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. Improve your selling skills by studying the many books and videos available on that very skill. Well, that didn’t cover everything.

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Paul G. Silva

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

This post is part of my ongoing series exploring lessons from Jim Collins’s book, BE 2.0 Startups pitched for 10 minutes each. pitches , back-to-back, with no Q&A. Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0). It wasn’t scalable. We had to find a better way. A room full of mentors provided feedback.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

This is a very common scenario when entrepreneurs pitch VCs and frankly is a very common scenario when VCs try to raise money from LPs. It’s predictable, there is no reason to get mad about it and with a well-designed play book you can overcome this much of the time. When you pitched me I really did love you. You’re in control.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

APRIL 14, 2021

As business owners, we constantly have new ideas for films we’d like to make–so we’re out there pitching, much like the GSEA competitors. We took notes during the competition to help improve our pitch!”. We can all take a page from these students’ books and suspend our fear of the unknown to try something new.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2013

One of most fascinating & enjoyable books on the topic is Bill Bryson’s “ Made in America ,” which demystifies the origins of the English language and why Americans speak more traditional English than the English do. (I I know, I know … just read the book).

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

She bought our first computer – an IBM XT with a 10MB hard drive – in order to do her books electronically. My guess is that probably only 2-3 out of every hundred pitches I receive are from women. The latest entrepreneur who has been pitching me, Shahed Khan , is only 16! She opened a bakery and a restaurant.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

They originally pitched us with a hacked but super productive prototype they built in their fraternity room and a rendering of a beautiful bookshelf sized in-home growing system that they committed to building. One of the first bets we made in Agtech was Grove started by two young, passionate engineers out of MIT – Gabe and Jamie.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2013

I used to ask Deborah to book my travel plans in France and Germany were I went 1-2 times / month. There were online tools to book this stuff but the Internet booking sites were early. I’ve been pitched by hundreds of entrepreneurs who never actually asked me whether I would invest. Very few people do.

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This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 23, 2023

and then BOOM they sent you a link to an app with your whole trip, completely booked, with a map driven itinerary and a text concierge available to make last minute changes, etc. Total cost was just $5 per traveler per day and Noken took a cut of the bookings.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I have sat through countless pitches with Ivy League grads spewing off intellectual descriptions of the details of their product or service and why it will win in the market. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. These messages need to pass the cocktail party pitch. And I think this is a mistake.

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This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 20, 2012

Be a continuous learner--take classes, and read books and your profession and best practices. I tried pitching business development ideas, coming up with marketing ploys. How do you get better? Get a mentor or a coach--someone that understands firsthand what you're doing and ideally has done your job.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 28, 2022

Over on TC+ , I just launched a new series called Pitch Deck Teardowns! Astute readers may already have figured out what that is all about: You submit a pitch deck and we share it with our readers, highlighting things that are awesome, making suggestions for improvements and celebrating the fun, innovative and surprising things that we find.

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pitching accelerator startup founder innovation 79

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 2, 2012

They started flipping through some books and examining designs up on the wall. He introduced himself and the name of his company, noted that he was helping his YC friend learn how to talk to investors, and just went off into his pitch. When he finished, I turned to his friend and said, "Want me to critique his pitch?"

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 17, 2019

One of the many great things about vacations is reading books. Vacation is the one time that I can really prioritize reading books (as opposed to everything else I read). I just finished Scott Kupor ‘s Secrets Of Sand Hill Road , a book for entrepreneurs about rasing capital from venture firms. It would be a great course.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I read this book, " Why We Make Mistake s " and it talks a lot about "recall bias". Half the time, founders were pitching a completely different idea than what took off--so the VC who looks brilliant for funding the latest viral app really funded a B2B product that never took off. On average, it's probably nonsensical.

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Smart Hustle Magazine

JUNE 19, 2021

The elevator pitch as we know it today comes from Hollywood. An aspiring screenwriter would corner an unsuspecting executive in an elevator and pitch his/her concept during the time it took to go one floor. If the executive liked the pitch they would stay on until their floor. That’s not an elevator pitch. Where to begin?

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

It plans to use the funds to continue expanding its product, hiring more talent and taking Peek to more places, after passing some $2 billion in bookings from some 35 million customers, mostly in North America. ” Peek has now raised more than $100 million in the last 10 years. Peek was also not immune.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

Where to go: Book a room at the 21c Cincinnati for an artful stay, explore the country’s glowing commercial history at the American Sign Museum, and catch a Bearcats game at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium. Catch insights from Steve and a recap of the pitch competition. Read highlights from the annual meeting.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2021

You don’t need everyone, you just need a few core believers and having a hard “why buy me” pitch makes it easier to find and convert those leads. a firm differentiator means that not everyone will buy into your thesis but that’s okay.

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investing investment ventures pitching 375

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

No more founder pitch meetings. I’ll also continue to work within the NYC tech community—now thriving at a level I could hardly have imagined when I first got the pitch deck for USV’s first fund as a Limited Partner at the GM pension fund. No new investments. No more responding to fundraising decks.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 17, 2021

In the book Alien Thinking , three innovation professors at IMD Business School argue that people who generate truly breakthrough ideas look at their world like aliens–outsiders unburdened by the assumptions, biases and conventional thinking that constrain imagination. Entrepreneurial success hinges on generating breakthrough ideas.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

They pitched on a Wednesday. It’s something you’d imagine working best on a tablet where the parents take digital assets (think: photos & stickers) and engage with their children in story telling, arts-and-crafts, scrap-booking and the like. Turns out Punky was a childhood hero for Tasha. That’s cute.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 10, 2024

I recall the day before my IPO roadshow — how nervous I was — and how I presented my pitch deck to my Forum, and they shared valuable insights and honest feedback. We truly could not put this book together without the support of my EO friends and the wisdom they shared.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? They did customer pickups, the drove vans to storage facilities, the deal with booking and customer support issues – everything. And could we then compete?” ” type questions. But what if you could do the reverse of Amazon?

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

She told of the teaching of the Talmud – a book which scholars use to debate doctrine and from which Jewish people are reminded to always learn and to debate. I often hear pitches and think to myself, “that sounds plausible” but I nearly always start with the position that I’m not sure.

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peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

What about pitch competitions that sound like Ancient Roman death matches? They do, and I'll join these events, but when you name your pitch event after something violent, you shouldn't be surprised when you've gotten way more men to apply. How enthusiastic are women going to be to participate in shark cages and battlegrounds?

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2015

Plum Print turns your kid''s artwork into buyable merchandise like coffee table books, and soon note cards, framed prints, and calendars. You sent them the same pitch you sent everywhere else. I''m incredibly excited to announce Brooklyn Bridge Ventures'' investment in Plum Print. And you know what, why shouldn''t they?

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I understand that Adam Grant is a fairly popular professor at Wharton and has a book that some people loved called “Originals” (for me it interesting but not mind blowing, and I have some first-hand knowledge of some of its inaccuracies). I think his advice is this op-ed is bananas. In Adam’s world, I’m rude.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

Inspired by the book Start Something That Matters by Toms founder Blake Mycoskie, Joe decided to tackle the world water crisis. I scrambled to get my application done and worked on my pitch. After that round, EO members mentored and helped me hone my pitch before competing in the US Nationals.

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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. In Dan Rather’s book he talks about Ruth Bader Ginsberg who was appointed the the Supreme Court in 1993.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2023

You need a solid business plan, traction to demonstrate market fit, and the skills to pitch effectively. Don’t neglect ongoing investor relations “A lot of startup founders think that the only way investors will respond favorably is if they provide their best pitch on first contact,” said Mohammadi.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

I learned about this behavior and how to channel it from my favorite book about ADHD, Delivered from Distraction. Every so often I find myself caught up in a really hectic 3-4 week schedule where it seems like I float endlessly betweens meetings. Board Meetings. Conferences. I get sucked up in “Do” mode. Startups Are for Doers.

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Dream It

APRIL 3, 2020

In addition to his books, Geoffrey Moore assisted in writing “In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers” for the Harvard Business Review in 2009. However, these executives usually have multiple lines of defense to shield them from sales pitches. His strategy for selling in 2009 is relevant to any economic downturn.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2011

I followed her writing and bought her AOL book back in 1999. When someone comes in to pitch me, I always ask them to tell me the "origin story". Call it simplistic and naive, but being who you are, in my book, is always a winning strategy. I even got her to come speak at Fordham while I was still in college.

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This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 29, 2016

Assuming they weren't unethical and they met your character standard, you went into a pitch with the goal of getting money from this person, and they didn't get there. It doesn't pay to look at it any other way--and I think too many founders focus on the investor as the problem versus their pitch or their company. Same with pitching.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 2, 2023

Gable takes all the administrative work out of finding and booking nearby workspaces, both for employees and employers. Pitch Deck Teardown: Gable’s $12M Series A deck by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch Slides in this deck At 21 slides, Gable’s deck is longer than average. 1 Case study slide No.

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 3, 2021

For example, for me, I didn’t just put in “e-mail time”, I divided up the amount of time I spend responding to entrepreneur pitches in e-mail vs other types of e-mail, which I labeled “correspondence”. We started working through the different types of work we do in our jobs—not only based on the type of task but also on particular projects.

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