American Entrepreneurship

JANUARY 28, 2025

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm, says, “The thing that gets me most excited is the founder whos obsessed with solving a problem that matters, and is determined to keep going no matter what.” The keyword is compelling.

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Dream It

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Many of these new red flags that occur during virtual pitching are easy to fix. In this Dreamit Dose, Healthtech MD Adam Dakin provides 5 simple rules to avoid giving investors the wrong impression when pitching remotely. We hear startups pitch everyday and far too often founders end up joining the meeting late.

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Dream It

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Getting investors excited about your product is a critical part of raising capital. But founders are often so consumed with talking metrics, milestones achieved, or the capital they need that they sometimes forget to talk about their overarching vision for their startups. It’s not about the slide deck.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 22, 2020

Pitch deck outlines are ok, but they don’t say much about what you’re trying to convey besides particular categories that may or may not be relevant. Too often people only pitch what they have, not where they’re going—and they forget that fundraising is selling tickets to the future, not asking for rewards for the past.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

She was pitching for a pre-seed round of $400k. Founders hit the street with their pitch deck, some make it, and some don’t, but nearly all of them ascribe a lot more human influence over the process than there probably is. Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 14, 2014

Most companies don''t ever raise venture capital and they do just fine. That''s a much better picture of female entrepreneurship than the 2-4% of venture capital dollars going to women. The main driver of the skew towards men getting venture capital, statistically, is that far more men are pitching.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2021

He has raised venture capital for his startups, helped hundreds of founders craft their pitch decks and fundraising strategy, and invested as a business angel. We asked him how founders can create the perfect pitch deck for their company. Some of these pitches were very informal, sitting at the bar or walking around.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

I was working for the GM pension fund, an institutional LP, as an analyst, doing a research project on consumer private equity and venture capital investing. After getting to know Ben from the tech community, he pitched me his concept for a CPG food company. Leading an investment into an ice cream chain, however, that's another beast.

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Dream It

JANUARY 8, 2020

In the episode, Steve asked Ron about his “five slide pitch deck.” How much will you invest in marketing and other capital intensive resources? Read Ron’s article on his five slide pitch deck here. How will you grow your company to provide value for your investors? Will you be hiring developers or sales people?

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

There was an explosion in number of startups both because it was cheap and there was tons of available capital. The other major trend of 2012–2015 was the entrance of “non VCs” into late-stages of venture capital , which mostly consisted of hedge funds, mutual funds, corporate investors, sovereign wealth funds and even LPs doing direct deals.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 23, 2014

It doesn''t help them improve their pitch or adjust their model. If you take a smart home pitch, and you turn it down because you''re not certain how the smart home segment will play out, what you should have done was tell the entrepreneur this, but offer up the opportunity to shed some light. Venture Capital & Technology'

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

In fact, you could make the argument that, because of their lack of advantages in other areas, the ones who make it to a venture pitch actually have more of these raw ingredients because they’ve had to in order to make it to the same destination as their straight white male counterparts. The reasons why are plentiful and probably overlapping.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 24, 2014

Not every VC used to get pitched by VC funds for a living and has seen hundreds and hundreds of VC pitch decks. All of these people in my inbox who want to get into VC need to go raise $10mm of institutional capital to fund 10 VCs over the next two years in a VC accelorator program. Venture Capital & Technology'

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Dream It

JULY 31, 2019

The product should be live if we hope to raise capital. The press enhances this misconception around YCombinator demo days, where the 3-day pitch event is perceived like an auction, with investors fighting each other for the best deals. Don't get me wrong; the pitch deck is a crucial document (trust me, it's what we do).

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Dream It

MAY 19, 2021

In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Director Adam Dakin presents his view on the right way to answer it after hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of founder pitches. Make the specific amount you are raising and corresponding milestones clear at the beginning of the pitch, and do not give a range. The amount you're raising is your ask.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 14, 2020

The NVCA and Pitch Book are out with their Q3 report on the VC industry and what they report is that the VC industry continues to be very active throughout the pandemic. The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated. The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 5, 2024

Three finalists received training via workshops and coaching from business advisors, fine-tuning their business plans and pitches for the showcase and pitch competition. In addition to its classroom curriculum, NFTE hosts the Founders Forum Pitch Competition.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 31, 2014

Even if you haven''t gotten offers yet, your time is valuable and you can''t pitch everyone. You feel like you have a decent shot of successfully raising, so you want to prioritize who to pitch to first. When you pitch, tell a firm how they can be helpful. How did you pick who to pitch? Venture Capital & Technology'

VC 377

VC pitching venture capital capital 377

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 15, 2020

Lots of the data is skewed toward later stage rounds and I’ve never ever seen stats on who is pitching. There are so many different ways to interpret the data on who gets venture and why.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Takes an hour or an hour and a half at most and everyone gets the benefit of a public conversation--versus three or four hours of pitches. Those kinds of requests feel desperate and not only undermine their pitch, but it''s still real time that adds up. Venture Capital & Technology' Panel prep calls. That makes no sense to me.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 17, 2014

With the author staying close as an advisor, they build a real, cashflow positive business and start to think about where they could go with some outside capital. The first pitch I got was from someone who didn''t intend on staying with the business as an employee. Venture Capital & Technology' How is that story being told?

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pitching consulting VC venture capital 348

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data. If you meet someone at a pitch event, they''ve already got a company and they''re looking to close as quickly as possible. Venture Capital & Technology'

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VC pitching networking venture capital 417

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

Go pitch a VC with an idea, and they''ll tell you to build it. Venture Capital & Technology' Go to them with a prototype and they''ll tell you to launch it. Launch it, and they''ll tell you to get more users. Get users and they''ll tell you to get paying customers. Let''s remember that, people.

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Startup Blogpost

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

20 Tips for Pitching New Business Ideas to Potential Investors To provide you with the best advice on pitching new business ideas to investors, we asked twenty CEOs, Founders, and other professionals for their top tips. You should highlight the potential future earnings while pitching your proposal.

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AsiaTechDaily

OCTOBER 26, 2023

The new initiative includes a strategic partnership with the highly anticipated X-PITCH 2023, a global deeptech startup competition aimed at catalyzing the widespread adoption of cutting-edge technology across diverse industries. “We see immense potential in partnering with X-PITCH.

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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?

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

It was like someone gave him the instruction manual on how to pitch and no one else had it. One time, he was sitting next to a player in the dugout and told him that he should move or he's going to get hit with a foul ball on the next pitch. Sure enough, the very next pitch sent a screamer his way. This next one is easy.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Since the beginning of modern venture capital investing — a relatively nascent asset class — the industry has been biased toward funding what it knows best: founders with familiar demographics (white, male) in familiar geographies (Silicon Valley).

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innovation investing investment pitching 264

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2021

Below is a link to the pitch video. There wasn’t any context around it—not exactly something I’d call a “pitch”. I explained that this wasn’t really a pitch because it lacked all sorts of context. Having been called out, I set up a meeting—but I didn’t do it to take a charity pitch. Who was the team?

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pitching transportation consulting creativity 243

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

And please, please, please don''t pitch VCs who blog to write about your company as if we were tech journalists. Venture Capital & Technology' The more you help a journalist out by being a source for expertise, stories, tips, the more likely they are to cover you in the future.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 27, 2023

We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to tear down, so if you want to submit your own, here’s how you can do that. Slides in this deck The team submitted this slide deck with the note that it was submitted exactly as it pitched it to the investors. million of capital. Turning $1.2

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pitching accelerator ventures capital 98

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2016

I know that white males get a majority of the venture capital funding. Yes, straight white males are getting most of the funding, but they're also most of the pitches. Now, I've seen the stats and the studies. I'd like to think that when you get to the meeting and you are confident that you've got something special, all bets are off.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JANUARY 4, 2023

Video pitching. I see an uptick in pitching via pre-recorded video. We used Loom to pre-record our pitch and share it with potential investors. It’s a great way to personalize a pitch deck and share it with interested parties. Stakeholder capitalism. Here’s what they shared.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. 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. It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery. Some final thoughts on PR.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 24, 2018

If you’re going that route—here are a couple of things I would suggest: Have at least six months of personal expenses in the bank —and that’s only if you know you can at least get some angel capital based around your connections to investors, friends, family, etc. Build a following around what you’re doing.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 21, 2025

Held at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the 2025 Good Soil Forum continues to serve as a transformative platform that offers not just ideas, but real tools, capital, and community for entrepreneursespecially those from historically underserved backgrounds. Jakes, Chairman of the T.D. Jakes Group and Founder of the Good Soil Movement.

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Paul G. Silva

MARCH 21, 2025

Then we package that into a business model and pitch that shows why these founders are the ones to solve it. We help them create the smallest viable proofa product that does just enough to show investors the problem is real and the solution is feasible. Right now, Im practicing what Ive taught so many others: customer discovery.

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