Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2010

Anyone who works in the venture business or frankly just lives in Silicon Valley will be used to hearing a buzz word rise up out of nowhere to capture the technology zeitgeist and find its way into every entrepreneur’s product development plan or every aspiring entrepreneur’s pitch deck. It’s the puck at your feet.

pitching 296

pitching innovation social gaming advice 296

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

The other entrepreneur quoted in the story is from a guy pitching a Pinterest clone. The Wall Street Journal not only can't seem to take the temperature of the venture market correctly, they definitely don't know the market for YOUR business--which is totally unique. Needless to say, he's having some trouble raising.

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ventures venture capital disruption pitching 299

Smart Hustle Magazine

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

Mark advises that when you’re introducing yourself to someone and making your elevator pitch, that you need a distinction, a differentiation. Ramon relates and he’s told followers, “Listen, your job when you’re pitching is not trying to get everything in that package. According to Mark, “too many things…is more than one.”

pitching 100

pitching leadership advice education 100

Gust

OCTOBER 11, 2012

While you will definitely need to be a corporate entity before you can accept funding from any investor (or issue stock options to any employees), the specific corporate status of the venture at this stage is much less important to investors than its functional status.

pitching 122

pitching investment investing founder 122

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 25, 2023

Let’s first talk about the definition of a co-founder. Given the fact that the money you raise will mostly go to making hires, by definition, all teams are incomplete. It’s a perfectly legitimate pitch to say, “This would be my team the day we close on the money, but they have day jobs because costs.” Technically, it’s a title.

founder 367

founder VC board pitching 367

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 25, 2011

bre.ad , a new startup launching whose founder has perfected the art of the conference pitch. No pitch, nothing more. You see, we hear a lot about elevator pitches, but to be honest, most short pitches really don't do your company justice. Can you really pitch a company in one sentence? No, not bread.

pitching 284

pitching disruption entrepreneurs enablement 284

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 2, 2023

I got to see all of the top VCs pitching their funds. What was notable was how similar they all sounded—that is, until I got the pitch from Brad and Fred at Union Square Ventures. USV came in pitching digitally native businesses models that could not exist until the internet connected everyone.

opportunity 253

opportunity investing investment disruption 253

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 27, 2010

Not only that, there’s a hugely disproportionate amount of time spent on pitching for money for these paper ideas. Step #2: Pitch investors. Event and meeting space is tough to come by, but it definitely exists in universities. Most B-school pitches I see involve “Step 1, hire a tech guy to build it.”

education 304

education innovation entrepreneurship peer-to-peer 304

Smart Hustle Magazine

APRIL 6, 2021

All of this enters my mind as I prepare to give “The Art of the “Killer” Pitch” to my Canadian audience. To my shock and awe, I had over 200 attendees come to my session from hearing one of my pitches that I gave before the Keynote Speaker. If I could rise above all that tried to hold me back, pitching is the way forward.

pitching 109

pitching energy entrepreneurs media 109

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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founder pitching board investing 219

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

By definition each of those VCs (unless they are a micro VC – and one who doesn’t mind 5% ownership) will view you as a sort of “option&# where they might get to fund the next round if you do well. Always Pitch Outsiders for Follow Ons. So it will be an internal fight over allocations.

VC 314

VC advice pitching investing 314

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Every consultant was pitching a process for reinventing your organization through BI. Poorly implemented this category was the definition of shelfware. I remember, for example, when business intelligence swept through companies globally. Growth markets have a way of fooling us all.

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incubation board VC innovation 354

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 12, 2024

These EOers work with the students to refine their pitches and provide insights and tips to help them succeed in the high-level competition. Although every student had their pitch honed to perfection, there is always the extra mile to explore deeper meaning.

mentorship 233

mentorship peer-to-peer leadership entrepreneurs 233

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2017

We can debate whether they're sociopaths, but we definitely shouldn't assume that every "great investor" is "great" at being human. If you go into your next pitch meeting and the VC seems cut down a notch, you can thank me after. ;) Some people are complete scumbags, make a fortune, and karma just never catches up with them.

VC 333

VC advice pitching opportunity 333

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 28, 2010

That’s the classic definition of Grin Fucking. I found that most VC’s never gave me any feedback when I was pitching. Unsurprisingly, this one way best. The title IS the post. Don’t be a grin fucker. You know our employees are our most important asset.&#. I’m OK with that.

frameworks 378

frameworks consulting advice strategy 378

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

Well, I get nothing out of seeing how well a bunch of people can pitch their businesses on stage. Leadership, Teams, Success & Happiness (Tiger Moms & the true definition of success). We’ll see. TechStars Interactions. I refuse to go to demo days. Not just TechStars but any demo day, really. Yet I love TechStars.

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pitching culture entrepreneurs mentorship 319

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

The crew here at TechCrunch has done a lot of writing about making amazing pitch decks over the years, and I figured it was time that I put together a collection of all of it in one handy spot. Perhaps I’m just a teensy bit biased over here, but I’d say it’s definitely worth subscribing to get access to all of this content.

pitching 102

pitching startup venture capital ventures 102

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

And we all know that Ron Conway is considered the savviest of angel investors and yet by definition not all of his investments succeed. Just ask the people who poured money into once “hot&# companies like RazorGator or Friendster. So being buddies with “all the right people&# clearly isn’t enough to be successful.

angel investing 288

angel investing investing investment advice 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

I know that “mission driven” sounds nebulous or some convenient definition of anything we want to fund. Truly, in many ways, my concern was the inverse of normal business pitches. Mission Driven I also am looking for founders that are on a personal mission to solve a big problem. But really it’s something I look for.

incumbents 270

incumbents entrepreneurs education pitching 270

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

They pitched on a Wednesday. In the most perfect sense of the definition. It’s not much different than having Dave Morin, Dick Costolo or Sheryl Sandberg sitting next to you at lunch. Turns out Punky was a childhood hero for Tasha. That’s cute. I had them at my partners’ meeting the next Monday. That happens, right?

startup 398

startup creativity advice entrepreneurs 398

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

The definitive article about 33 Flatbush--the kind of commercial building you would drive by a million times without thinking twice-- was written in the NY Times a few years ago. It's the kind of place you just don't find in Manhattan, and definitely don't find in Silicon Valley. 33 Flatbush. 10 Jay Street.

communities 294

communities innovation creativity real estate 294

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

Quite honestly I see way too many company pitches that are designed for Techies but I only want to invest in products designed for Normals. Start by defining the problem you’re solving – I see way too many early-stage entrepreneurs who start their companies with a product definition rather than a market problem.

advice 348

advice entrepreneurs sustainability pitching 348

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 14, 2020

“Every developer that uses our platform may or may not care about sustainability, but they definitely save on cost,” said Ahuja. Companies like Procore have become billion-dollar businesses on the back of their pitch to simplify the construction management process.

sustainability 101

sustainability pitching construction energy 101

TechCrunch

MAY 20, 2021

Now, a startup out of Berlin called Pitch has just picked up a substantial Series B of $85 million to take it on with what it believes is a more dynamic approach. Pitch, a presentation startup from Wunderlist’s founders, raises $30M more to take on PowerPoint. The startup has already seen good progress on the latter front.

pitching 98

pitching real estate collaboration leadership 98

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Prices have definitely gone up in 2011 as depicted in the anecdotal chart below. So in 2011 as a startup company if you can generate lots of demand you can definitely raise an A round of capital (say $3 million) at a $7 or 8 million pre-money valuation or slightly higher whereas just two years ago you would have struggled.

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startup advice pitching investing 336

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Visualizing and communicating this data can definitively power up a pitch deck. If you haven’t been thinking about product-market fit, you don’t have a pitch. Building up all that evidence through data helps bolster a pitch and increases your odds of landing an investment.

pitching 87

pitching SaaS sustainability VC 87

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I don’t feel like canceling LinkedIn just because occasionally a well-meaning but slightly not-clued-in person from a faraway place wants me to be their personal mentor, answer 3-questions for their high-school entrepreneurship project or take a sales pitch for their recruiting services. In Adam’s world, I’m rude. You two should meet.”

advice 250

advice board pitching startup accelerator 250

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

It turned out I wasn’t such a great product manager, the technical things we were doing were about two years too early—about to be made orders of magnitude easier by a lot of cloud and big data tools, and, oh, yeah, Lehman went under when I was pitching VCs for money in 2008. Personal finance is a thing that no one likes to talk about.

financing 274

financing finance pitching founder 274

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

I think they definitely qualify as a VC and not a seed fund. I could definitely see that happening. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice. I recommend you do your own due diligence before deciding whether to take this money. The contra is also true. Look at Josh Kopelman over at First Round Capital.

VC 283

VC real estate advice venture capital 283

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

The best ones are visual, high-level, have a narrative, move swiftly, are designed to prompt questions as much as “pitch&# your company and importantly have a narrative. Problem definition (with the market … it’s why you exist). What should be in the deck? Some variation of the following (this is a suggested order).

VC 340

VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2012

It sounds obvious, but the majority of entrepreneurs who pitch me have obviously never thought through many of the major issues surrounding their companies. A good beginning would be Bill Payne’s The Definitive Guide to Raising Money from Angels, available as a free download from [link]. Understand your business.

investing 164

investing investment pitching mix-use 164

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”. I wanted to keep an eye on the overall work hour tally because I definitely have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew.

pitching 300

pitching board media consulting 300

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. And finally a reminder: Selling is about listening & reacting and not “pitching.” ” I encapsulate that in an analogy I heard years ago.

startup 319

startup consulting pitching support 319

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. I try and respond to pitches right away. If you went to college with Phin, but only kind of knew him, and you wind up meeting me at a pitch event, don't show up at our office without giving me or Phin the heads up.

VC 291

VC pitching entrepreneurs networking 291

StartupNation

SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

Now imagine if you were given 10 minutes to pitch the potential of your business? It can take years to dream up an exciting startup, and even longer to turn it into something substantial, but a strongly crafted sales pitch can propel your business in the right direction. Related: 5 Terms That are Killing Your Startup’s Pitch.

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pitching advice venture capital entrepreneurs 76

Gust

JULY 22, 2012

I’m definitely not lobbying here for promising things you can’t deliver, or hiring a publicist before your first programmer. I’m talking about doing some real networking to test your elevator pitch, and get to know some potential investors before you ask them for money. Practice your message.

startup 158

startup pitching networking entrepreneurs 158

Entrepreneur's Handbook

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

The average new business pitch costs $450,000. You can’t afford to lose a pitch or (even worse) win a pitch that’s not the right fit for your business. So lets start with these six elements of a pitch response: Values: Your team aligns with the Brand’s value system. Process: Leading a pitch from end to end.

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pitching consulting creativity construction 59