Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

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advice venture capital frameworks VC 279

TechCrunch

JULY 4, 2022

A lot of pitch decks I review have a slide that really shouldn’t be there: the exit strategy slide. As an early-stage startup, it’s downright nonsensical, and it shouldn’t be part of your pitch deck at all. TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here.

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pitching strategy opportunity founder 97

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

When you’ve had 3 meetings, a partners meeting and some reference calls you’re not likely the only company in the circling pattern. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital VC Industry. You need to be aware of that and find a way to get land or get diverted. As you know, circling patterns suck.

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VC venture capital pitching board 275

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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pitching accelerator ventures capital 98

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. I’ve covered that in this post on how to reference check your VC. I like the way he thinks.

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VC venture capital entrepreneurs investing 265

TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

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. I’m going to save you some time: many (if not most) of you are not yet ready to pitch an investor. Are pitch decks still necessary?

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pitching incubation board opportunity 98

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital. See, I don’t think it’s a question of To VC Seed or Not to VC Seed, I think it’s the age old question of who you’re working with and how well they reference. A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding.

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VC real estate advice venture capital 283

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. I am really surprised how many entrepreneurs pitch me and then I never hear from them again. Start with a very short thank you email the day after your pitch. This post covers the day after.

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VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

with $15 million to Prove It The venture capital world has started firing up a few cylinders again and looking for businesses that it believes will help us all succeed in ways that resonate with new ways of working as we begin to return to work. Bevy is Emerging as a Leader in Software for Building Virtual Communities?—?with

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communities peer-to-peer venture capital enablement 234

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Back when I was at Union Square Ventures, Fred started to get really excited about podcasting. Geolocation is so 2009.

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VC venture capital media board 186

Ian Hathaway

MARCH 31, 2020

Senators led by Amy Klobuchar introduced the New Business Preservation Act to incentivize venture capital formation around the country. It avoids two well-known traps for government-sponsored venture programs by requiring that public funds are matched with private dollars and that capital is deployed by professional investors.

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venture capital entrepreneurship support capital 75

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Imagine the “typical&# deal – somebody comes into a VC’s office, they’ve never met, they’re highly referred by a friend and they’re pitching a product demo and a PPT. Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice. Some have “rules&# – everybody breaks them for the right deal.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

Incidentally, VC’s hate when they hear companies pitching who say, “ I don’t have real competitors &# as I outlined point three in the linked post). It’s what kills most sales cycles including raising venture capital. They like to feel like they compared your solution to something else on the market.

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startup advice entrepreneurs networking 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

Of course there is no right answer but it’s a function of how much capital you have raised, your prospects for raising more capital in the future, your growth rate and your company’s risk tolerance. Usually when an investor is asking you your burn rate he or she is referring to net burn — what cash are you consuming.

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startup venture capital capital VC 212

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking. Always Pitch Outsiders for Follow Ons. So it seems strange advice for me to recommend that you pitch outside investors first for follow on investments. My corollary for VC is “pitch outsiders and you’ll have great insiders.&#

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VC advice pitching investing 314

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur last week about how he decided which VCs he was going to pitch. So, if your connection can't really speak that much to what you're doing, or you want to save them time, feel free to just point me to LinkedIn and tell me who we know in common that you think would provide a good reference.

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VC pitching entrepreneurs networking 303

TechCrunch

AUGUST 26, 2022

The secret to doing great reference checks for potential hires. I’ve hired enough people to understand that cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias is endemic when it’s time to check a candidate’s references. The secret to doing great reference calls. Image Credits: Simba Chain (opens in a new window).

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pitching venture capital capital leadership 80

TechCrunch

APRIL 1, 2022

Perfect pitch, a singer’s ability to produce any given musical note without a reference tone, is a rare phenomenon — only 1-5 people out of every 10,000 have it. While your odds of creating a perfect pitch deck that captures coveted VC interest aren’t quite that dire, they’re not exactly in your favor, either.

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pitching VC construction venture capital 89

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. Understanding the fund vintage – “Vintage&# of a fund refers to when the fund was raised. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital VC Industry.

VC 269

VC venture capital investing investment 269

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

The role of these investment staff varies firm-to-firm but they often entail: Sourcing deals for partners Helping with initial deal screening with a partner Helping with due diligence (competitive assessments, customer calls, reference checking, market sizing, technology reviews, etc.) This is Sales 101.

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VC board investing investment 314

StartupNation

JUNE 1, 2021

As part of my role as a partner of HealthInc, I sit on the jury for the startup competition in which 20 finalists pitch their ventures, with 10 then selected to enter the program. The winners receive support, including an investment, to accelerate and scale their ventures. Be the learn-it-all. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS).

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entrepreneurs pitching construction accelerator 109

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. It’s why I wrote that the best meetings are debates and not pitches.

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VC board pitching venture capital 299

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Back when I was at Union Square Ventures, Fred started to get really excited about podcasting. Geolocation is so 2009.

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VC venture capital media board 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. They achieved all of this before they raised even a penny of venture capital. People often ask me why I started blogging.

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startup advice communities VC 373

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Gaetano Crupi is a partner at venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab. I have also heard it referred to as a “narrative deck” — basically a detailed, written version of your pitch. I have also heard it referred to as a “narrative deck” — basically a detailed, written version of your pitch.

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founder strategy pitching venture capital 97

David Teten VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

I’m surprised at how many funding pitches I get which lack some of the basic information which investors require before funding. 50% of these meetings led to pitches to individual partners. About 30% of partner pitches led to full partnership pitches. Raising capital is about quality of outreach, not quantity.

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pitching ventures VC capital 53

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Day One Ventures , a venture firm launched in 2018 with a pitch to combine venture capital acumen with marketing and communications support, has launched a program aimed explicitly at those impacted by tech layoffs this year.

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entrepreneurship pitching energy venture capital 99

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

At the very least, answer ALL the profile questions, include your company’s logo, create a two-minute elevator pitch video and upload your presentation deck. I am continually surprised at founders who spend ten minutes throwing up a barebones profile and are dismayed that money doesn’t start flowing in.

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VC angel investing pitching entrepreneurs 159

StartupNation

DECEMBER 21, 2021

They are found across all industries and are useful for entrepreneurs who are beyond the seed stages of financing but are not yet ready to seek out venture capital. The list should include around 30 to 50 names, which you can put into a spreadsheet with other relevant information for easy reference. Perfect your pitch.

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peer-to-peer startup pitching entrepreneurs 105

Hunter Walk

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Incentives and the Cobra Effect [Andrew ‘Boz’ Bozworth/Facebook] – So I don’t know if the story Boz references here is fully accurate or has taken on some metaphorical expansion, but it’s worth sharing. And how mismatched (or unspoken) ones in venture capital can cause stress.

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venture capital real estate capital ventures 57

David Teten VC

JANUARY 23, 2021

The next best move is to build your core team, e.g., recruit an Advisory Board, Venture Partners, and EIRs. For ideas, see How Executives Can Work from Home with Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds. It’s virtually mandatory to develop a detailed, data-backed deck, and ideally a video pitch. Lastly, gather feedback.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 59

David Teten VC

APRIL 13, 2021

Empirically, few small emerging investment managers hire placement agents, particularly in venture capital. They had 154 visits, 97 due diligence requests, 33 second visits, and 12 reference requests, to ultimately produce 9 institutional investors. We’ve been much more successful in pitching old rather than new relationships.

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peer-to-peer venture capital VC networking 98

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

The entire episode is available below, along with a portion of DeepScribe’s Series A pitch deck. References. We do a lot of customer calls and check references on the entrepreneurs. “Then we come up with a list of key questions we want to go deep on,” Achadjian said. “What’s the business model?

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pitching entrepreneurs support ventures 87

TechCrunch

APRIL 22, 2021

For example, say a teen wants to buy an iPad, they can set up an account that they can save toward that iPad and give family members (such as grandparents, for example) the opportunity to pitch in the same amount, or more. What’s going on with fintech venture capital investment?

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ventures venture capital capital pitching 98

TechCrunch

AUGUST 25, 2022

A newly funded startup all about helping people break into the venture capital investment world and land coveted cap table spots feels very 2020. During a downturn, the pitch seems more risky. You can’t buy a community, so make it worth it.

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investing investment peer-to-peer startup 105

TechCrunch

JANUARY 14, 2021

” Jonathan sometimes refers to their investments as “micro-mezzanine” because “mezz is typically structured as a contractual periodic payment, with some equity-like upside, but subordinate to other debt … so most lenders look at it like equity.

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startup ecosystem funders VC mentorship 76

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

You''ll get a venture capital analyst from a brand name firm who has just recently taken his job talking about what makes a company successful. Sometimes, I see people on venture capital panels that aren''t even VCs! In common parlance, "VC" refers to someone who is an investor--who can do a deal. Skip a month.

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ventures startup venture capital pitching 397