This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 23, 2014

It''s unclear what piece of information they were lacking or how someone could have gotten them over the hump. It doesn''t help them improve their pitch or adjust their model. It just feels like the VC wasn''t that interested in the first place and so they''re not sure what the interest was in the first place.

pitching 364

pitching VC venture capital opportunity 364

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

How about as a VC? Fred has basically always been a VC, Mike was a reporter, and Jim worked in product marketing and management consulting. Surely--but then I realize how difficult it is to be an early stage VC in NYC. Really never managed anything of significant or built anything major.". what has this guy done? What did I do?

VC 275

VC peer-to-peer board advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

Because it is a “series&# I plan to get into some of the deeper complexities of funds such as “cross over funds&# and “why VC’s hate to price their own deals&# at a later stage. First, if the VC does 15-20 of these under one partner then it is certain he can’t spend any time with these investments.

VC 265

VC venture capital entrepreneurs investment 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

VC 299

VC board pitching venture capital 299

Paul G. Silva

MARCH 26, 2020

This is the 2nd post in the “Startup Pitching” series. They have to be because about half of all angel/VC investments lose every penny invested. Our brains are hard-wired to digest information packaged that way. So simplify your pitch. You can take the same concept and apply it to your pitch.

pitching 147

pitching startup VC investing 147

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

VC 314

VC board investment investing 314

TechCrunch

MARCH 3, 2021

Weeks or even months of working on your pitch deck could come down to the 170 seconds (on average) that investors spend looking at it. “Investors see a lot of pitches,” VC and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman noted. “In However, volunteering certain types of information can have the opposite effect. exit strategy”.

pitching 113

pitching VC strategy leadership 113

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

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

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. More information comes out. Rob does it.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

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 investment 314

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. If you haven’t read the other VC fund-raising posts I’ve done as part of this series you can find the whole outline and this first in the series here.]

VC 239

VC pitching strategy investment 239

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

They collected each other’s information and Sam immediately built a relationship with Jody. Of course he pitched me the entire ride down. But … we had committed to setting up an EIR program where we would fund people to work on their ideas in our offices and also get the dual experience of working inside a VC.

pitching 372

pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

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. Information Leaks are a Real Problem.

startup 323

startup advice pitching VC 323

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2015

Many entrepreneurs pitching err on the side of too much information. You’ve all been to a presentation where you were overwhelmed with information and while you thought that lady was really smart you can’t remember anything about what she said the next day. Why is it ready for disruption? Why is now the right time?

advice 360

advice pitching disruption VC 360

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Will I have information that other journalists don’t have (otherwise known as a “scoop”)? ” 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.

mix-use 389

mix-use advice VC technology 389

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

So what attracted Howard Morgan, the VC with the hottest hand in NYC as of late ( Turntable.fm , Fab.com ), to bring the investment back to First Round? Joe and Mary Bureaucrat who don't even use the internet because Smalltown, USA blocks it as the decisionmakers. Ugh, right? Except that its working. how many salespeople do you have?

real estate 326

real estate leadership SaaS education 326

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

Try and figure out exactly what a startup had to show at the moment a VC chose to invest in them. Half the time, founders were pitching a completely different idea than what took off--so the VC who looks brilliant for funding the latest viral app really funded a B2B product that never took off. So why bother showing up?

advice 416

advice startup VC strategy 416

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I hope you’ll excuse me when I do the latter in combination with the former to try and explain how I see macro trends and help you think about the mind of a VC. Despite working for one of the top 2 talent agencies in LA, despite having had VC experience, Dustin chose another route. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.

investing 303

investing investment VC media 303

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. Information Asymmetry - The biggest problem that presenters face in large (5+ people) is information asymmetry. This is true whether your at a sales meeting or at a VC firm. Congratulations. What could go wrong?

advice 318

advice VC pitching venture capital 318

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2021

Below is a link to the pitch video. There wasn’t any context around it—not exactly something I’d call a “pitch”. I explained that this wasn’t really a pitch because it lacked all sorts of context. Honestly, I didn’t take it that seriously—mostly because I was starting with no information. Who was the team?

pitching 243

pitching transportation consulting creativity 243

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

We are expected to know everything and many people rush to conclusions given a limited set of information. In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. The more self-assured the VC is and the more impressionable the entrepreneur is the worse the outcome.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

VC 275

VC venture capital pitching board 275

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

TechCrunch

JULY 23, 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 106

pitching VC disruption startup 106

Hunter Walk

MARCH 3, 2025

When I’m scanning a pitch deck I’m basically looking to put it into one of two buckets – Traditional or Different. And how quickly the firm can process new information and adjust if portions of their hypothesis need tuning once in market. of them, often as their first or second largest investor.

peer-to-peer 83

peer-to-peer VC investing investment 83

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2011

In the past I’ve given some tips for handling meetings effectively, covering topics like: - How not to let your meeting go down a rat hole ; - Dealing with the elephant in the room ; - Dealing with skeletons in your closet ; - How to make meetings discussions, not “pitches&#. - Just smile and say, “Oh, sorry.

pitching 392

pitching advice culture VC 392

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. So what does a VC do when he or she isn’t ready to say “no” or perhaps might like to talk with you in a year but not now?

advice 336

advice VC entrepreneurs investment 336

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

Instead, believing that they've only got one shot to win over an investor, startups often pitch far too late and fail to build a relationship over time with an investor. Here’s why: Investors have an information advantage. Of course, there are mitigating factors around actually pitching too early.

pitching 270

pitching venture capital capital collaboration 270

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. Healthcare information? I play with features. I would encourage you to think bigger.

transportation 309

transportation VC networking energy 309

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. As an investor, it’s easy to come into a board meeting asking probing questions, demanding information, and sharing your opinion without first having built up a base of trust.

venture capital 413

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 413

TechCrunch

AUGUST 2, 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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

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. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. Some final thoughts on PR.

pitching 319

pitching media advice venture capital 319

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

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

You’ll pitch a new client by e-mail or you’ll ask people you’ve worked with to recommend you. One of my VC coaching clients is looking for a position with a new firm. Who she picked also says something about what she perceives as interesting, which is more information for her next employer.

networking 418

networking leadership creativity pitching 418

Entrepreneur's Handbook

DECEMBER 13, 2020

The Future is Uncertain, Your Pitch Deck (and Profitability) Can’t be On the off chance you need to be reminded, factors that can make or break your business are unpredictable, and 2020 has reminded us in no uncertain terms how quickly market opportunities, customer demands, and institutions can change irrevocably at a moment’s notice.

pitching 109

pitching VC founder financing 109

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

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. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent.

startup 349

startup pitching advice consulting 349