bad investing advice. These valuations moved to $4-6M pre-money after 2010, with some demo days in the $8-10M range. Incentives make for bad investing advice. Incentives influence the advice you get from VCs, lawyers, incubators, and everybody else. Back $0B companies. Invest only in technology.

angel investing 181

angel investing investment investing incubation 181

NZ Entrepreneur

MARCH 16, 2025

We help co-lead the execution of Startup Aotearoa, a one-to-one program for first-time entrepreneurs to get coaching and advice from a startup advisor or mentor as they navigate the first time they’ve gone through the journey. So we’ve also eliminated these high-end production demo days, the big events.

startup ecosystem 52

startup ecosystem mix-use advice incubation 52

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Can we do a really quick run through your deck so that we save tons of time for a product demo & questions at the end?&#. A perfect meeting gets through the deck quickly, demos a product and still has tons of time for discussion. Then I verbalize this out loud with a filter, “This is great stuff.

VC 358

VC entrepreneurs creativity leadership 358

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 14, 2019

He demoed the product to me and I wound up being dollars #476 and #477 to be swiped on the very first Square prototype. For example, let’s say I had a more national fund. Because I had previously met Jack Dorsey through the Union Square Ventures network, in 2009 I was able to grab coffee with him before he launched Square. I was blown away.

ventures 257

ventures angel investing board advice 257

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

The idea is simple enough: several female VC partners at top funds will hold 1-hour meetings with 40 promising female entrepreneurs looking to get advice on their business and pitch in a friendly, non-judgmental, safe environment. I think these deals are less exciting than the ones you proactive seek out.

founder 256

founder peer-to-peer VC mentorship 256

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

When you do get a follow up meeting tell them about your new revenue model, ask to show your new demo, talk about the progress you’ve made and what has turned out differently then expected. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital. Update them on your fund raising progress. Neither is the norm.

VC 309

VC pitching advice venture capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

On any given day I could have been really pressed for time and asked to get straight to the presentation – you can never predict how the meeting will go so you must be prepared to show a deck, do a demo or just have a conversation. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice. This meeting was a 10/10 for me. is important.

pitching 288

pitching VC advice strategy 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

if you need advice on how to find / work with startup lawyers cheaply click that link). Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis Term Sheets. Raising variable sized rounds – This is a hard one. Most investors don’t want to hear teams say, “we might raise $250k.

financing 286

financing finance advice VC 286

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 3, 2012

meet with tons of companies every week, work hard for their portfolio companies, and are on planes flying around to the important confereneces and demo days". I think Fred was trying to offer some friendly advice to young investors that you're going to "take lumps" and that it's worth learning from those who are more experienced.

VC 262

VC board venture capital ventures 262

Y Combinator

JULY 20, 2021

In the last six months alone, we’ve rewritten our entire Demo Day experience (to connect founders with potential investors), re-created the batch experience with both in-house tools and 3rd party integrations, and written software to help founders connect with one another for advice, intros, deals, networking and so much more.

advice 143

advice opportunity support investment 143

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

No metrics = high level, more generalized advice. I got him talking about this on This Week in VC including a quick demo of his dashboard - I think I'll shoot a separate sequence with just a walk-through of their analytics. Already stated above but know what you’re shooting for in terms of load times, crashes, known bugs, etc.

startup 346

startup board networking advice 346

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

It wasn’t because I’m the target demo for that app – I am certainly not. So my advice for anybody building apps that are anonymous is to try and nail the balance of pseudonymity and authority or reputation management. And I accept that anonymity is inevitable on the Internet. I’m not crying in my beer.

support 329

support communities networking advice 329

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

A small refuge from a busy day of shaking hands and demo’ing products. Tags: Startup Advice. They were fine traveling RyanAir and then having to bus an extra hour to get to the event but they wanted their own room to crash in late at night. These are always judgment calls but erring in either direction is a mistake.

culture 333

culture construction startup advice 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

There are moments like being on stage when your demo crashes, reading about your competitors raising a ton of cash or having one of your top team members resign that test your will. Losing a deal that you had worked on for months after being told you won and then have snatched away from you will ruin some nights of sleep.

entrepreneurs 384

entrepreneurs startup VC real estate 384