Dream It

APRIL 21, 2020

When pitching investors, remember that your ask is like porridge; it follows the goldilocks ratio and has to be just right. Here are some common red flags for venture investors: Red Flag #1 : Ask isn’t tied to specific fundable milestones. So the question remains: what is the appropriate amount of funding founders should request?

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ventures pitching frameworks founder 351

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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pitching entrepreneurs venture capital ventures 256

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. A program like these could help you work on your strategy and help get you up and running quickly on shared backend tools as well.

accelerator 368

accelerator mentorship VC incubation 368

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

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

Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

In New York, for instance, there are now venture funds with a West Coast mentality and firms with an East Coast mentality; the same is true for firms in San Francisco. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital? The biggest question for a venture firm is whether LPs will fail to make capital calls in a crisis. “It

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ventures startup capital board 334

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data. If you meet someone at a pitch event, they''ve already got a company and they''re looking to close as quickly as possible. In fact, that''s what I tend to do--at least, what I say that I do.

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VC pitching networking venture capital 417

Paul G. Silva

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

They don’t just set a strategy and hope for the best. How Iteration Transformed Valley Venture Mentors Before I co-founded Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) and for all of my time there, we experimented with different ways to connect startups with mentors. Startups pitched for 10 minutes each. It wasn’t scalable.

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energy mentorship pitching entrepreneurship 130

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 19, 2013

You have one less investor who didn''t see the same vision you did bothering you with distracting e-mails and discussions about strategies you don''t agree with. I had someone pitch me recently who started their e-mail out with an indication of how fast the round was going. Venture Capital & Technology'

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pitching venture capital strategy innovation 279

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 exit strategy”. A pitch deck is a tool to show VCs why your idea merits investment.

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pitching VC strategy leadership 113

This is going to be BIG.

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. Venture Capital & Technology'

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pitching consulting VC venture capital 348

Revolution

AUGUST 2, 2022

What we did: Rise of the Rest Managing Partner, David Hall , and Revolution Ventures Managing Partner, Tige Savage , landed in the Space City for a fireside chat with HX Venture Fund on Revolution’s investment thesis, industry trends, and how Houston fits into the entrepreneurial equation. Where we went: Houston, TX ??

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economic growth innovation communities startup ecosystem 344

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2021

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Samir Kaji on the Venture Unlocked podcast about a wide range of topics that we as venture capitalists think about everyday, including: How to build a generational firm?—?retaining Let me explain. a firm differentiator means that not everyone will buy into your thesis but that’s okay.

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investing investment ventures pitching 375

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Quiet-as-a-mouse Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures. True-to-his-heritage Rory O’Driscoll from Scale Ventures. I’d like to schedule a 45-minute call to agree our strategy and understand who your key contacts are.” You may have an opinion on your market-entry strategy for Europe. Have topics. Already covered.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

Based on my experience, here’s how to avoid making the most common mistakes deep tech founders make when pitching investors: Work on your storytelling. Make your pitch tailored to what excites venture capital investors and avoid what does not. Investor pitch meetings are not dissertation defenses.

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strategy founder pitching venture capital 130

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? Please help me congratulate him by Re/Tweeting this post (and following him if you don’t already).

investment 365

investment investing VC board 365

American Entrepreneurship

SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

Startups, early-stage and growth-stage companies present their models to a gathering of angel investors and venture capital firms The Venture Atlanta Conference, set to take place on October 8-9, 2024, at The Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall, is one of the most anticipated entrepreneurial events in the southeast U.S.

entrepreneurs 98

entrepreneurs ventures pitching mentorship 98

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

Venture capital is kind of like a knuckleball. So much of this is gut feel with a thin later of strategy retrofitted to seem more than random. The biggest problem is that what gets lauded as successful strategy isn't replicable--or at minimum should never be advocated. you could very easily increase your chance of failing.

advice 416

advice startup VC strategy 416

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 14, 2021

But then I came across the video game Minecraft where, from nothing more than my tenacious passion, I built my first venture: a Minecraft community that I converted into a business. However, I met and pitched my business to people that I follow on social media as business role models. literally building things!

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entrepreneurs pitching communities media 286

TechCrunch

APRIL 4, 2023

No founder event would be complete without pitches! TechCrunch editorial is looking for 6-7 founders to take part in a Pitch Deck Teardown. Mastering the Pitch Deck Pitches are critical in the quest for funding and first customers. Without further ado, here are your judges for the TC Early Stage Pitch Deck Teardown.

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pitching real estate founder disruption 85

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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pitching strategy investing investment 105

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

If you’re not taking this zone-out down time I’ll bet you’re not having enough strategic reflection on your job, your company, your strategy. Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital? Board Meetings. Conferences.

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creativity venture capital entrepreneurs board 400

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. Importantly … I would pitch investors in SF, NY, Boston, LA, etc.

VC 365

VC board communities pitching 365

TechCrunch

JULY 16, 2021

Yet, that is what Spanish marketing expert and entrepreneur Alex Barrera often ends up doing with startup founders who hire him to help improve their pitch. “Growth companies need to be careful about the potential fallouts of pursuing such strategies. . What do people often misunderstand about pitch training?

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pitching startup consulting collaboration 107

Entrepreneurs' Organization

OCTOBER 26, 2022

We crafted digital strategies for brands and built apps, games, marketing campaigns, and story-driven experiences long before it was popular in the region. As a firm, we pitched campaign ideas and strategies to huge, internationally recognized brands, going up against big network agencies.

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real estate creativity entrepreneurs culture 238

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. Just saying your product is AI-driven will not cut it.

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pitching incubation board opportunity 98

American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 21, 2025

A $500,000 Opportunity, Presented by Wells Fargo One of the most anticipated features of the Forum is the $500K Capital Pitch Competition, presented by Wells Fargo, which is also the title sponsor of the entire event. It seeks to solve one of the most pressing challenges for entrepreneurs today: access to capital.

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entrepreneurs mentorship entrepreneurial ecosystem pitching 74

TechCrunch

JULY 2, 2021

Founder of Unicorn Capital and Minimal Capital, Evan Fisher 's pitching and investor strategy has helped startups raise more than $2.5 The biggest lie in venture capital is: “Yes, I read through your deck.” According to DocSend, the average pitch deck review time over the last 20 weeks is less than three minutes.

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pitching VC venture capital capital 122

Dream It

APRIL 3, 2020

His strategy for selling in 2009 is relevant to any economic downturn. Luckily, the strategy can be broken down into 3 steps. However, these executives usually have multiple lines of defense to shield them from sales pitches. Traditional sales strategies invert that and won’t work as well in this climate.

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pitching strategy advice board 221

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Yet, the lessons learned from their $8mm round of funding announced this week are still widely applicable to every startup--particularly food startups and those in four walls retail that struggle through the traditional venture process. Would we pitch Series A players? Here's what I think everyone involved learned in this process.

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pitching VC strategy investing 234

StartupNation

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

In the startup world, it’s pitch decks, not business plans that get companies funded. Making a pitch deck is an art, a science, but most importantly, a story. Angel investors and venture capitalists have also learned to expect a standard pitch deck as the first filter when evaluating a company to invest in.

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pitching SaaS mix-use media 110

Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

DECEMBER 4, 2019

There is an array of capital sources that entrepreneurs can approach to finance the growth of their companies, including crowdfunding, government grants, and pitch competitions, which typically would not require giving up any ownership (equity) of their business. Eliminating gender-based violence in Peru one ‘sonrisa’ at a time.

advice 240

advice entrepreneurship entrepreneurs networking 240

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 19, 2024

My first pitch was not to investors or potential clients; it was to my fiancée, convincing her to delay our wedding plans until Equifund was up and running — a promise that took significantly longer than the anticipated six months to fulfill. Weren’t entrepreneurs tired of the golden handcuffs of venture capitalists and bankers?

financing 255

financing finance entrepreneurship mentorship 255

TechCrunch

MARCH 17, 2023

It’s too early to determine whether SVB’s downfall heralds a new era for venture capital, but based on anecdotal evidence, off-the-record discussions and chats with co-workers, it seems like we’re back to business as usual as far as pre-revenue startup fundraising is concerned. There’s plenty of tactical advice here, and much more to come.

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pitching frameworks advice strategy 92

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.

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venture capital startup founder capital ventures 102

Hunter Walk

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

There’s a Specific Strategy For Getting Capital When Sentiment Turns Sour. More recently podcasting ventures seem to have only reached exit values which have been solid for founders and angel investors, but well below “fund returning” for multibillion AUM firms. Stop Pitching FOMO Investors, They Won’t Convert. Just Survive.

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ventures pitching venture capital VC 123

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Venture capitalists have raised increasing amounts of money from their investors (LPs) every year. Every consultant was pitching a process for reinventing your organization through BI. Not continuing to challenge yourself on product strategy will lead you down long-term ratholes. Surely there must be some benefit here??

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incubation board VC innovation 354