Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

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VC startup advice innovation 269

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DECEMBER 5, 2012

What is it about me that makes you want to pitch me? When you're pitching for a million bucks "I've never heard of them" is not an acceptable answer for when I ask about the team that tried to do the same thing as you just two years ago. 5) Aim for me to hear about you before you pitch. 4) Do your homework. Getting quoted?

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VC pitching disruption advice 330

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. The following are some tips for the debate style VC meeting.

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VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC &# tab).

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VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

For some reason, everyone wants to be a VC. Since the best entrepreneurs are busy running their business and get pinged by VCs all the time, you're not going to wind up getting a deal if all you do is e-mail once, give up, and walk away. It doesn't have to count as an official pitch of any kind. Plenty of room. RSVP here. ).

creativity 336

creativity VC pitching communities 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. They know how to build pitch decks. They know the VCs so they know what interests them. I attended events. I did speaking gigs.

VC 347

VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 347

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

On my blog I’ve been hesitant to take the topic head on. But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? In it she observes that only 3% of the comments on this blog are from women. Please watch this.

entrepreneurs 341

entrepreneurs entrepreneurship VC pitching 341

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur last week about how he decided which VCs he was going to pitch. No matter how much I or any of the team here at First Round made themselves accessable through Office Hours, LinkedIn, Twitter, speaking, blogging, etc., A lot of VCs ask to be introduced through someone.

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VC pitching entrepreneurs networking 291

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. I don’t want any formal pitches. VC Industry' It’s exhausting. Perhaps unsustainable.

peer-to-peer 317

peer-to-peer pitching VC accelerator 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

If I had to put a number on it I’d say 1 in 20 pitches – maybe 1 in 30 – are by an entrepreneur who comes across as truly passionate about her project. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion. I’m a VC. But the two can of course go hand-in-hand.

peer-to-peer 373

peer-to-peer VC pitching entrepreneurs 373

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

I can't think of a single time when a white man came to pitch me and I told him his fundraising plans weren't aggressive enough. Yet, for some reason, the goals for her pitch were incremental--despite being in an extremely hot space. VCs don't go later and angels don't go earlier. Ask them for an intro to a VC.

advice 419

advice founder pitching VC 419

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2014

These are things that other VCs think about, but founders who come to pitch don''t think about too much. When you blog, tweet , Instagram , etc., as a VC, sometimes your own website becomes an afterthought. How many more investments could I do? How where things going?

pitching 413

pitching board VC opportunity 413

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Ask your VC to send a critical email to a contact.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I always try hard to make this blog a place where you can learn lessons rather than an advertisement for portfolio companies. I hope you’ll excuse me when I do the latter in combination with the former to try and explain how I see macro trends and help you think about the mind of a VC. But the masses didn’t want to blog.

investing 303

investing investment VC media 303

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. That prompted Fred Wilson’s blog post appealing to the industry to make these simplified term sheets standard. I have this mentality, too.

founder 252

founder pitching VC advice 252

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I became aware of Sam several years ago as I started noticing his name repeated in the comments section of my blog. Of course he pitched me the entire ride down. Come to entrepreneur pitches. The choice of how much VC work and how much start-your-company work you want to do is up to you. Sam in the perfect example.

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pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

Conferences, startup blogs, meetups--they're all filled with people telling you how to build your company. Try and figure out exactly what a startup had to show at the moment a VC chose to invest in them. Why ever read another tech blog? They don't look cautiously at the advice given to them by their favorite VC blogger.

advice 416

advice startup VC strategy 416

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

” The ultimate measure of success for a journalist is viewership so if nobody cares about your shitty little company and the story you’re trying to pitch then the journalist doesn’t want to publish. The major battle for press is a battle for “mindshare” and it’s exactly the reason I blog. I am a VC.

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mix-use advice VC technology 389

Dream It

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Keep reading for some more of the most common mistakes startups make when pitching and for Steve’s tips on how to fix them. Investors want to hear, “Our unique insight is __”… in your pitch 2. VCs are judging your ability to sell If you are running a B2B company, investors know that you need to “sell” to potential early adopters.

startup founder 397

startup founder founder startup pitching 397

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. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

They get pitched by so many blowhards that more genuine people who aren’t in it for just a story stand out from the crowd. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent.

startup 349

startup pitching advice consulting 349

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. I am VERY careful in board meetings and in startup pitches to tell entrepreneurs, “I feel very strongly about my opinion on this topic. There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. What is a founder to do?

advice 407

advice frameworks startup mix-use 407

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

They get pitched by so many blowhards that more genuine people who aren’t in it for just a story stand out from the crowd. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent.

pitching 319

pitching media advice venture capital 319

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

I remember one day last summer when Dennis Crowley and I both went to pitch the same biz dev partner—me with Path 101 and him with Foursquare. I just had just written about Foursquare on my blog, so I was actually invited to his biz dev meeting, too. Momentum at the right time paves the way for startup success.

VC 186

VC venture capital media board 186

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. What are the most common mistakes in first pitch?

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capital board VC pitching 284

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. They know how to build pitch decks.

advice 361

advice VC pitching entrepreneurs 361

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. The more self-assured the VC is and the more impressionable the entrepreneur is the worse the outcome. ” I’ve already blogged about how I work through this process: I triangulate. It is unknowable.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 9, 2020

If you’re a white professional in venture, you might feel uncomfortable tweeting or blogging about race. If you're in a more privileged position with lots of VC connections to pitch, you’ll either do one of the following things: You'll come right back at me, tell me why and how I'm wrong—because at this point you have nothing to lose.

founder 270

founder pitching VC opportunity 270

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

I want to make sure that my sixth year as a VC doesn’t just become an automatic continuation of what I’ve done in my first 5 years. The number of times I’ve had people come to me and say they want to blog more. Board Meetings. Conferences. I get sucked up in “Do” mode. Startups Are for Doers.

creativity 400

creativity venture capital entrepreneurs board 400

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. There are other great VC’s in SoCal and there is always the allure of the NorCal guys flying down and talking about how they invested in Google, Facebook, Yahoo! It’s one of my favorite blog posts. The one that you thought you had.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level.

venture capital 288

venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. There are other great VC’s in SoCal and there is always the allure of the NorCal guys flying down and talking about how they invested in Google, Facebook, Yahoo! It’s one of my favorite blog posts. The one that you thought you had.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 15, 2010

He wrote an excellent blog post on this topic. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Pitching VCs Start-up Advice Startup Advice VC Industry. 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. They deserve more credit.

advice 254

advice angel investing entrepreneurs pitching 254

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 26, 2022

You’d like to believe the world is completely meritocratic—that you’ll put your heads down to work on your company, hit all your metrics, and just show up on the doorstep of a VC firm who will just be bowled over at the fantastic little company you’ve created. Well, they’d know it if you wrote a book, of course!

founder 259

founder pitching VC creativity 259

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

I remember one day last summer when Dennis Crowley and I both went to pitch the same biz dev partner—me with Path 101 and him with Foursquare. I just had just written about Foursquare on my blog, so I was actually invited to his biz dev meeting, too. Momentum at the right time paves the way for startup success.

VC 150

VC venture capital media board 150

Startup Grind

AUGUST 13, 2018

Pitch your startup for an opportunity to meet with Floodgate. Favorite business book, blog, podcast? Pitch your startup for an opportunity to meet with Floodgate. She has a BSEE from Yale and a PhD from Stanford in math modeling of computer security. She lives with her husband, 3 kids ages 10, 8 and 6 and one spoiled dog.

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VC entrepreneurship pitching strategy 111

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. We are experiencing a frenetic time. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. Year in, year out.

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advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398