This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

It just seemed like a fitting title for a company built around narrative by a founder who used to write stories for a living. It's a story that just hit a milestone--a $4mm round of venture funding that I'm ecstatic to say Brooklyn Bridge Ventures just led. At least, I thought it was.

venture capital 362

venture capital ventures capital consumer retail 362

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2013

I’m sure you know, but Elon was the co-founder (and largest shareholder) of PayPal, the most important payment transfer technology of its era and still the most instrumental to date. It is Nikolas Tesla pitching a VC firm. The first time I met Andy Dunn he was working for the venture capital firm Maveron.

VC 315

VC pitching venture capital innovation 315

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.

advice 450

advice pitching venture capital VC 450

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

The other major trend of 2012–2015 was the entrance of “non VCs” into late-stages of venture capital , which mostly consisted of hedge funds, mutual funds, corporate investors, sovereign wealth funds and even LPs doing direct deals. The fact that I still see it referred to in pitch decks is farcical. Non VC Growth Rounds.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 271

American Entrepreneurship

JANUARY 28, 2025

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm, says, “The thing that gets me most excited is the founder whos obsessed with solving a problem that matters, and is determined to keep going no matter what.” The keyword is compelling.

pitching 70

pitching investment investing startup 70

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 22, 2020

One of the most difficult conversations I have with founders is when they haven’t quite given me enough of a story for me to make a proper evaluation. If I wind up asking for more info, it might result in a founder feeling like they’re getting the runaround, given what the founder believes to be an obviously good idea.

pitching 324

pitching VC peer-to-peer founder 324

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.

pitching 256

pitching entrepreneurs venture capital ventures 256

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.

founder 256

founder peer-to-peer VC mentorship 256

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will be the 105th deal out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I started back in September 2012, and it will be the last deal I’ll be making out of my third fund. It will also be my last venture capital deal. No more founder pitch meetings. For me, I don’t mind sharing how I think about it. No new investments.

ventures 545

ventures investment investing VC 545

TechCrunch

AUGUST 17, 2022

At TechCrunch, it often seems as if every other startup story is about yet another fun company raising satchels full of venture capital. One is as a pitch coach for startups, and the other is as a reporter here at TechCrunch, which includes writing our fantastically popular Pitch Deck Teardown series. I have two day jobs.

venture capital 102

venture capital startup founder capital ventures 102

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 24, 2014

Not every VC used to get pitched by VC funds for a living and has seen hundreds and hundreds of VC pitch decks. Venture capitalists play an important role in burgeoning ecosystems. Venture capitalists play an important role in burgeoning ecosystems. Venture Capital & Technology'

accelerator 371

accelerator mentorship VC incubation 371

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.

startup 334

startup accelerator pitching venture capital 334

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. Those kinds of requests feel desperate and not only undermine their pitch, but it''s still real time that adds up.

pitching 344

pitching financing finance incubation 344

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.

VC 417

VC pitching networking venture capital 417

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 17, 2014

With one company, a founder and his super inspirational, creative, and established buddy hatch a plan to build a very strong content brand that serves as a platform for a lot of diverse revenue streams--events, ecommerce, advertising. The second startup came to me from a founder of a company that I only found out later wasn''t fulltime.

pitching 352

pitching consulting VC venture capital 352

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

Sometimes it means establishing founder credibility over time to prospective future investors or to potential employees. And please, please, please don''t pitch VCs who blog to write about your company as if we were tech journalists. Venture Capital & Technology'

startup 394

startup construction venture capital financing 394

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).

innovation 264

innovation investment investing pitching 264

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2016

Unfortunately, one of the panelists, Skinny Girl vodka's Bethenny Frankel, told an African American founder in the audience that if she wanted to raise funding, that she should go out and hire a white guy to be the face of her business. I know that white males get a majority of the venture capital funding.

pitching 285

pitching finance financing entrepreneurship 285

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

Fundraising is challenging, especially for deep tech founders who need to get investors excited about a complex technology, a complex sales cycle and a complex risk profile. As a former investor and current angel investor, I have met thousands of founders, many in the deep tech space. Highlight your big vision.

strategy 130

strategy founder pitching venture capital 130

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

Besides, there were a limited number of places where I could do my job in venture capital anyway—and while I might be a go to for a pitch from super early stage pre-seed and seed founders looking for quick answers and decisive term sheets in New York City, the reality is that I would be pretty far down the list in the Valley.

culture 360

culture VC communities education 360

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. VCs need to go to 20 cities and pitch one firm in each location!” We raised $280 million.

ventures 396

ventures VC venture capital real estate 396

TechCrunch

MARCH 4, 2023

One of the quieter conversations in venture capital has only grown louder, in my DMs and interviews, over the past few months: The known bias in venture capital has been a branding issue for some of the emerging, diverse fund managers just now splashing onto the scene. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

venture capital 99

venture capital capital ventures VC 99

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.

leadership 97

leadership startup accelerator mentorship entrepreneurship 97

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 16, 2020

The venture capital community reacted to the racial reckoning the country experienced in June in ways I felt were pretty underwhelming—one-time pitch events for Black founders or promises to only meet with Black founders for a month. We would love to connect with you and have you at these events.

communities 167

communities networking founder disruption 167

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2021

In June of 2019, I got a cold e-mail with a single link: “My name is Braeden Kelekona and I’m the founder of Kelekona, a drone service for passengers and cargo. Below is a link to the pitch video. There wasn’t any context around it—not exactly something I’d call a “pitch”. Who was the team? And then I disappeared.

pitching 243

pitching transportation consulting creativity 243

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 10, 2012

I texted the founder and got the following response: " Yeah. I was trying to help them get a top flight marketer and, as it turns out, the one I asked had already heard of them and wrote this back to me: "Funny cause I was one of the people who backed [their] kickstarter campaign and love the idea and what [the founder] has done.

pitching 357

pitching startup networking founder 357

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

Just ask the people of Portland, Seattle, Boulder, Iowa, Princeton, Dallas or countless other cities that don’t have enough venture capital. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. Ask SuperCell. Or UrbanAirship. Take me for example.

VC 365

VC board communities pitching 365

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 14, 2019

Too often, I meet founders that need something, and feel awkward about asking for it for a variety of reasons. If a startup pitches me, for example, they’re not asking—they’re selling their equity. If no one ever pitches me, then I’ll have no companies to invest. I wasn’t sure if it was ok to ask.” “I

pitching 258

pitching opportunity venture capital founder 258

David Teten VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

One of the first decisions we had to make in setting up our new VC fund, Versatile Venture Capital , was our CRM and marketing technology infrastructure. . Investors [and founders] will follow a power-curve, like any other data set. Linkedin : Versatile Venture Capital / David Teten personal.

venture capital 123

venture capital capital ventures VC 123

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

I brought three founders in for the first time and they rocked it. 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. Venture Capital & Technology' We don''t do anything too fancy. What has life put you in a position to have unique insight into?

startup 322

startup venture capital pitching VC 322

Revolution

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

From the Sunshine State to the Windy City, and college to coastal towns, we met up with some incredible founders, ecosystem builders, and co-investors last quarter, and experienced just about every season along the way. He then joined Wilmington founders at Live Oak’s Channel for office hours. Where we went: Chicago, IL?

venture capital 246

venture capital pitching board ventures 246

TechCrunch

JUNE 28, 2022

Over the course of the past 10 weeks, I’ve taken apart 10 pitch decks as part of our Pitch Deck Teardown series. We want your pitch decks for our Pitch Deck Teardowns! When you’re raising funds for your company, chances are that you’re trying to convince a venture capital firm to give you money.

pitching 96

pitching venture capital startup ventures 96

Jason Malki

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

Raising venture capital is no easy task. There’s no point in trying to pitch a healthtech startup to a VC firm that exclusively invests in fintech companies. The more intel you have going into your pitch meeting, the better. Conclusion Raising venture capital is notoriously difficult?—?but And who knows?

venture capital 97

venture capital capital ventures pitching 97

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

We’ve all heard the anecdotes—the famous founder who pitched 1000 investors before any of them said yes. Most founders I know who are in this mode simply haven’t done enough homework and planning on the idea. 3) Have you pitched a critical mass of investors of the right stage and sector?

startup 281

startup pitching venture capital founder 281

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

” If you don’t read any more of the post, the summary lesson learned for entrepreneurs is this: Product-centric founders often over-intellectualize their communications and therefore fail to sell their concepts to the masses. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. And I think this is a mistake.

entrepreneurs 370

entrepreneurs pitching startup education 370

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. They get pitched by so many blowhards that more genuine people who aren’t in it for just a story stand out from the crowd. It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

pitching 319

pitching media advice venture capital 319

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I have one failed attempt at a startup under my belt as a founder and I don't have any particularly usable skills that anyone would pay for like selling, designing, building, etc. Venture capital is kind of like a knuckleball. Why should that stop me, though? It doesn't stop anyone else.

advice 416

advice startup VC strategy 416