Dream It

MAY 29, 2019

Startup pitch meetings are pretty predictable. You walk into a venture fund’s conference room or Zoom room (if they’re progressive), pitch the partners, offer to answer their questions, maybe ask them a bland question or two, and then leave the meeting to await a response. Steve Barsh.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2021

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. We asked him how founders can create the perfect pitch deck for their company. Some of these pitches were very informal, sitting at the bar or walking around.

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Dream It

JANUARY 8, 2020

In the episode, Steve asked Ron about his “five slide pitch deck.” This is your opportunity to highlight exactly what your advantages are. Take this opportunity to answer many basic questions without being evasive. Now is the opportunity to leave them excited about the company. Show a schedule and milestones.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 23, 2014

When I turn down the opportunity to invest in a startup, I really turn it down. If I don''t have clarity on something, it means that I don''t think the space and the opportunity size is big enough to get clarity. It doesn''t help them improve their pitch or adjust their model. Sugarcoating isn''t helpful to entrepreneurs.

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MAY 5, 2015

I ask, " What could I do for iOS developers so that a bunch of them show up in a place and I can create an opportunity for this company to get in front of them?" If I need to fill an open position for an iOS developer, I don't go around asking people for recommendations.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

She was pitching for a pre-seed round of $400k. Founders hit the street with their pitch deck, some make it, and some don’t, but nearly all of them ascribe a lot more human influence over the process than there probably is. I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. I don’t have enough traction.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

When you see pitch after pitch – what works and what doesn’t – you start to get a sense of patterns of business model approaches, go-to-market strategies and the like. So we discussed his moving to LA for a while and working in our offices and developing his ideas and we decided to formalize it.

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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. Take Hilda, this years grand prize winner.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 5, 2022

It’s an incredibly valuable event for both EO Accelerators and EO members with startups that want to attract investments in addition to EO members who are looking for the right investment opportunity. Each person gets 90 seconds to share the details of the investment opportunity or the “deal need” they’re presenting or seeking.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

In fact, you could make the argument that, because of their lack of advantages in other areas, the ones who make it to a venture pitch actually have more of these raw ingredients because they’ve had to in order to make it to the same destination as their straight white male counterparts.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

And while many venture capitalists rely on pattern recognition as a tried and true investment tactic that can and has delivered returns, it is also a model that perpetuates a history of opportunity gatekeeping. Ultimately, we were so impressed by the finalists’ pitches that Rise of the Rest invested in six of the companies.

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 6, 2013

The chances of getting money from someone who is hearing about you for the first time during the pitch process is extremely low. It creates opportunities for you that puts distance between you and your competition. It gathers inbound opportunities for you--often your first ones, before anyone else is willing to work with you.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

I see this time and time again—a founder pitches a VC or an angel and they say to come back when there’s more traction. They might also be convinced of a repeat founder’s ability to identify what a big opportunity is and what isn’t. They’ve done it before. It’s easier to handle if you’re getting that feedback consistently.

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pitching VC opportunity founder 357

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Takes an hour or an hour and a half at most and everyone gets the benefit of a public conversation--versus three or four hours of pitches. Those kinds of requests feel desperate and not only undermine their pitch, but it''s still real time that adds up. Panel prep calls. There''s a special place in hell for panel prep calls.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 14, 2021

I have no opportunity to win even the local competition.” However, I met and pitched my business to people that I follow on social media as business role models. But at the same time, I miss the opportunity of getting to know them in the real world. I thought, “Meh. So, I skipped it. Entrepreneur first, business after.”

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2014

These are things that other VCs think about, but founders who come to pitch don''t think about too much. One of the reasons why I''m announcing at all is because I realized that it had been a while since I said anything about the progress of the fund--and if you''re an industry person, you might have started wondering. How where things going?

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

Go pitch a VC with an idea, and they''ll tell you to build it. In my mind, that creates the opportunity for increasing returns. Go to them with a prototype and they''ll tell you to launch it. Launch it, and they''ll tell you to get more users. Get users and they''ll tell you to get paying customers. No risk, no return.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

After attending TechCrunch Early Stage last week, I was cheered to meet so many first-time founders and experienced investors who are looking for opportunities. 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.

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Startup Blogpost

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

20 Tips for Pitching New Business Ideas to Potential Investors To provide you with the best advice on pitching new business ideas to investors, we asked twenty CEOs, Founders, and other professionals for their top tips. You should highlight the potential future earnings while pitching your proposal.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2016

Yes, straight white males are getting most of the funding, but they're also most of the pitches. It's not clear to me that other types of founders are getting less funding in proportion to who actually winds up pitching and what they ask for --and you can't get what you don't ask for. Not a single investor turned her down.

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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 first pitch I got was from someone who didn''t intend on staying with the business as an employee. How is that story being told?

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 14, 2019

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. And if I know the person, I’d so much rather get a pitch from them than someone I have to get to know from scratch (although I’m happy to take cold pitches anytime, too!).

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Hunter Walk

AUGUST 1, 2022

Despite the volume, each opportunity to hear or read more about someone’s idea is a privilege and I try to treat it respectfully, despite not being able to spend meaningful time on the majority of inbound we receive. If you can do that (which is hard enough), I guarantee you there will be exit opportunities.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 16, 2023

We’ll talk about opportunity in the sector in a post-pandemic landscape — and how he landed investor patience. We’d love to have you participate in Pitch Practice , where you’ll have 2 minutes to pitch the show’s guests and get 4 minutes of feedback. Come join us virtually at 12:00 p.m. Register here. Got a startup?

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The Seraf Compass

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

How many times have you sat through an entrepreneur’s pitch and learned practically every detail about the product, but almost nothing about the business opportunity. It’s no surprise… their product is their idea and as they nurture it, it becomes like a child to them, and who doesn’t love their child!?

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TechCrunch

APRIL 27, 2023

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. Slides in this deck The team submitted this slide deck with the note that it was submitted exactly as it pitched it to the investors. Not all in good ways, but I’m getting slightly ahead of myself.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2023

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. Image Credits: Smalls It’s not uncommon for companies to discover opportunities for more aggressive growth, and it’s possible that’s why it decided to take more funds.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 10, 2020

That’s not to say you shouldn’t pitch people besides the most powerful partner that everyone else is probably pitching—you just have to be careful you’re not leaving yourself open to being disappointed at the finish line because they didn’t have the internal pull to close.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 24, 2021

It was a clearly hot space and they felt like they had missed out on an opportunity to place their bet in it—and worst of all, they lost the deal to what they considered a rival firm. I see this all the time—two founders pitching the same thing, one gets funded, one doesn’t. Something you did really irked the people you pitched.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JANUARY 4, 2023

Video pitching. I see an uptick in pitching via pre-recorded video. We used Loom to pre-record our pitch and share it with potential investors. It’s a great way to personalize a pitch deck and share it with interested parties. Opportunity for startups. Here’s what they shared.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Surrounding yourself with diverse teams means being exposed to a lot of different perspectives and creates learning opportunities not possible when everyone you deal with professionally looks and acts like you do. I will back a wide variety of types of companies—everything from The Wing to Imagen.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2018

Whether you’re going through an accelerator or you’re at some kind of speed dating event, short “office hours” meetings present both an opportunity and a problem for investors. However, it’s a terrible way to get your whole pitch in. It’s a great way to get out from behind the e-mail and actually meet people face to face.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 27, 2022

Explore your endless opportunities. As a student, you have so many extra opportunities available—grants, resources and an overall willingness from society to help students. Plan, practice and pitch. Don’t wait for anything. — Alberto Soto, Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Alumnus and EO Guatemala member.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

I just respectfully don''t see the same opportunity as her investors do, and I reserve the right to be 100% wrong. I can''t tell you how many times I''ve been pitched and examples have been made of companies that I don''t think are doing that well--but that you''d never know that from the press. I''ve been wrong many times before.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? I guess he was as excited about the opportunity as I was! I think the progress, opportunity and enthusiasm of the team and investors in MakeSpace was truly contagious – I can’t wait to announce his arrival soon.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 21, 2025

Every event, workshop, and conversation is an opportunity to plant seeds for future success, turning bold dreams into flourishing realities. This expanded version of the Seed Capital Pitch competition provides half a million dollars in seed grants to deserving entrepreneurs, reinforcing the forums commitment to real economic outcomes.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 12, 2024

These EOers work with the students to refine their pitches and provide insights and tips to help them succeed in the high-level competition. Sure, it is an opportunity to give back, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. In addition, EO members volunteer as GSEA coaches to mentor the global semi-finalist representing their region.

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