Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 17, 2021

We asked authors Cyril Bouquet, Michael Wade and Jean-Louis Barsoux how entrepreneurs can benefit from Alien Thinking: What does it mean to think like an “alien”? . Can you share those stories and the lessons for entrepreneurs? What must entrepreneurs keep in mind as they take this critical step? 2 for his age group at 12.

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Dream It

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

But founders are often so consumed with talking metrics, milestones achieved, or the capital they need that they sometimes forget to talk about their overarching vision for their startups. Selling a compelling vision is so critical that some investors weigh it more heavily than the pitch deck itself. It’s not about the slide deck.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

For me, after nearly a decade in the trenches of being an entrepreneur I felt I was un-brainwashed from trying to pretend I had all the answers. The more self-assured the VC is and the more impressionable the entrepreneur is the worse the outcome. And I encourage entrepreneurs to triangulate as well. It is unknowable.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 21, 2025

Entrepreneurs and changemakers from across the country will gather in Dallas June 12-14, 2025, for the return of the Good Soil Forum, presented by Wells Fargo. Known for igniting purpose-driven business growth, this years event will feature none other than media icon, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey , who will join T.D.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Maximilian Fleitmann , an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member primarily based in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, is the CEO of BaseTemplates and Partner at Richmond View Ventures. He has raised venture capital for his startups, helped hundreds of founders craft their pitch decks and fundraising strategy, and invested as a business angel.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. She was pitching for a pre-seed round of $400k. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? This isn’t surprising.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 24, 2021

For years, he went on to advise other founders about how to generate VC interest, which really could have amounted to, “Be a warm body with a pulse in a sector that firm got shut out of a deal in.” Founders get “happy ears”. The ecosystem is full of bad advice from founders that couldn’t raise.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 28, 2016

The Coveteur article featuring Andy and Bonobos encapsulated exactly how a founder worth writing about will act: ".He 4) Thank Andy Dunn for showing us the way to be one of the best storytelling founders ever. And it’s true: [FOUNDER] is wildly successful. CAN SOMEONE SAY THIS ABOUT YOU? IF NOT, GET ON THAT S**T.]

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Paul G. Silva

MARCH 26, 2020

At the regional syndication meetings (think of it as the All-Stars of angel-backed companies), the #1 Mistake Entrepreneurs Make Is…. Multi-person pitches add complexity that almost always leads to people going over time, stepping on each other, or confusing the audience. View all posts in the “Startup Pitching” series.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 5, 2024

Three finalists received training via workshops and coaching from business advisors, fine-tuning their business plans and pitches for the showcase and pitch competition. In addition to its classroom curriculum, NFTE hosts the Founders Forum Pitch Competition.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

It’s true that we also fund more mundane stuff like B2B software aimed at productivity improvements but we want some big bets in every fund where we feel we can contribute to “making our own little dent in the universe” as the saying goes – by backing ambitious entrepreneurs with that same goal.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

APRIL 10, 2024

Entrepreneurs change the world. Entrepreneurs also save lives. The honorees will also either throw out the ceremonial first pitch from donor to recipient, deliver the game ball, or announce “play ball” to signal the start of the games. Dave is alive and well today thanks to a living liver donation in 2019.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

After seeing Chamillionaire interact with several entrepreneurs both at events and as an investor I started introducing him to startups in an advisory capacity. It always started the same way – a founder would ask for an intro because they figured he could help with promotion.

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Dream It

JANUARY 8, 2020

In our most recent episode of DreamitLive , Managing Partner Steve Barsh spoke with Ron Gula , President and Co-Founder of Gula Tech Adventures. In the episode, Steve asked Ron about his “five slide pitch deck.” Many founders fail to open with the answer to this question. Read Ron’s article on his five slide pitch deck here.

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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 left the meeting and had to attend a 3-hour board meeting where two founders have been fighting and each want the other one fired. I remember.

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Revolution

JANUARY 27, 2025

Reflections on Georgetowns 2025 pitch competition from TedLeonsis Last week, Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business once again became a launchpad for the next generation of bold thinkers and doers. At Revolution, Ive seen what backing entrepreneurs with big ideas can breed. startup ecosystem.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Female Founder Office Hours gives founders the mentorship and the role models to see that it is in not only possible but also to have a plan to make it a reality.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

OCTOBER 23, 2024

As the founder of a folder printing company, I often get asked how to design folders that effectively guide prospects through the buying journey. As entrepreneurs, we know these presentations can be deal-makers or deal-breakers. A well-designed sales presentation folder goes beyond mere folded paper with pockets.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 19, 2021

Renée Rouleau, an EO member in Austin, is the founder and CEO of Renée Rouleau Skin Care , whose products and personalized skincare are respected by celebrities, bloggers, and skincare obsessives. Manage All of Your Crazy Ideas and Review Them Each Quarter Like most entrepreneurs, I have no shortage of ideas. 9 different skin types.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JANUARY 4, 2023

We asked EO members to look ahead in 2023 and identify trends they see for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship overall. We asked them to share the skills, mindset or tools that entrepreneurs would be wise to adopt to meet the moment. Video pitching. I see an uptick in pitching via pre-recorded video. Temptation to regress.

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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. The Kauffman Foundation found 47% of US tech founders held degrees in STEM while 34% held degrees in business, finance, and accounting. 1) Freebies for Student Tech Founders. Right here.

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Dream It

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Avoiding 5 Common Cyber Entrepreneur Pitfalls In this #DreamitLive, Ron Gula , president of Gula Tech Ventures , joins Steve Barsh to talk about the 5 most common mistakes cyber entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them. 15:00 - What does you Gula Five Slide Pitch Deck look like? 21:00 - Does the best tech always win?

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2016

Over the weekend, Rent the Runway held an event for its Project Entrepreneur initiative, which brought together over 100 female entrepreneurs looking to get education and advice on how to take their businesses to the next step. Two of the female founders were white and two were of color.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

It''s also not the best way to create a helpful syndicate of investors that share the founder''s vision for the company. If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data. Fear not, founders. The first thing I did was trace my sources.

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Dream It

JULY 31, 2019

The press enhances this misconception around YCombinator demo days, where the 3-day pitch event is perceived like an auction, with investors fighting each other for the best deals. Many programs still put a lot of focus on demo day rehearsals, prep, and on getting the pitch deck just right. It did for me, at least.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

That doesn''t mean I have anything against the founder or the investors. But in the private markets, we''ve got "Yay, founders! That might also be the "Everyone thinks the founder is an a **e anyway" world, too, not that Travis really cares--he seems awfully busy running his huge company and making money.).

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Since the beginning of modern venture capital investing — a relatively nascent asset class — the industry has been biased toward funding what it knows best: founders with familiar demographics (white, male) in familiar geographies (Silicon Valley). One event held by a few investors focused on Black founders is clearly not enough.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

They''re new to the gig, super excited about all its potential, and getting out there selling founders hope for that one big gamechanging deal. That''s really all I have to give to the founders I back. So many entrepreneurs beg for just a few minutes of my time. It takes longer to get to know the founders.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. You can sense when it is a “mission” for this entrepreneur to succeed and she will continue the journey even if success isn’t easy or immediate.

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American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 4, 2024

Recognizing this, The Veteran Fund announced the winner of its $100,000 Veteran Pitch Competition and the recent closing of its inaugural oversubscribed investment Fund I. Head of Global Operations of The Founder Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, and the Co-Founder & COO of the Vet-Tech Startup Accelerator.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 24, 2021

Advice for non-technical founders for finding a serious CTO for your startup Finding a co-founder is hard work. Finding a technical co-founder is even harder. Yet, the benefits of having a technical co-founder make it all worthwhile. A good co-founder will serve as a powerful force multiplier.

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Paul G. Silva

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Startups pitched for 10 minutes each. Mentors and entrepreneurs alike were bored. pitches , back-to-back, with no Q&A. Their journey shows how iteration works at both the program and company level: Finding the Right Problem to Solve The founder initially joined VVM during our first iteration. It wasn’t scalable.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

We refer to people as "great entrepreneurs" in the startup community all the time--but are they? How many founders have made hires, especially consultants, who were supposed to be great that didn't turn out to be? It was like someone gave him the instruction manual on how to pitch and no one else had it. This next one is easy.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

One of my favorite entrepreneur-Twitterer weighed in, “You want to keep tapping into their collective intelligence so you keep saying ‘Thank you for the feedback’ and they keep sending it,” Ms. Another founder … “When I pitched the idea to Adam, he was super on board,” Mr. Sloyan said. Morrill said.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 24, 2018

If enterprise sales is the hard part of what you’re doing, figure out how you can de-risk that first—maybe by trying to pitch some vaporware to buyers or perhaps getting them to pay you to build it on a consulting basis. Too often, an entrepreneur asks me what I think of something, when what I really want to know is what they think.

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This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 20, 2012

Most entrepreneurs aren't qualified for their jobs--including about 100% of the first timers. I was talking to an entrepreneur the other day, and I asked, "Do you feel like you have a good idea of how you should be spending your time?". I tried pitching business development ideas, coming up with marketing ploys.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 16, 2024

World Entrepreneurs’ Day, celebrated each 21 August, honors the innovators, risk-takers, and trailblazers who shape industries, drive economic growth, and inspire others. At EO, we celebrate and support entrepreneurs on World Entrepreneurs’ Day—and every day! EO supports entrepreneurs at every age and stage.

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