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. Consider this.

ventures 545

ventures investing investment VC 545

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

This will be the post where I dangerously attempt to walk the minefield of a white male VC opining on the topic. Besides, how effective of a filter is it that someone can get coffee with a non-VC and convince them that you'd want to see the deal? What about pitch competitions that sound like Ancient Roman death matches?

VC 270

VC pitching peer-to-peer founder 270

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. Be a leader in your community.

creativity 339

creativity VC pitching communities 339

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

How about as a VC? Fred has basically always been a VC, Mike was a reporter, and Jim worked in product marketing and management consulting. Surely--but then I realize how difficult it is to be an early stage VC in NYC. Really never managed anything of significant or built anything major.". what has this guy done? What did I do?

VC 275

VC peer-to-peer board advice 275

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. I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. I don’t have enough traction.

advice 450

advice pitching venture capital VC 450

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

Besides, there were a limited number of places where I could do my job in venture capital anyway—and while I might be a go to for a pitch from super early stage pre-seed and seed founders looking for quick answers and decisive term sheets in New York City, the reality is that I would be pretty far down the list in the Valley. Plenty of bros.

culture 360

culture VC communities education 360

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

If you’re in the market or thinking about VC in the future the following video may be of interest to you – click here to view. If you want to learn more about “Pitching a VC&# make sure to check out the entire series here. The main summary of my interview is that VC may only right for you IF: 1.

VC 210

VC advice pitching networking 210

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. For years I saw myself as the new guy in VC but then you wake up one day and realize that 50% of your peers have been doing it for less time than you and time has moved on. I don’t want any formal pitches. VC Industry' It’s exhausting.

peer-to-peer 317

peer-to-peer pitching VC accelerator 317

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

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? She has a quote from literally every major VC from whom you’d want to hear. She was the dominant figure in my family and was both an entrepreneur and a community leader.

entrepreneurs 341

entrepreneurs entrepreneurship VC pitching 341

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. Portfolio community building. VC firm admin. VC firm policy or fund analysis. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. Industry reviews. Alumni activities.

investing 365

investing investment VC board 365

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Back when I was pitching my previous startup to investors, it had never really dawned on me that they had experienced what I was going through--and that a VC firm was essentially a startup. VCs pitch for money, too. No one ever thinks about VCs having to pitch, who they pitch to, or how it works.

ventures 280

ventures pitching VC startup ecosystem 280

Startup Catalyst

MARCH 27, 2018

The second Startup Community Leaders Mission to the USA took place from 11-18 March 2018, with 20 participants taking part, including 14 from 11 different regional towns in Queensland, 3 from Brisbane, one from Sydney, one from Adelaide, and one from New York (assisting the Beach City film crew). Why we run this particular mission.

communities 140

communities startup incubation accelerator 140

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 16, 2020

To that end, my goal was to make the firm the most accessible VC fund in New York—showing up across diverse communities, getting rid of barriers to access like requirements for warm intros, and being conscious of which patterns of success I believe in and which only serve to reinforce certain power dynamics.

communities 167

communities networking founder disruption 167

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 16, 2024

Then, they need to figure out a way to project that brand up above the venture community, like a Bat signal calling for the best founders to come and pitch them. This is something I talk about a lot with my VC coaching clients. The question is what to focus on.

VC 243

VC angel investing networking pitching 243

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

Of course he pitched me the entire ride down. But … we had committed to setting up an EIR program where we would fund people to work on their ideas in our offices and also get the dual experience of working inside a VC. Come to entrepreneur pitches. I’m ecstatic to have in the LA community. But nothing major.

pitching 372

pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

Revolution

AUGUST 2, 2022

miles to visit founders, college campuses, co-investors, ecosystem builders, and communities in rising cities. The panel took place at The Ion, a 266K-sqft space designed to bring together Houston’s entrepreneurial, corporate, and academic communities. While we may not show up on a big red bus every time, showing up?—?figuratively

economic growth 344

economic growth innovation communities startup ecosystem 344

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. Throughout all of these years I was a full-time VC so Launchpad really came out of evenings and weekends for me.

accelerator 290

accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. Different groups communicate differently—and it’s important to find objective common ground around language, goals, and risks. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder.

venture capital 413

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 413

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

There are several key problems to this knowledge sharing little community we've built: People make themselves look better in hindsight. Try and figure out exactly what a startup had to show at the moment a VC chose to invest in them. They don't look cautiously at the advice given to them by their favorite VC blogger.

advice 416

advice startup VC strategy 416

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 15, 2020

There have been a lot of calls for VC firms to make more hires from the Black and Brown community, as well as to hire more women. What if institutional LPs—often representing the public pension money of diverse communities, or philanthropic foundations focused on improving the world, set targets for these economics.

venture capital 312

venture capital ventures capital mentorship 312

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 14, 2024

It’s an approach to the community that I’ve tried to emulate—to make myself available to founders wherever I can, but it’s not easy to scale. It’s easy for a VC to just stick within your own networks and filter bubbles—and hard to scale being “open” without opening the floodgates.

communities 352

communities consulting creativity advice 352

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? I had been reading Brad Feld’s blog & Fred Wilson’s blog for a couple of years and found them very helpful to my thinking so I honestly just thought I was giving back to the community. Blog to your community.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Ok, so we’re all doing social TV now. Geolocation is so 2009. Haven’t you heard?

VC 186

VC venture capital media board 186

Hunter Walk

MARCH 3, 2025

When I’m scanning a pitch deck I’m basically looking to put it into one of two buckets – Traditional or Different. “ Different & Excellent ” equates to something that doesn’t exactly look like other VCs. of them, often as their first or second largest investor.

peer-to-peer 79

peer-to-peer VC investing investment 79

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

I think that the only VCs there were myself and the IA Ventures team--a stark contrast to some of the other mainstream tech conferences that are pretty densely populated with investor types. Seems that in the absence of a pitch competition or some kind of immediately obvious venture investment opportunity, people aren't used to seeing VCs.

creativity 247

creativity pitching VC opportunity 247

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

They now have a strong VC lead from Foundry Group and from experience when you get advice from Foundry it comes with authority, experience, empathy and the right amount of straight talk. Another founder … “When I pitched the idea to Adam, he was super on board,” Mr. Sloyan said. All of my partners at Upfront do.

startup 323

startup advice pitching VC 323

David Teten VC

JULY 27, 2021

We have collected a wide range of freebies, contests, accelerators, online communities, and VCs designed for student tech founders. I have been researching this both to support Versatile VC ’s portfolio companies and also as part of research for my new book, To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear. Right here.

founder 144

founder mentorship peer-to-peer pitching 144

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 9, 2020

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. Founders from communities of color are less likely to have personal wealth to fall back on.

founder 272

founder pitching VC opportunity 272

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

The “team beneath the team&# was as talented as any top team that pitches me startups. When I started blogging as a VC I had zero idea it would lead to my current audience level of 350,000 page views / month. By the next Monday we had lost the deal to a NorCal VC. I could go on & on. I knew this from day one.

investing 310

investing investment VC board 310

TechCrunch

APRIL 4, 2023

No founder event would be complete without pitches! TechCrunch editorial is looking for 6-7 founders to take part in a Pitch Deck Teardown. Mastering the Pitch Deck Pitches are critical in the quest for funding and first customers. Without further ado, here are your judges for the TC Early Stage Pitch Deck Teardown.

pitching 85

pitching real estate founder disruption 85

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

The value of Pitch Decks; Brad’s personal preferences on deal presentation; and Brad’s practice of accepting cold approaches via email. Are Pitch Decks becoming obsolete? It’s interesting that the question is pitch deck’s being obsolete versus business plans being obsolete. Aren’t pitch decks still the norm? “I

venture capital 288

venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

However, when you account for how much longer that startup scene has been around, I'd say the fact that we're at about 50% of their pace of venture funding is pretty damn phenomenal--not to mention the fact that there's about an order of magnitude more VC funds located out there. Let someone else build the chips. Are we really not accessible?

innovation 254

innovation real estate communities mix-use 254

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 15, 2013

When he pitched, he was the proverbial "guy with an idea." Most VC funds wouldn''t touch a pre-product app company. The level of talent and supportive collaboration among the community at Studiomates checks both boxes and continues to ensure that everything he puts out is top notch.

creativity 280

creativity education pitching collaboration 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 15, 2010

There was some Twitter chat before the event about whether this “replaces&# local angel funding communities like the Tech Coast Angels. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Pitching VCs Start-up Advice Startup Advice VC Industry. It does not and that’s a good thing. They deserve more credit.

advice 254

advice angel investing entrepreneurs pitching 254

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. You need to make it easy.

advice 362

advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 8, 2014

Stick around long enough in a big tech community and you''ll see your share of big company evangelists come and go. I think big companies (and sometimes VC firms) invest too much in personalities when a big personality or someone with a big network should be used more like a tool than a centerpiece. Just kidding**. ** Not really.

venture capital 258

venture capital communities pitching networking 258