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. You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. Congratulations. Does that sound ok?&#.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

With VCs my strong suggestion is that you be open & realistic. Leaving your real competitors off of you presentation to a VC is not recommended. Think back to the slides in the VC deck where you define the customer problem you’re solving and what your solution does. Harvey Balls.

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VC education strategy opportunity 313

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

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VC consulting entrepreneurs creativity 312

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 3, 2015

It spoke to me because it so resonates with my nearly daily advice to entrepreneurs and VCs alike. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly. A company presents. He took two words where I take 1,000! A typical investment discussion is not a bed of roses.

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advice peer-to-peer startup frameworks 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2015

So here’s advice I give people all the time when they’re raising money. You’ve all been to a presentation where you were overwhelmed with information and while you thought that lady was really smart you can’t remember anything about what she said the next day. Show me your unicorn. Narratives matter.

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advice pitching disruption VC 360

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I told my friend that I felt that in 2014 too many new VCs feel the pressure to chase deals, to be a part of syndicates with other brand names and to pounce on top of every startup whose numbers are trending up quickly. I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal.

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VC investing investment entrepreneurs 374

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. This happens often and I bet most presenters never realize it.

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VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

I know it’s a bit of a cliche that VCs say they like to be helpful, but I really do think of this as a service job—not one that’s purely about asset allocation. It hasn’t always been as rewarding as it could be, however. This is how Fred Wilson described me back in 2010. I took a lot of pride in that when I first read it.

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ventures investing investment VC 545

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC.&#. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. A large part of my series has been outlining what the typical VC PowerPoint presentation should look like. You want to build a dialogue where you get to know the VC with whom you’re meeting.

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VC advice pitching venture capital 238

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game.

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VC pitching advice entrepreneurs 261

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. In particular I tried to do most of the “entrepreneur advice on VC” up front so that if you don’t want to watch our views on the deals you don’t have to. Total round was $2.5

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VC founder advice ventures 214

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. In terms of topics we spoke about: - Do VC’s send your presentations around to other people if they don’t fund you? Tags: Start-up Advice.

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VC finance financing capital 285

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

He listened intently through every presentation, asked questions and did a great summary of what he felt he had learned over the two days. And awesome to get to spend time with Ian Sigalow “comparing notes” (VC speak ). View more presentations from steve blank. My action item – I will soon announce the GRP Partners CEO Summit.

peer-to-peer 279

peer-to-peer advice VC board 279

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly more money while you can is always better than trying to optimize future valuations. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly?

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VC board investment investing 263

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

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VC board investment investing 314

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. 2 weeks later and we may never have raised any more VC. Quick aside: how can VC’s invest in online businesses, digital media, social networks or mobile applications if they don’t actually use the products actively themselves? Tags: Start-up Advice.

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startup founder founder startup VC 299

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

One of the questions I’m most often asked as a VC is what I’m looking for in an investment. I once had a debate with a prominent VC on a panel. The moderator asked the question, “if an entrepreneur writes an email to a VC and doesn’t hear back what should they do?&# This VC responded, “Move on.

entrepreneurs 338

entrepreneurs peer-to-peer advice VC 338

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. The CEO had 60-page Powerpoint presentations analyzing every micro detail of the business. I left the board. The company never JFDI.

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entrepreneurs board advice consulting 414

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 15, 2010

Jason started the Open Angel Forum in response to his frustration that entrepreneurs were being charged by some angel organizations to present at their events. Asking young companies with limited capital to pay to present to a group of potential investors is insane. 5 companies presented for 7-8 minutes each followed by Q&A.

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advice angel investing entrepreneurs pitching 254

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. A few weeks ago I sat through two very contrasting presentations and wrote this blog post right afterward. Both presenters are anonymized.

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pitching VC advice strategy 288

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2011

I am a big believer in VC pitches that the bio slide should come up front. Actually, I think the advice in this post applies to any sales meeting also. This is especially important since I believe that 70% of the decision of many VCs are based on the potential of the management team in one way, shape or form.

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VC advice pitching investing 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb.

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board VC advice pitching 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 17, 2011

I presented behind a lectern. Whether you’re presenting to a small group of people or a large audience your presentation must have a narrative to effectively get your points across. Keep it human -Far too many presentations, keynote speeches, conference panels or blog posts seem wooden. Gregory was into theater.

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peer-to-peer leadership support construction 365

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Do I have data or facts to present so the story has legs? I am a VC. But through expressing points-of-view I can raise above the consciousness of my customers (entrepreneurs and limited partners who invest in VC funds) in ways that I couldn’t without breaking through the noise of the hundreds of others of VCs who also have money.

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mix-use advice VC technology 389

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. But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. That’s OK, too.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2010

It surprising how few people actually follow through this this advice. One of the most practical pieces of early career advice I got was “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.&# The message was clear. Heck, even VC’s have bosses (our investors). Tags: Startup Advice. Everybody says that.

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advice board consulting development 342

Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Be more present. As female entrepreneurs, we are independent-minded and innovative, and this advice is critical for securing our future and the future of our families. She provided me with so much advice on business strategy, business channels and HR. Stop multitasking and instead, do one thing. Enjoy each activity.

founder 262

founder advice entrepreneurship entrepreneurs 262

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Later today I’m presenting at the annual Rincon Ventures Summit in Santa Barbara. The median VC exit price for deals is $70 million (FLAG Capital via Bryce.VC). Bimodal returns are a fallacy, many great VC funds are built on the power law curve. They say the same about VC. Startup Exits: A Primer from msuster.

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technology startup VC ventures 323

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. There are too many pulls & tugs at our elbows for time, for coffee meetings, for advice or speaking engagements or cocktail parties or dinners.

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advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

Revolution

MAY 23, 2023

VC firms are not blameless — over 1.8K VC investors wrote checks into proptech deals over the last five years. These strategics have fundamentally different models and objectives for investing in proptech startups compared to a VC that is focused on generating returns through scaling tech companies.

real estate 278

real estate venture capital VC innovation 278

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Notes Wadhwa, “Jason [Calacanis], Fred [Wilson], and Silicon Valley VC’s, I’ve got news for you: you’ve got it all wrong. I’m now a VC that funds entrepreneurs. “VC and former entrepreneur Brad Feld also blogged about how many of his frat buddies at MIT had become successful entrepreneurs.

entrepreneurship 289

entrepreneurship entrepreneurs advice VC 289

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

So it was my great pleasure to host Chamillionaire on This Week in VC this week talking marketing, entrepreneurship, old media and, of course, music. I had written a blog post on exactly this – how to not suck at group presentations – and what he said reminded me a lot of this post.

entrepreneurs 356

entrepreneurs media VC creativity 356

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch. As a VC if I can tell that you’ve survived tough times and you don’t appear beaten down that’s a huge plus. I presented a revised plan that I had created in 24 hours with the help of my team.

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs advice VC SaaS 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

And the folks at Startup Grind have been kind enough to invite me to present this morning in Mountain View on the topic. And you need to be careful about giving up control to cofounders as much as VCs. Hire admin / office management after you raise a reasonable size VC round. figure out roles. identify gaps. and so forth.

startup 388

startup consulting construction board 388

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

My pal Dave occasionally presents “headline risks” for investors. I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years. My pal Dave has very loyal friends in the VC world who would go to bat for him any time. But he knows that.

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VC data analysis incubation health 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 28, 2010

At a strategy offsite with several hundred strategy employees I was giving a presentation on stage and I asked, out loud, “why do we keep grin fucking each other (you could actually say that out loud in England) on the topic of Integrated Strategy? When people come to present their businesses to me I try my best not to grin fuck them.

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frameworks consulting advice strategy 378

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

It also applies to other parts of my life such as presentations. I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. The first was to do a 5 minute “ignite&# presentation – 5 minutes, 15 slides. I left that presentation and sat down in a coffee shop.

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mentorship creativity energy entrepreneurs 374