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.

accelerator 290

accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

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. Are you waiting for them to pitch you? It's happening on their side, too.

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VC incubation construction networking 272

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. I wasn’t trying to pitch a tightly controlled message about my company. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Sales & Marketing Advice Social Media Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

advice 307

advice media startup SaaS 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. M y company had raised a seed round of capital in late 1999 even before either of us were full time in the company (ominous side note: on the way to pitch our seed investor, Delta Partners, a man walking right in front of me died of a massive heart attack making me late to the meeting.

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startup founder founder startup VC 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There are too many deals to look at, too many seed funds or angels asking you to look at deals and weekly “demo days” with manicured and monocultural presentations crafted by experienced story tellers to help even the mundane idea sound like it will. My general advice is to do less. For investors life is no different.

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advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

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

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

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC.&#. 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 need something structured like slides or a demo to orient me. Act III – The Demo.

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VC advice pitching venture capital 238

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “ Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

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VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

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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VC board pitching venture capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

a really wide angle view of the tech industry since you see so many concepts / so many pitches and REAL data points on how startups perform financially. Even though my wife thinks my true mental age is still around 13, sadly I am not in this youth demo. Startup Advice' inside insight into VC decision-making.

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investing investment VC board 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

I refuse to go to demo days. Not just TechStars but any demo day, really. Well, I get nothing out of seeing how well a bunch of people can pitch their businesses on stage. So I promised the guys that I would come and hang out with companies well before their demo days. We’ll see. TechStars Interactions.

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pitching culture entrepreneurs mentorship 319

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Always be Pitching (line stolen from my favorite scene in one of my all-time favorite movies. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

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VC pitching advice venture capital 309

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. Give the “elevator pitch” for your startup. Offer to do a demo later, but don’t try to squeeze it in the presentation. The CEO should give the pitch, and prepare by playing “presidential debates” – asking your team to be the opponents, and check you on timing.

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pitching sustainability strategy energy 146

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

It’s demo day season. This morning marked the kickoff of VC firm 500 Global’s Fall 2022 Demo Day, which saw over a dozen startups give their best pitches to prospective investors — and customers. Both outfits look to back early-stage founders with money and advice in exchange for equity.

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accelerator health advice hospitality 88

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.

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advice SaaS startup pitching 296

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.”

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pitching frameworks VC ventures 98

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? The best ones are visual, high-level, have a narrative, move swiftly, are designed to prompt questions as much as “pitch&# your company and importantly have a narrative.

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VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

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.

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VC venture capital networking innovation 255

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

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. He demoed the product to me and I wound up being dollars #476 and #477 to be swiped on the very first Square prototype. I was blown away.

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ventures angel investing board advice 257

NZ Entrepreneur

MARCH 16, 2025

Read the interview: Richard Liew: For those who may not know who Ministry of Awesome is – let’s just assume there might be some – can you give us your elevator pitch? You’re also sort of no longer running your classic three-month type accelerator program, which finishes on, say, a demo day.

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startup ecosystem mix-use advice incubation 52

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

APRIL 13, 2011

The value of Pitch Decks; Brad’s personal preferences on deal presentation; and Brad’s practice of accepting cold approaches via email. Are Pitch Decks becoming obsolete? It’s interesting that the question is pitch deck’s being obsolete versus business plans being obsolete. Aren’t pitch decks still the norm? “I

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venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

David Teten VC

JULY 27, 2021

Contestants pitch their legal product idea for a chance to win $5,000, tutoring, and more. The Baylor New Venture Competition is a business plan and elevator pitch competition for college students from around the globe. Student teams pitch and compete for more than $1.5 The competition has $50,000 in cash prizes.

founder 144

founder mentorship peer-to-peer pitching 144

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2025

After analyzing hundreds of sales organizations across startups, I’ve distilled the key pieces of advice that founders and leaders should keep in mind. Create a consistent demo : Develop a compelling product demonstration that clearly shows value and addresses pain points.

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advice founder startup enablement 52

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

The latter tend to be more technical and can do a better job at dealing with all of the technical objections that will come up in the sales process not to mention: Talking about integration, building customer-specific versions of your demo and addresses implementation requests. ” I encapsulate that in an analogy I heard years ago.

startup 319

startup consulting pitching support 319

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 25, 2012

3) Have offline copies of whatever you're doing, so you can demo using screenshots if you have to. 4) Be able to say what you do in a concise manner, in the pitch, in the opening e-mail: "We do X for Y using Z solution, and that's exciting because there are a billion Ys who currently pay a million dollars a year for that.".

pitching 362

pitching energy advice development 362

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

You’ll hear from iconic founders, unicorn makers, boundary-benders — all of it served up with a gigantic side of DIY tips, actionable advice, encouragement and inspiration. Visit their virtual booths, get a product demo and start a conversation. You can also catch Startup Alley founders pitching to TechCrunch staff.

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disruption opportunity pitching advice 85

Y Combinator

DECEMBER 9, 2020

” You know it was a good application video when the same pitch can be reused in the S-1. They wisely ignored that bit of advice. That was followed by Demo Day in late August. Delivery was not a new idea, yet outside of New York City in the United States, very few businesses offered it.” Also, refrigerator magnets.”

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pitching founder advice support 145

NZ Entrepreneur

DECEMBER 10, 2020

It’s been growth ever since, and in 2020 the company pitched for funding to scale up. The fund raise required three in-person pitches, seven Zoom pitches and 30 Zoom calls before closing successfully in August. Successful pitches help your confidence snowball. A live demo of the product is essential.

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capital pitching startup investment 105

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. What is a startup really? What: The foundational corporate formation, governance, equity issuance and intellectual property assignment documents.

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entrepreneurs advice pitching board 114

TechCrunch

APRIL 13, 2021

They’ll have plenty of insight and advice to share, including the challenges that startup founders will face as they break into the transportation arena. Schedule virtual product demos, pitch investors or recruit new talent. You’ll hear from CEOs like Starship Technologies’ Ahti Heinla.

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micromobility transportation construction networking 68

TechCrunch

MARCH 31, 2023

Because it takes “about 15 touches for a prospect to want to see a demo,” Tong authored a TC+ guide for CEOs who need guidance around hiring and incentivizing SDR teams. “Pipeline generation at early-stage companies is expensive and time consuming, often more so than the sales process itself. .”

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pitching real estate strategy advice 97

TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2023

Amazing advice for anyone who is a student or just … new. A lot of fintechs ‘have to fix their business models,’ say VCs who invest in fintech Netflix founder Reed Hastings steps down as co-CEO Shein valuation reportedly plummets by a third as it seeks $3B Image Credits: Javier Zayas Photography (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Etc.,

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construction ventures founder energy 92

Jason Malki

OCTOBER 31, 2024

But now, when I demo the platform, you can see their eyes light up. When we first started pitching Grapevine, people didn’t always get it right away. That’s why my second piece of advice is probably the most important — you must be passionate about the problem you’re solving. Startups take time. They take persistence.

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founder coworking spaces collaboration leadership 52

Smart Hustle Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

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. Just being able to demo her product at these cafeterias and seeing people excited about her work means a lot, she says. Advice for young (and older) entrepreneurs.

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entrepreneurship networking advice entrepreneurs 87