Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. One was the hardest working guy on our board and the biggest mensch. Make sure to reference check with other portfolio companies.

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advice venture capital frameworks entrepreneurs 279

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole notion that you even need a Powerpoint deck anymore. It’s why I wrote that the best meetings are debates and not pitches. That’s an awesome suggestion.

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VC board pitching venture capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

These can be called: Operating Partners, Venture Partners, Board Partners or similar. They might sponsor an occasional deal, they might be looking to jump in and run a company or they might take the board seat if the firm invests. We also take input from our board partners and from our non-partner investment staff.

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VC board investing investment 314

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

By Monday morning after their board meeting in NorCal I didn’t get a return phone call. 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 knew what this meant.

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consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

Of course I knew that they sat on other boards that kept them busy but somehow it seemed like I had all of their attention to myself during the fund raising process – especially the ones who seemed to like me and spend time with me. Imagine he or she sits on the boards of 5 companies. Imagine your VC as an airport.

VC 275

VC venture capital pitching board 275

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

By Monday morning after their board meeting in NorCal I didn’t get a return phone call. 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 knew what this meant.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

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. The partner you saw is probably sitting on 5-6 boards which means he or she will be busy helping existing portfolio companies. Start with a very short thank you email the day after your pitch.

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VC pitching advice strategy 277

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. I sit on a board with Howard Morgan of FRC and I can tell you this guy works harder than most and has a punishing travel schedule.

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VC real estate advice venture capital 283

TechCrunch

APRIL 1, 2022

Perfect pitch, a singer’s ability to produce any given musical note without a reference tone, is a rare phenomenon — only 1-5 people out of every 10,000 have it. While your odds of creating a perfect pitch deck that captures coveted VC interest aren’t quite that dire, they’re not exactly in your favor, either.

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pitching VC construction venture capital 89

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Sometimes it pays to jump on board before a lot of big questions have been answered—simply because you can feel the market starting to notice it and create mindshare momentum. I even started referring to him as a podhead. Undaunted, he went back to work, got some great partners on board, and kept plugging away.

VC 186

VC venture capital media board 186

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. Ryan Smith, the founder of Qualtrics, also invested and has joined the board of directors. 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations , while only 22% of brands are trusted.

communities 234

communities peer-to-peer venture capital enablement 234

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. So, if your connection can't really speak that much to what you're doing, or you want to save them time, feel free to just point me to LinkedIn and tell me who we know in common that you think would provide a good reference.

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VC pitching entrepreneurs networking 291

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! When we invest they are often the company counsel so we see them at board meetings. the link is here. Our lives are intertwined. Get to know them.

startup 318

startup advice entrepreneurs VC 318

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

They did it by creating a blog, discussion board and hub for eCommerce advice and information. Much of my traffic is through referring websites and/or social media. I have board meetings, company pitches, internal partner meetings, etc. They achieved all of this before they raised even a penny of venture capital.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Sometimes it pays to jump on board before a lot of big questions have been answered—simply because you can feel the market starting to notice it and create mindshare momentum. I even started referring to him as a podhead. Undaunted, he went back to work, got some great partners on board, and kept plugging away.

VC 150

VC venture capital media board 150

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

He serves on the boards of OCEANIX, Atom Computing, Conscious Cultures and MycoWorks. I have also heard it referred to as a “narrative deck” — basically a detailed, written version of your pitch. Gaetano Crupi. Contributor. Gaetano Crupi is a partner at venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab.

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founder strategy pitching venture capital 97

Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 15, 2023

There are a lot of tools that can help, but each has limitations: The Business Model Canvas identifies the big picture hypotheses of your venture… but struggles to help you ID what is needed to get all your key stakeholders on board. As you validate hypothesis, you mark them, highlighting what work is done and what is yet-to-be done.

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funders innovation pitching ventures 130

TechCrunch

MAY 11, 2021

As the company’s CEO and co-founder Shail Mehta explained in a TC Early Stage pitch-off earlier this year, The Last Gameboard is a 16-inch square touchscreen device with a custom OS and a sophisticated method of tracking game pieces and hand movements. If the pitch sounds familiar… it’s been attempted once or twice before.

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social gaming pitching VC innovation 136

David Teten VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

I’m surprised at how many funding pitches I get which lack some of the basic information which investors require before funding. 50% of these meetings led to pitches to individual partners. About 30% of partner pitches led to full partnership pitches. I suggest use the Founder Institute Mad Libs elevator pitch.

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pitching ventures VC capital 53

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. No board seats or advisory roles. They require a board seat. Or references. That takes time.

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angel investing investing investment pitching 125

TechCrunch

AUGUST 15, 2021

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy founded theBoardlist , a premium talent marketplace that helps diverse leaders get discovered for board and executive opportunities. A technology executive and entrepreneur, board member and investor, she has 25 years of experience founding and helping to scale companies, including Google, Amazon and Yodlee.

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board pitching funders opportunity 98

Feedough

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

150Birds can be referred to as Uber for freelance marketing services. It charges $99 for its services of strategic guidance and mediator and $65/hr for every expert that gets on board. Startup reviews are custom written posts by our experienced team who’ll work closely with your team to create the best pitch possible.

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startup creativity strategy SaaS 119

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. will do the same for customer service.”

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support consulting accelerator pitching 109

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Lak Ananth is founding CEO and managing partner of the global venture capital firm Next47 and serves on the board of several companies that he has helped to grow beyond $1 billion valuations. In this environment, every investor has a well-honed pitch on how they can uniquely add value. Lak Ananth. Contributor. Share on Twitter.

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founder board advice investing 79

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 19, 2021

Take Resumes with a Grain of Salt—Hire for Attitude and Train for Skills Any company can offer the greatest product or service in the world, but it can only be executed by having the right people on board. When hiring, I take resumes with a grain of salt, as I do references, too. Advertising = telling people how good you are.

entrepreneurs 243

entrepreneurs opportunity entrepreneurship culture 243

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). They had a team trained up in Documentum and we certainly had enemies from the inside. But we worked the account tirelessly for months.

consulting 151

consulting advice collaboration support 151

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

He serves on the boards of OCEANIX, Atom Computing, Conscious Cultures and MycoWorks. Series B companies generally have sales, detailed cost breakdowns, forecast actualization records, patents, board presentations and more. The DDQ offers a good reference guide for such simple questions. Gaetano Crupi. Contributor.

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board venture capital culture capital 97

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Branded’s pitch is that it can use that expertise in building online businesses to grow its stable of sellers and brands better than they might be able to do on their own. “We he left almost exactly a year ago, after the fund had started to come under a lot of scrutiny ).

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mix-use opportunity pitching strategy 100

TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2021

In between getting pitched this story and publishing it, the size of the Series B grew by $8 million (it was originally closed at $36 million). Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which first invested in the company in its $16 million Series A in 2020, also participated.

education 101

education mentorship opportunity ventures 101

TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

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. How do you prefer to receive pitches? Have fintechs gotten close to growing into their 2021 valuations?

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advice ventures sustainability investing 110

TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2022

Plenty of startups think they can put a dent in this world, and every year, I see dozens of pitches for companies that are “making speakers better” in various ways. Armed with a handful of patents and some cool reference speakers (i.e. And every year, it falls flat. Mayht’s Heartmotion prototype speaker lineup.

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startup disruption innovation energy 89

TechCrunch

APRIL 26, 2022

Lead generation is a critical cornerstone in the world of sales — in a seemingly infinite sea of potential customers, you need to know who wants to buy, or who might buy, what you are selling so that you can focus your pitches (and your time and energy) in a more focused way. He’s also joining Qualified’s board with this round.

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energy ventures media culture 83

StartupNation

JUNE 7, 2021

Today, I am an angel investor as well as a board member and advisor to early-stage companies. Anticipate the question, have a slide about it in your pitch deck for investors and strategically think through the answer, as it will affect your prospects for securing investment.

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strategy real estate entrepreneurs investing 105

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Zeisser is also joining the board.). She said they thus refer to the category with a distinct term: “experience commerce.” investments at Alibaba. All this is sufficiently specialized enough, Lisa added, that they didn’t feel it really existed in the complex way that experience creators needed it to.

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mix-use pitching opportunity board 83

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

The mission is the elevator pitch. And then I also think with references, founders are typically showing up with their 5 to 7 reference questions. What are the tips that you have for reference processing both on the front door and the back channel references? Referencing should be almost like a continual loop.

energy 89

energy entrepreneurs leadership advice 89

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 4, 2023

Some Salesforce employees just found out they’re part of the 10% layoff announced last month Board changes could signal Salesforce’s willingness to appease activist investors Salesforce turmoil continues into new year, as recent layoffs attest Can 4 activist investors play nice in the Salesforce sandbox?

founder 92

founder consulting VC construction 92

David Teten VC

APRIL 30, 2021

If the seed and/or anchor investor asks for a percentage of total fees for any future investors across other vehicles, I’d try to negotiate specific performance criteria required of that anchor investor: serving as a reference; full press rights on the use of their name; and if possible even introductions to their end clients.”

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VC venture capital capital investing 98