Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

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. I was amazed at your innovation, approach, cleverness, enthusiasm, leadership traits, background, education, team? everything.

pitching 381

pitching board funders entrepreneurs 381

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I have sat through countless pitches with Ivy League grads spewing off intellectual descriptions of the details of their product or service and why it will win in the market. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. These messages need to pass the cocktail party pitch. And I think this is a mistake.

entrepreneurs 370

entrepreneurs pitching startup education 370

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

When this first ran on TechCrunch I got the greatest comment in the world that I had to repeat here, “VC’s are like martinis: the first is good, the second one great, and the third is a headache.&# I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. In my second company I had only 1 investor. I love that.

VC 314

VC advice pitching investing 314

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

The company sells to local governments, real estate management companies, educational institutions--anyone responsible for public or private infrastructure. That alone is enough to make a lot of VCs throw up a little in their mouths. There are a lot of reasons not to like the space that Publicstuff is in. Slow sales cycles. Ugh, right?

real estate 326

real estate leadership SaaS education 326

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 15, 2013

I’m thrilled to announce Brooklyn Bridge Ventures’ investment in Tinybop , a new Brooklyn-based studio building the most creative and thoughtfully-designed educational apps for kids. When he pitched, he was the proverbial "guy with an idea." Most VC funds wouldn''t touch a pre-product app company.

creativity 278

creativity education pitching collaboration 278

Startup Grind

AUGUST 15, 2018

He has worked with several startups, invested in companies like Mayvenn, Gimlet Media, Blavity, Airspace Technologies, Codeverse, and many others Pitch your startup for a chance to meet with Cross Culture VC Q&A: What is your / your fund's mission? What are 3 top qualities of every great leader?

culture 111

culture VC pitching investment 111

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2011

Will you get the TechCrunch bump, the tier-1 VC anointment, followed by great PR firm support and then the NY Times or WSJ story that follows? Not every problem has to be a huge VC-fundable business. They pitch me features, not value. But what about education? I play with features. I would encourage you to think bigger.

transportation 309

transportation VC networking energy 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. One of my goals in doing the show was not only to educate entrepreneurs but also to put a human face on many of the VCs in our industry as VCs can be hard to get to know.

capital 265

capital VC consumer retail entrepreneurs 265

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

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 3, 2021

Contributed by Hao Lam, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Seattle, Washington, and founder and CEO of Best in Class Education. MyEO Education. The MyEO Education group is championed by Joyce Lasecke of EO Minnesota, with support and encouragement from Peter Fan of EO Dallas. MyEO Angels.

education 236

education VC pitching support 236

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.

disruption 100

disruption pitching startup culture 100

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. They simply need to know: who has a problem?

advice 362

advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 16, 2021

Use these resources to understand how your company will look when you pitch a VC or angel. EO offers great opportunity, education and tools to facilitate this, and create Instimacy (=instant intimacy) in business conversations. . and see how your company compares. Seek existing middleware tools.

SaaS 294

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

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Dennis and Naveen had pitched just about every investor you could think of and came up with a whopping zero term sheets. Since then, they''ve been #1 on the app store in education in over 120 countries. I wasn''t even at a VC fund at the time. Not exactly what you call a "hot deal". Not hot at all.

venture capital 285

venture capital ventures education pitching 285

The Startup Blog Market Brief

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Swing Education has raised $23 million in venture capital funding to-date. The ed-tech company's co-founder shares the secrets of his pitch. The post 5 Elements of a Pitch Deck That Will Lead Your Company to New VC Investment appeared first on Market Brief.

pitching 59

pitching VC investment investing 59

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

Marco Zappacosta served up an cogent, business focused and nicely demo’d pitch of their product. They walked through 4 minutes of PowerPoint garble (of a 5 minute pitch) before unveiling a beautifully designed UI. Udemy is an online education platform similar to EduFire and others. As I’m sure Pip.io Pretty cool.

education 254

education pitching VC media 254

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 16, 2021

I’ve sat at both sides of the table as a founder and a VC, and I understand how difficult it is to get them on the same page. I’ve participated in a number of accelerators, including Disney and Techstars, and these programs gave me a noticeable advantage when I stepped into VC. Reconnect with impact investing.

accelerator 86

accelerator VC mentorship pitching 86

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Improve your pitch: Startup Battlefield isn’t just thrilling to watch; it’s a masterclass in how investors think. All right, here are the final five business Brahmins who will help judge the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. Mar Hershenson , co-founder and managing partner at Pear VC.

disruption 91

disruption VC ventures startup 91

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

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.

pitching 75

pitching ecology venture capital mix-use 75

TechCrunch

MARCH 17, 2023

I shy away from sharing hot takes, but here’s one: With contagion contained, the VC community feels good about writing smallish checks for pre-revenue startups, but Series A and up? If you’re an investor who wants to be included in future columns, email guestcolumns@techcrunch.com with “How to pitch me” in the subject line.

pitching 92

pitching frameworks advice strategy 92

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2020

My largest investor was a financial firm that invested in my prior funds to get into the VC business—and in the six years since they first invested, they had built out a team and a strategy that no longer involved doing much seed. I was there for the first Etsy VC pitch meeting in a Fort Greene apartment.

VC 364

VC hospitality investing investment 364

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

Three companies from the Studiomates community-- Sherpaa , Tinybop , and Editorially --received VC dollars in 2012. I have a special relationship with Etsy, because I was at Union Square Ventures, the VC firm that backed the company, back in 2006. via Brownstoner. So, want to know where to find me over the next thirty plus years?

communities 294

communities innovation creativity real estate 294

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

But most venture-backed startups are “still overwhelmingly white, male, Ivy-League-educated and based in Silicon Valley,” according to a study conducted by RateMyInvestor and Diversity VC. Or will we have to repeat the same conversations about representation failings within VC funds? Funding for Black entrepreneurs in the U.S.

startup ecosystem 129

startup ecosystem ventures founder startup 129

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

” Your VC friends have been egging you on. The don’t understand VC liquidation preferences or multiple return expectations. They weren’t with you when you did the VC pitch where you looked them in the eyes 9 months ago and said, “I see only one outcome, we want to build something really big. .”

startup 417

startup peer-to-peer VC culture 417

TechCrunch

JULY 22, 2021

From how Retail Zipline’s Series A pitch deck ticked every box for Emergence Capital to how Coda perfected the growth fly wheel, much to the delight of Madrona’s S. Check out the Startup Alley companies that will exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 in an episode dedicated to the art of the pitch. We do that by (duh!)

pitching 94

pitching education VC finance 94

TechCrunch

MAY 4, 2022

Startup pitches with promises to provide various services to Africans — across different sectors — are commonplace now. From Onayemi’s point of view, the growth of Africa’s digital economy revolves around gains in six segments: education, payments, logistics, transport, identity, and trade.

frameworks 139

frameworks incubation VC pitching 139

TechCrunch

MAY 6, 2021

Now we’re very excited to reveal one of the fine people who will be judging Startup Battlefield at this year’s all-virtual event in September: Shauntel Garvey, a general partner at Reach Capital, a VC specializing in the world of education technology. Startups: You can apply to be a part of the action here.

capital 93

capital education disruption startup 93

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 16, 2020

One of the core beliefs that I had when I started Brooklyn Bridge Ventures was that most of the next 50-100 important companies to be built in New York City were going to be started by people not on most VC’s radars today.

communities 166

communities networking founder disruption 166

Startup Catalyst

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

In November 2017 we delivered our first Investor Mission, heading to San Francisco for an intensive week meeting with angels, VCs, corporate venture programs, accelerators, startups, pitch events, and dinners. The program kicked off with a full one-day angel investor education program delivered by Angel Labs. Who we took.

angel capital 100

angel capital angel investing VC accelerator 100

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 1, 2020

You’re now in the financial education business for the next few months. While a lot of other people have been doing “Ask a VC” sessions about how to dal with this, the reality is that there are only a handful of VCs who were still active during the Dot Com bust and know firsthand what that was like.

peer-to-peer 320

peer-to-peer advice leadership education 320

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

Use the fact that you were on an anointed list to build credibility when you eventually approach journalists (and VC’s, customers, employees). I wasn’t trying to pitch a tightly controlled message about my company. They see journalists as a means to and end. Robert Scoble interviewed me in 2006 about my startup, Koral.

advice 307

advice media startup SaaS 307

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

These events aren’t just a chance to review the latest cohort of hopeful entrepreneurs — they also showcase the technology, products and services that will compete for VC and consumer attention over the next few years. I covered one demo day in person, spending most of my time backstage where founder teams practiced their pitches.

SaaS 113

SaaS startup pitching education 113

Gust

OCTOBER 18, 2011

The Venture Capital Method (VC Method) was first described by Professor Bill Sahlman at Harvard Business School in 1987 in a case study and has been revised since. Dave Berkus is a founding member of the Tech Coast Angels in Southern California, a lecturer and educator. The Venture Capital Method. The Dave Berkus Method.

venture capital 174

venture capital investment investing ventures 174

TechCrunch

MAY 5, 2021

Every exhibiting founder is eligible for Startup Alley+ — an experience designed to set you up with additional education, exposure and success before Disrupt even starts. Who wouldn’t want to perfect their pitch long before diving into Disrupt to impress investors? 11 words and phrases to cut from your VC pitch deck.

disruption 87

disruption support founder pitching 87