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. It’s exhausting. Perhaps unsustainable.

peer-to-peer 317

peer-to-peer pitching VC accelerator 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

If I had to put a number on it I’d say 1 in 20 pitches – maybe 1 in 30 – are by an entrepreneur who comes across as truly passionate about her project. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion. I’m a VC. But the two can of course go hand-in-hand.

peer-to-peer 373

peer-to-peer VC pitching entrepreneurs 373

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. My guess is that probably only 2-3 out of every hundred pitches I receive are from women.

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

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Two Sigma is a technology and finance company in Soho filled with incredibly bright engineers and developers, so I’m really excited about leveraging that partnership in a number of cool ways. VCs pitch for money, too. No one ever thinks about VCs having to pitch, who they pitch to, or how it works.

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ventures pitching VC startup ecosystem 280

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. When you pitched me I really did love you. At night I had a group dinner where I met 6 new entrepreneurs and hung out with some old friends from law firms, banks and other VC funds.

pitching 381

pitching board funders entrepreneurs 381

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 17, 2014

One of the big opportunities for them is audience development--driving event attendees to the content, events to the readers, and doing some low-hanging fruit upgrades to their social strategy. The fundraising will be for that content team, additional developers, and salespeople to leverage the unique brand they''ve built.

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pitching consulting VC venture capital 348

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Ask your VC to send a critical email to a contact.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 18, 2012

Just once I'd like to see a pitch deck with a slide for the hiring plan and *most* importantly, how they're going to execute it. Top talent drives revenues, business development, great product development. If you're making angel investments or doing VC deals, do me a favor--at least ask the question.

investing 277

investing investment angel investing pitching 277

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 13, 2012

He oozed a quiet confidence--like a baseball pitcher who had all his stuff working and knew exactly in his head the pitch he was going to finish you off with. No need to get worked up about it--it was just about executing what you had in your head, like he had done on each pitch before during this game. (A The answer: it wasn't.

pitching 360

pitching culture VC consulting 360

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 17, 2011

In large part, that is a result of who pitches to VCs, not surprisingly. We can debate how to get a more diverse stream of people in the top of the funding funnel for sure, but the fact is that VCs just want to make money. Not only that, there are a lot of VCs and angels all walking around competing for the best deals.

venture capital 343

venture capital capital ventures pitching 343

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

” The ultimate measure of success for a journalist is viewership so if nobody cares about your shitty little company and the story you’re trying to pitch then the journalist doesn’t want to publish. I am a VC. But mostly they’re thinking, “Will my audience even care about this topic?”

mix-use 389

mix-use advice VC technology 389

TechCrunch

JULY 15, 2021

We know how much you love a good startup pitch-off. Plus, you get to hear feedback from some of the smartest folks in the industry, thus learning how to absolutely crush it at your next pitch meeting with a VC. Extra Crunch Live is usually a combination of an interview with a founder/investor duo and an audience pitch-off.

pitching 99

pitching VC disruption startup 99

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

This relationship also supplied Spleet with the critical network of landlords required to list multiple units when it went live; the pitch to landlords was that Spleet would bring proper KYC into the rental process and allow them to verify tenants and automate rent collection. Closing on $103M, MaC VC is changing the face of venture capital.

VC 131

VC real estate venture capital financing 131

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. And VC’s are tough customers. If I see your alpha product then I can judge how it develops over time.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I love how open Danielle has been throughout the development of her startup Mattermark including honest reflections of when she has changed her opinion. 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.

startup 323

startup advice pitching VC 323

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

You want to hear someone that''s been developing into the right person to run this company for years. If you were to have to pitch a VC right now on a concept, the part about why you is already known--you''ve been living it. Often, they tell me all I need to know when I hear their origin story. Why this idea?

startup 319

startup venture capital pitching VC 319

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. Similarly, one VC may encourage newly minted CEOs to eat ramen and ride the bus, while another might suggest a salary in the low six-figures, depending on geography.

pitching 98

pitching incubation board opportunity 98

TechCrunch

JULY 16, 2021

Yet, that is what Spanish marketing expert and entrepreneur Alex Barrera often ends up doing with startup founders who hire him to help improve their pitch. What do people often misunderstand about pitch training? For those with a bit more experience, pitching is about a set of slides to achieve a certain goal, mostly funding.

pitching 107

pitching startup consulting collaboration 107

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Today, TechCrunch is excited to announce the 20 startups pitching onstage in this year’s Startup Battlefield. Selected from the most competitive batch in TC history, selected founders from across the globe will pitch on the virtual stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021. To watch the pitches, join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 here.

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disruption pitching startup culture 100

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

This was the example business model slide I used for my book “Pitch Perfect.” For the purposes of a funding pitch, however, it’s likely you only need a few crucial elements: COGS, or cost of goods sold, is the incremental cost for each unit you deliver. R&D cost is what it costs to develop the product.

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pitching VC creativity development 98

Entrepreneur's Handbook

DECEMBER 13, 2020

Investors are well aware of what’s at stake in this stage of a startup’s development and expect to sign term sheets only for the cream of the crop. Know What to Expect When a VC Opens your Deck (and their Checkbook) As Series A companies are more mature than in previous rounds, Series A decks are longer at 25 slides.

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pitching VC founder financing 109

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

You help them on stories, act as a source, develop real relationships, read their stories and eventually when you have news they’re more willing to have a conversation. All too often I’ve seen senior PR people from big firms come in and pitch for new business to startups while having 22 year-olds who do all the work once it’s won.

pitching 319

pitching media advice venture capital 319

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Luckily for aspirational baseball players, pitch velocity, spin rate, and just about every other aspect of playing baseball are highly quantifiable in real-time. You throw a pitch and you don’t find out the speed for a year or even longer. That pitch you threw a year ago, that was 92. Actually, it’s even worse than that.

pitching 243

pitching peer-to-peer board VC 243

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. Everyone is a rock star developers, every company is crushing it and when they’re not crushing it they’re killing it. Year in, year out.

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advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

Jason Malki

MARCH 9, 2023

Then, I stumbled upon PE/VC after chatting with a good college buddy of mine. Number two: develop an investment thesis of your own that is best suited to your skills, experience, and/or network. VC is a patient capital asset class — you won’t know how good of an investor you are until several years down the road.

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VC ventures angel investing venture capital 98

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

TechCrunch

JULY 16, 2021

Part 3: Developer relations and business : How CockroachDB engages with developers while pivoting to the cloud at a key inflection point. India poised for record VC year as unicorns head for decisive IPOs. India poised for record VC year as unicorns head for decisive IPOs. Would you tell me more about the EB-1A?

VC 99

VC pitching venture capital consulting 99

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 16, 2021

Dan’s professional IT services consultancy developed a SaaS product and now wants to grow and scale the product—but has little experience in marketing or selling SaaS products. Use these resources to understand how your company will look when you pitch a VC or angel. and see how your company compares.

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SaaS leadership accelerator entrepreneurs 294

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

There’s nothing wrong with these businesses but as a VC you tend to see 5 similar ideas all at the same time and knowing that it’s going to just come down to who executes the best it’s hard to pull the trigger on a A-round until you have more data on who’s winning. Truly, in many ways, my concern was the inverse of normal business pitches.

incumbents 270

incumbents entrepreneurs education pitching 270

TechCrunch

AUGUST 11, 2022

Today, we’re taking a closer look at the pitch deck it used to raise its pre-seed round. 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. . Well, that’s the world Five Flute wants to live in. The company raised a $1.2 Slides in this deck.

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pitching strategy development incumbents 89

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

You help them on stories, act as a source, develop real relationships, read their stories and eventually when you have news they’re more willing to have a conversation. And as a result their competitors were able to raise a considerable VC round from well-known firms. In a startup this is a mistake.

startup 349

startup pitching advice consulting 349

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

At the centure of this quirky building that houses an advertising school , a yoga studio , and video production companies is Studiomates --"a collaborative workspace of designers, illustrators, bloggers, writers, and developers" run by Tina Eisenberg --perhaps better known as Swiss Miss. 55 Washington Street. via Brownstoner.

communities 294

communities innovation creativity real estate 294

Entrepreneur's Handbook

MARCH 10, 2023

Stories, Slides, and Data Primary data set of public 3-minute pitches and 2-minute Q&As I have spent more than a decade coaching thousands of people on how to tell stories. As a result, I began meticulously cataloging the pitch conversations I listened to and ended up with nearly four hundred thousand words in transcript data.

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pitching ecology venture capital mix-use 75

Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 13, 2022

A Very Honest Guide to Writing Your Fundraise Pitch Deck How to optimise yours for success Congratulations! You know you need a pitch deck to do this and so fire up your slide software of choice and crack your knuckles, ready to wow. I’m an investor at Supernode Global , an early-stage VC fund based in London.

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pitching advice accelerator investment 79

TechCrunch

MAY 10, 2021

It is clear that Black, women, Latinx and LGBTQ+ startup founders face an uphill battle when it comes to getting a share of the VC investment pie in Silicon Valley. It’s working with another Indy based VC firm, Allos Ventures , and Paul Ehlinger from Allos will be a venture partner at Sixty8.

VC 90

VC capital founder incubation 90

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

We’ve all embraced video calls, whether it is with our work colleague or our physician, but for developers, it remains a challenge to build both real-time audio and video features into products. The company provides APIs so developers can add those features into products or websites using just two lines of code.

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development health board creativity 94