This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

How long does it take from first meeting a VC to getting cash in the bank? Here were the results: I would guess that getting a third of my deals from events is probably disproportionately high compared to other seed investors on the east coast--and that my VC intro percentage is probably somewhat low. That''s an interesting question.

VC 417

VC pitching networking venture capital 417

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. The best entrepreneurs focus on details.

entrepreneurs 286

entrepreneurs advice pitching VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

VC 255

VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “ Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. The following are some tips for the debate style VC meeting. Tips in a debate led VC Meeting.

VC 275

VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

If you demo your product (which is always great) then tell us part of the story while you’re demo’ing. I spotted my fellow VC Leo Spiegel (from Mission Ventures) who had spoken previously to the same group and asked about his experiences. NEVER lead with features. I can then change my focus based on the results.

advice 362

advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

.&# It was my investment philosophy that observing teams’ performance over time was far more insightful than reacting to how good of a product demo they do, how good they present Powerpoint slides or how great tech blogs say they are. I felt the exact same way when I was an entrepreneur. Lines vs. Dots is all about people.

entrepreneurs 330

entrepreneurs incumbents VC disruption 330

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

VC 332

VC advice entrepreneurs energy 332

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. VC firm admin. VC firm policy or fund analysis. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. inside insight into VC decision-making. Industry reviews.

investing 365

investing investment VC board 365

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 3, 2012

meet with tons of companies every week, work hard for their portfolio companies, and are on planes flying around to the important confereneces and demo days". What I would offer to entrepreneurs is that you should know what you're getting from each investor you let into the round. One more read and a little less navel gazing.

VC 261

VC board venture capital ventures 261

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I attended events.

advice 361

advice VC pitching entrepreneurs 361

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

What I wish for every single entrepreneur out there is to be so majorly disappointed in their lives. What's worse is that this end of the market is even affecting early stage VC mindset. If you're a VC and you think for a second that whether or not Square pricing at $2.9 Can we just all let that sink in for a second?

angel investing 407

angel investing venture capital VC media 407

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. Can we do a really quick run through your deck so that we save tons of time for a product demo & questions at the end?&#. 25% of VCs are expressives, like you. Most entrepreneurs are.

VC 358

VC entrepreneurs creativity leadership 358

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. We are experiencing a frenetic time. For investors life is no different.

advice 398

advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. That’s fine.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

TechCrunch

JUNE 2, 2021

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. 5 innovative fundraising methods for emerging VCs and PEs. Paulina Symala is a consultant at Oliver Wyman and a past intern of Versatile VC. At Versatile VC , we’ve used all these models. Preqin (free demo). Paulina Symala.

consulting 128

consulting VC board venture capital 128

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 24, 2010

There was one other VC in the room, Charlie O'Donnell, who makes it a practice to be everywhere something is interesting happening. And I saw a bunch of demos of beta services spliced in between the talks.” You probably didn’t hear about Brooklyn Beta before Fred wrote about it : “This is my kind of conference.

creativity 240

creativity communities venture capital innovation 240

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I’m enjoying being a VC. I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#.

entrepreneurs 176

entrepreneurs startup VC real estate 176

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. I hope that when you’re presenting to a VC this will give you some sense of what might be going on in our minds. Both presenters are anonymized.

pitching 288

pitching VC advice strategy 288

American Entrepreneurship

SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

This annual gathering brings together a dynamic mix of entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists from the surrounding states, creating a fertile ground for innovation, networking, and investment opportunities. Following the afternoon Techstars Demo Day is the Female Founders in Innovation Dinner.

entrepreneurs 98

entrepreneurs ventures pitching mentorship 98

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Demos – One of the things that most people are bad at and that are hard to standardize is the demo. I have written about how to do a demo before (even though this was in the context of a VC pitch much of it applies). A good demo tells a story. 80% of demos I see are features, functions & benefits.

advice 296

advice SaaS startup pitching 296

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Twitter Space: A Gen Z VC speaks up. According to Andrew Chan, a senior associate at Builders VC, GenZ investors “are still a bunch of kids, myself included.” ” According to Andrew Chan, a senior associate at Builders VC, GenZ investors "are still a bunch of kids, myself included." — Clever Canadian.

VC 86

VC pitching founder startup 86

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. 8% of VC partnerships, for example). With 8% of partners at VC firms being female?—?we

founder 256

founder peer-to-peer VC mentorship 256

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. I first met him there and knew he was a talented entrepreneur that I wanted to work with some day. We’re excited to work with them.

startup 276

startup VC media networking 276

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2010

Back to demos. We are pleased to have a member of our group and former product manager turned VC, Charlie O'Donnell speak to us about the challenges of job-hunting in the current market. 6PM: An Evening Celebrating the Power of Entrepreneurs to Change the World. Tuesday, March 2nd. 5PM NY Tech Meetup Student Mingle #2.

communities 218

communities innovation venture capital consulting 218

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

Not that they’re “such a bad idea&# but more that there are inherent problems for entrepreneurs in the process of raising angel money that need to be addressed. This leads to the problem of “herding cats&# for entrepreneurs raising angel money. Here’s where I feel common ground : 1. Often I suggest 60.

financing 286

financing finance advice VC 286

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. 1) Your school.

founder 144

founder mentorship peer-to-peer pitching 144

NZ Entrepreneur

MARCH 16, 2025

We help co-lead the execution of Startup Aotearoa, a one-to-one program for first-time entrepreneurs to get coaching and advice from a startup advisor or mentor as they navigate the first time they’ve gone through the journey. So we have entrepreneurs and residents working in Wellington, in Christchurch, and in Auckland.

startup ecosystem 52

startup ecosystem mix-use advice incubation 52

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. was starting.

venture capital 288

venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about the new career path to CEO, our favorite startups from Techstars Demo Day and the latest SPAC you should probably know about. A triple-hitter Demo Day. TechCrunch covered favorites from Techstars’ three Demo Days, which were focused on Chicago, Boston and workforce development.

startup 127

startup financing finance creativity 127

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

To begin with, it is important to understand some basic facts about the world of entrepreneurial finance: There are many more entrepreneurs than there are investors, with the result that only one company out of every 400 that seeks venture funding actually receives it. One of the primary ones is the referral source.

VC 159

VC angel investing pitching entrepreneurs 159

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 comprehensive list of things you might want is listed in the answer to What materials or software should I use to pitch a VC? , Understand your business.

investing 164

investing investment pitching mix-use 164

David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

(See How to negotiate a partner role at a VC or private equity firm.) You can work as a consultant, an interim executive, a board member, a deal executive partnering to buy a company, an executive in residence, or as an entrepreneur in residence. . At Versatile VC , we’ve used all these models. Preqin (free demo).

consulting 128

consulting venture capital board capital 128

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 19, 2015

I’ve been to many YC Demo Days and I always look forward to them. There are so many wonderful ideas and companies founded by terrific entrepreneurs. This trend opposes the broader VC market’s investment patterns. Demo Day is a window into the future of consumer and enterprise investments.

real estate 40

real estate startup data analysis construction 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Most people under estimate the challenge of winning “share of mind” the least understood concept with tech entrepreneurs. I got him talking about this on This Week in VC including a quick demo of his dashboard - I think I'll shoot a separate sequence with just a walk-through of their analytics. At 99 cents they’re disposable.

startup 346

startup board networking advice 346

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Justin Bieber is unbelievably entrepreneurial and most of you will never know it because he serves a target demo that doesn’t include you. To be a great entrepreneur you really do need talent. Consider Usher a hard-working early-stage VC. It’s that sort of mentorship experience that drives many of us hands-on VCs.

entrepreneurs 398

entrepreneurs media mentorship leadership 398

TechCrunch

MARCH 4, 2021

However , organizations like Techstars Seattle, Transparent Collective, and Google for Startups have helped us by providing mentorship, networking opportunities, and investor demo days showcases,” Roman said. For Roger, whose upbringing was on the westside of Chicago, he doubles as an active angel investor and a VC scout.

startup 99

startup mentorship collaboration accelerator 99

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 2, 2022

A multibillion dollar acquisition , IPO projections and some good ol’ VC and billionaire drama? Here’s why it’s important: The security, performance and reliability company didn’t raise a corporate venture fund, typical of other companies looking to breed entrepreneur attention. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

startup 79

startup disruption accelerator VC 79