Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Sales & Marketing Advice Social Media Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Robert’s article is worth reading. I think Robert’s right.

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advice media startup SaaS 307

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) So we went for it.

accelerator 290

accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Great networking skills, which are critical when you want to be about to reference entrepreneurs & concepts and bounce your ideas off of other people in the industry. He was also an undergraduate of the one place that I think is cranking out some of the best young entrepreneurs and investors these days – Wharton.

investment 365

investment investing VC board 365

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, Don’t even get me started on Demo Days. You could spent 20 days / year at Demo Days now. And there’s conferences. Oh, the conferences.

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VC investing investment entrepreneurs 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

And a few teams of super talented, educated and bright entrepreneurs make a few mill. Get yourself in a big demo day competition. I look for entrepreneurs who set out on their journeys to do exactly that – build big businesses. I don’t blame entrepreneurs who go for an early exit when it comes up.

strategy 357

strategy venture capital advice entrepreneurs 357

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. Pick what you want off the menu and someone will provide that service for you.

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VC incubation construction networking 272

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.

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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' I welcome your accents. Your origins. Thank you, Om.

innovation 391

innovation culture advice education 391

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

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. Entrepreneur Dinners. One of my favorite things to do is to organize entrepreneur dinners when I travel. We’ll see. Yet I love TechStars.

pitching 319

pitching culture entrepreneurs mentorship 319

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. I was interested in learning more.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Demo days at startup accelerators are a pretty big deal around here. These events aren’t just a chance to review the latest cohort of hopeful entrepreneurs — they also showcase the technology, products and services that will compete for VC and consumer attention over the next few years. That startup was DoorDash, by the way.

SaaS 113

SaaS startup pitching education 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

That view from me isn’t surprising since on the topic of Nature vs. Nurture in entrepreneurs I’ve clearly come down on the side of nature more than nurture (again, that doesn’t mean nurture has NO influence, just less than nature). They’re great at orchestrating your company to deliver product demos.

startup 350

startup frameworks advice entrepreneurs 350

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. 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?&#. Most entrepreneurs are. It’s in their personality type.

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VC entrepreneurs creativity leadership 358

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

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 have entrepreneurs and residents working in Wellington, in Christchurch, and in Auckland.

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startup ecosystem mix-use advice incubation 52

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. On Being an Entrepreneur.

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entrepreneurs startup VC real estate 176

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. Almost any entrepreneur will be smarter than them in their market. If you are telling the entrepreneur what to do, don’t invest. Incentives make for bad investing advice.

angel investing 181

angel investing investing investment incubation 181

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that funding is something you do in “funding season,&# some mythical 2-month period when you’re ready with a great Powerpoint deck and you hit up all of the VC’s at the same time so that you can quickly raise money and get back to the job of building a business.

VC 309

VC pitching advice venture capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

Last week I had two very contrasting presentations from entrepreneurs that gave me the idea for this post. Pitch 1: I had an awesome young entrepreneur come in this week to talk about his seed stage business. Pitch 2: This entrepreneur had a full house. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice. A Tale of Two Pitches.

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pitching VC advice strategy 288

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. 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. Seems an obvious fit.

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VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

Not that they’re “such a bad idea&# but more that there are inherent problems for entrepreneurs in the process of raising angel money that need to be addressed. This leads to the problem of “herding cats&# for entrepreneurs raising angel money. Here’s where I feel common ground : 1.

finance 286

finance financing 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

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

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC).

VC 332

VC advice entrepreneurs energy 332

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Most people under estimate the challenge of winning “share of mind” the least understood concept with tech entrepreneurs. No metrics = high level, more generalized advice. This is especially true in the mobile space where apps are either free or cheap. At 99 cents they’re disposable. Sure, but will they still be using it in a year?

startup 346

startup board networking advice 346

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. was starting.

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venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

David Teten VC

JULY 27, 2021

The GitHub Student Developer Pack offers more than $200k in developer tools/training for student entrepreneurs or any students. LawCloud offers free legal documents through the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization. The Emerging Entrepreneur Scholarship Grant is “to help entrepreneurial students who have innovative business ideas.”

founder 144

founder mentorship peer-to-peer pitching 144

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2011

When meeting with early stage entrepreneurs for the first time, after reviewing a demo or hearing their pitch, I often ask them to articulate what they’re most focused on building. I don’t fault entrepreneurs for relegating startup legal work to the bottom of their daily triage list; founders are spread incredibly thin.

entrepreneurs 114

entrepreneurs advice pitching board 114

TechCrunch

MARCH 28, 2022

It has become normal to raise funds long before you have a product/market fit, and this poses challenges to entrepreneurs that are of a very different nature than those the ecosystem has faced in the past years,“ he added back in November 2021. Entrepreneurs know this well. Splitting up like this is a shame but it’s frequent.

accelerator 91

accelerator founder startup accelerator communities 91

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Justin Bieber is unbelievably entrepreneurial and most of you will never know it because he serves a target demo that doesn’t include you. To be a great entrepreneur you really do need talent. As you know, Justin’s is 8-15 year-old girls and he built his music & persona around this demo. Bieber & Co.

entrepreneurs 398

entrepreneurs media mentorship leadership 398

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. Offer to do a demo later, but don’t try to squeeze it in the presentation. A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. I’ve published these points before, but based on interest, it’s time for an update.

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pitching sustainability strategy energy 146

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 16, 2023

The MEDDICC Sales Framework To share what we’ve learned from the fintech founders and operators we’ve spoken to about this topic, we have collated their advice under an overarching sales framework known as MEDDICC. Taken as a whole, FIs are at an especially receptive time for greater software adoption.

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frameworks incumbents leadership advice 112

Smart Hustle Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

In fact, the 15-year-old believes that her flourishing business, Me & the Bees, shows that the future is all about social entrepreneurs. She also explains the importance of her family, her new book, the Dell Women’s Entrepreneurship Network, and her advice to entrepreneurs both young and old. That’s okay, Mikaila says.

entrepreneurship 87

entrepreneurship networking advice entrepreneurs 87

David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

You can work as a consultant, an interim executive, a board member, a deal executive partnering to buy a company, an executive in residence, or as an entrepreneur in residence. . Preqin (free demo). Grey House (free demo). VC Entrepreneurs in Residence . At Versatile VC , we’ve used all these models. Private Equity.

consulting 128

consulting venture capital board capital 128

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 20, 2012

I think this is great advice. So here's when I see people tend to raise: Entrepreneur + Approach to a Market. That's all they have--no demo no code--and they get funding. Entrepreneur + Kinda Workable Demo/Alpha + Little to No Data on Traction. Could Jack have raised money on is own without the demo?

entrepreneurs 346

entrepreneurs advice VC ventures 346