Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . We had every reference client we worked with call their senior team members (we had already won a major project at Scottish Water, Anglian Water and another at a large water company in Paris, France). I HATE LOSING.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

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?

pitching 98

pitching incubation board opportunity 98

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?&#. People often ask me why I started blogging.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. I am really surprised how many entrepreneurs pitch me and then I never hear from them again. So how to proceed?

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

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

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . We had every reference client we worked with call their senior team members (we had already won a major project at Scottish Water, Anglian Water and another at a large water company in Paris, France). I HATE LOSING.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

Clearly he assumed that he was using some kind of username, and that it was a gang reference of some sort--like, "Young Blood" as in the bloods and the crips or something to that affect. What about pitch competitions that sound like Ancient Roman death matches? The person goes on to blame the uncommonness of the name.

VC 270

VC pitching peer-to-peer founder 270

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

Yet talk to virtually any FRC company and they’ll tell you that these guys are some of the most active board members and offer some of the best advice in the industry. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice. They do many early-stage deals. I would say the same thing about True Ventures.

VC 283

VC real estate advice venture capital 283

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. I know that no recruiter will agree with me on this point, but I’ll tell you that I’m certain there’s a positive bias in reference calls.

real estate 319

real estate VC pitching entrepreneurs 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you don’t follow the image reference above or the tag line, “ You don’t need double talk; you need Bob Loblaw “ (try saying it out loud) , and if you care! Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. the link is here. Get to know them. Disclosure: he’s my cousin.

startup 318

startup advice entrepreneurs VC 318

Gust

JULY 23, 2014

So even if my own mother asked me to meet with you, and you were pitching me a biotech opportunity for a $10 million investment at a $90 million valuation, I might take the meeting, but it wouldn’t be particularly useful for either of us. In this case, it’s not a lack of interest, just a lack of time and efficiency.

pitching 153

pitching angel investing investment investing 153

StartupNation

JUNE 1, 2021

Oftentimes, I read articles offering tips for entrepreneurs that revolve around generic advice on getting started. As part of my role as a partner of HealthInc, I sit on the jury for the startup competition in which 20 finalists pitch their ventures, with 10 then selected to enter the program. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS). Franklin D.

entrepreneurs 109

entrepreneurs pitching construction accelerator 109

TechCrunch

APRIL 23, 2023

Your first slide is obviously important for a pitch deck; first impressions count, and having a solid introduction goes a long way. Sure, startup names are often catchy and pretty self-explanatory (Lyft, DoorDash), but it’s hard remember that Orange refers to a car-charging company , not the fruit. Are you Turo for caravans ?

pitching 91

pitching creativity advice opportunity 91

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

In marketing materials founders often refer to their customer base as a “community”, but there’s a huge gap between having customers and creating a community. Community-building is advice I give to nearly every startup team with whom I work. 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations , while only 22% of brands are trusted.

communities 234

communities peer-to-peer venture capital enablement 234

Gust

MAY 25, 2014

After my sales pitch, he was so excited I knew he could do the job.” Based on the glowing terms I heard from my friend, I’ll just skip the reference check.” In this litigious society, reference checks are more productive if you also listen to what is not said. Look for job knowledge first.

entrepreneurs 170

entrepreneurs advice pitching investment 170

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

The role of these investment staff varies firm-to-firm but they often entail: Sourcing deals for partners Helping with initial deal screening with a partner Helping with due diligence (competitive assessments, customer calls, reference checking, market sizing, technology reviews, etc.) This produces s**t deals getting done. This is Sales 101.

VC 314

VC board investment investing 314

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

This is one of the lessons I wish I understood when raising a Series B, so I hope you find this advice helpful when you navigate your larger raises. I have also heard it referred to as a “narrative deck” — basically a detailed, written version of your pitch.

founder 97

founder strategy pitching venture capital 97

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

It’s why I wrote that the best meetings are debates and not pitches. In Bijan’s post he references Bryce Roberts who recommends getting up and white-boarding. Find great presenters and have them hear your pitch. It’s the same as in any sales-oriented meeting and make no mistake raising money is sales.

VC 299

VC board pitching venture capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

We had every reference client we worked with call their senior team members (we had already won a major project at Scottish Water, Anglian Water and another at a large water company in Paris, France). We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. Tags: Start-up Advice. But we worked the account tirelessly for months.

consulting 151

consulting advice collaboration support 151

Innovation 2 Enterprise

MARCH 26, 2024

I’ve unapologetically hyper-focused this shopping solution for women, as informed and directed by my personal experience and the experiences of my users as women, moms, and what I refer to as “household procurement specialists.” I still regularly meet with i2E for advice as I’m building my company. Don’t ever put limits on yourself.

entrepreneurs 106

entrepreneurs innovation advice construction 106

OnStartups

MARCH 24, 2021

During the first week of that class, we all had to do a short pitch of a startup idea and convince our classmates to join our “startup”. I pitched a startup called “HubSpot”, which ended up being one of the ideas chosen. Note: this is not investment advice). Or references. Q: How should I pitch my startup to you?

angel investing 125

angel investing investing investment pitching 125

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2023

A pitch deck for Anthropic’s Series C fundraising round discloses these and other long-term goals for the company, which was founded in 2020 by former OpenAI researchers. “These models could begin to automate large portions of the economy,” the pitch deck reads.

pitching 117

pitching advice education development 117

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 3, 2020

will hand-hold you through the process of building a super savvy customer service robot, is the pitch. can still offer a compelling sales pitch to businesses with more “consultative” customer support needs, where automation will only be able to play a far more limited role.

support 109

support consulting accelerator pitching 109

TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

Plus, they were gracious enough to share some of the advice they’re giving to their portfolio companies. We also work hard to perform due diligence on every investment opportunity we pursue by spending significant time with the company, with a deep market study, and as many references as possible on the teams we back.

advice 110

advice ventures sustainability investment 110

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

You''ll get an entrepreneur who has raised one and only one round of financing in his or her entire life--all from relatively unsophisticated individuals, giving fundraising advice. However, I''m not about to dish out advice on how to grow into a billion dollar company, because I haven''t taken a company there yet. Skip a month.

ventures 386

ventures startup venture capital pitching 386

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 14, 2021

To make things as clear as possible, we asked each respondent to share their elevator pitch: How would they describe the technology if they were trying to convince a skeptic to invest? Please give us your web3 elevator pitch: What is it, and what role does it play in today’s internet framework? .

frameworks 91

frameworks enablement networking pitching 91

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. People referred to them as the invoicing company.”. Pitch perfect, you might think. companies should relocate to Silicon Valley if they really want to grow. “That was our loss for being too arrogant,” says Zennström.

investing 143

investing investment media mix-use 143

AsiaTechDaily

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

In North America, these refer as private investment in public entity (PIPE), where institutional investors or accredited investors invest in a public company at a certain discount to the current market price. We pitch to investors without requiring them to commit to a blind pool. Build trust. front seat now to drive the valuation.

ventures 97

ventures startup VC strategy 97

NZ Entrepreneur

JANUARY 20, 2022

Behind every startup, SME and scaleup statistic, and behind every failed pitch, idea, or venture is a human being with thoughts, feelings and frailties like anyone else. Everything else we do (our “What” – programmes, pitches, funding) is secondary.

health 118

health collaboration founder entrepreneurship 118

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Calling high means reaching the highest level appropriate person in an organization that you can reach to hear your pitch. The most likely outcome if you manage to interest the senior exec (for the sake of this post let me call her the CEO) is that she will refer you down the organization to somebody who would be involved in the decision.

advice 375

advice leadership pitching support 375

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Not all money is created equal: A VC’s advice for founders. In this environment, every investor has a well-honed pitch on how they can uniquely add value. This is the investor who tells you to follow their advice because, “We used to do this when I was at Google,” or, “When I was on Airbnb’s board, we did this.”

founder 79

founder board advice investment 79

TechCrunch

JANUARY 28, 2023

With some of the ugly out of the way — my words, not hers — T2 has examples it can refer back to on how to handle tensions around virality, doxxing and more. My big question is if VCs are taking the same advice that they’re dishing. It just made me think about that larger comprehension coupled with the nimbleness of a startup.

startup 107

startup entrepreneurship accelerator mentorship 107

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 29, 2021

Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? Any advice? Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? Crafting a pitch deck that can’t be ignored. I went into Apple Podcasts and it said, “Hey, Saba, here’s my pitch.” Crafting a pitch deck that can’t be ignored.

SaaS 82

SaaS pitching advice VC 82

TechCrunch

JANUARY 20, 2022

Throughout the day three concurrent tracks will offer a variety of topics — think protecting your IP, accelerating user growth, structuring your cap table or receiving feedback on your business pitch. And if you miss anything, you’ll still get all of the session presentations to reference after the event ends.

communities 86

communities advice pitching accelerator 86

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. They’re pitching to you. Too many people are racing through the pitch, pitch, pitch that they don’t realize it’s polite to let the “opposing team&# talk and do intro’s also. When I worked in London there were a ton of Aussies.

advice 314

advice pitching VC support 314

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. He had pitched me in the past and I told him that for a variety of reasons his company was too early stage for me but that I would happily keep track of their progress. Handling PR with VCs. Strike one up for subtlety.

VC 291

VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 291

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

The mission is the elevator pitch. And one of my biggest advice to those folks is, look, presumably, we all have the technical and functional skill set for this job. And then I also think with references, founders are typically showing up with their 5 to 7 reference questions. It’s just poor form.

energy 89

energy entrepreneurs leadership advice 89