Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. The VC will smile, thank you, and later pass. The key is WHAT you send.

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VC pitching advice entrepreneurs 261

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

.” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. They point to some widely known facts: financings & valuations are up massively over the past 7 years and non-VC money has entered the system.

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VC peer-to-peer financing finance 214

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I recently attended and presented at Dave McClure’s PreMoney conference in San Francisco. Scott and I agree on nearly everything: The VC structure is changing and there appears to be a bifurcation into small & large VCs with an impact on “traditionally sized” VCs. tl;dr version. tl;dr version.

VC 309

VC SaaS strategy ventures 309

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2015

It's ever present and always on. Softball is also networking, though, because we have some entrepreneurs, another investor, and a left-handed female infielder who works at a venture bank and turns a double play as well as anyone in the league. E-mail is networking, deal work, due diligence.

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VC pitching board construction 419

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.

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VC board investing investment 314

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. To really assess what opportunities the VC industry has over the next decade, one needs to first look at some of the root causes of poor returns in the past decade. The number of venture capital funds has shrunk by two-thirds.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 347

TechCrunch

MARCH 11, 2021

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. 15 steps to fundraising a new VC or private equity fund. Stéphane Nasser is co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses. VC websites by David Teten and Sam Sabin , co-founder of Hireblue.

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VC investing investment venture capital 136

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Later today I’m presenting at the annual Rincon Ventures Summit in Santa Barbara. The median VC exit price for deals is $70 million (FLAG Capital via Bryce.VC). Bimodal returns are a fallacy, many great VC funds are built on the power law curve. They say the same about VC. Startup Exits: A Primer from msuster.

technology 323

technology startup VC ventures 323

Revolution

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

When Revolution Growth first invested in Sweetgreen in 2013, the whisperings of food and wellness were present but sparse, and the bulk of lunchtime options focused more on convenience than ingredients. At the time, restaurants and food tech were on the margins of most investors’ minds and there was skepticism around VC-backed food concepts.

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investing investment transportation disruption 363

TechCrunch

JUNE 22, 2022

Over the past two years, I’ve designed dozens of presentations for a variety of companies at various stages of fundraising — from startup SAFE rounds, to VC rounds and IPOs. Don’t build one presentation, build three. This is your main presentation, and it should be able to stand on its own without a speaker.

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pitching VC opportunity entrepreneurs 91

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

I believe that for any innovation to take place you need a variety of factors to be present. And where GRP Partners , the VC firm in which I’m a partner, is based. If you want the PowerPoint version in stead of the TV version of my presentation I can still do that, too. Where I call home. I’m Old Skool.

innovation 371

innovation creativity networking VC 371

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

And the folks at Startup Grind have been kind enough to invite me to present this morning in Mountain View on the topic. And you need to be careful about giving up control to cofounders as much as VCs. Hire admin / office management after you raise a reasonable size VC round. figure out roles. identify gaps. and so forth.

startup 388

startup consulting construction board 388

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

I had this ethical dilemma pop up on one of the first deals I even did as a VC. ” I was learning which VCs I wanted to work with, what stage & check size I wanted to commit do and what teams would be a good fit for me. .” The call from a fellow VC to “look harder” made me decide to request a site visit.

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VC financing finance investing 356

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

” I wrote about this movement in the link to the left and also published this widely read presentation on the topic. Monitor had a little internal VC group so he got some experience there. More like a temporary VC just to get some experience and of course we’d pay him. I saw it as win-win.

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collaboration VC accelerator consulting 344

David Teten VC

MARCH 1, 2022

The easiest way to work with and for VC funds is to become a part-time scout, getting paid for sourcing investments. How to find a job as a VC scout. VC recruiters list and compensation data. How to negotiate a partner role at a VC or private equity firm. Syllabus for how to launch, manage, and invest a VC fund.

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VC venture capital accelerator ventures 128

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

I sit through a lot of presentations. These range from companies pitching me to portfolio companies presenting at board meetings. Each of these scenarios has a team presenting. Some CEO’s are masters at communicating when team members are present. Some fare less well. The tougher the question the better.

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pitching VC leadership advice 377

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 28, 2022

So I saw this tweet by Semil Shah yesterday: A friend who works in an industry far from tech startups & VC asked what would be the single article I’d share to read on each topic. It is about how a VC can compete and win a deal that many others want. That is a failure of the system. But this post is not about that.

VC 261

VC entrepreneurs venture capital strategy 261

Revolution

MAY 23, 2023

VC firms are not blameless — over 1.8K VC investors wrote checks into proptech deals over the last five years. These strategics have fundamentally different models and objectives for investing in proptech startups compared to a VC that is focused on generating returns through scaling tech companies.

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real estate venture capital VC innovation 278

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

That’s a shame because many of these people missed out on what will be a few great VC vintages. I wrote about this in a blog post last year titled “ It’s Morning in VC ” but I never made the full deck available until now.

venture capital 362

venture capital capital ventures VC 362

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

In fact, one could say that the sagging stock price of Facebook and stories about lack of VC funding for consumer startups represents , in one microcosm, the story of Web 2.0: People used to ask you where you are present--where you can be found--and it was all about what you consumed, curated and liked. Find me on."

collaboration 348

collaboration media SaaS VC 348

TechCrunch

MARCH 2, 2021

But what if you don’t have unicorn dreams – or you don’t want to pursue VC money? It requires patience and focus, but the freedom to create a meaningful product, on your terms, is worth more than even the biggest VC check. If you’re a SaaS founder who’s wary of VC funding, here are my best bootstrapping tips. Keep your day job.

SaaS 139

SaaS VC founder data collection 139

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. Ask your VC to send a critical email to a contact.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 5, 2014

If you need to introduce yourself to a VC firm, you''re probably not getting the job. VC firms are going back to being mostly partner driven shops, where dealflow and decisions stay up top. VC firms are going back to being mostly partner driven shops, where dealflow and decisions stay up top. That''s a benefit to the VC firm.

venture capital 290

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 290

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 14, 2014

That means you actually have a *better* shot, statistically, of getting VC investment at these firms, statistically, once you actually pitch. That''s because if you''re funding 21 year olds, there tends to be less industry insight present so what makes up for it is a build.

founder 390

founder pitching venture capital mix-use 390

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 11, 2022

Microsoft had spent more than a decade competing and winning the desktop software market and then Netscape came along and presented an entirely new market opportunity that had both major upside and major downside for Microsoft. Two great examples of this are Microsoft in the mid 90s and Facebook a decade ago.

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founder networking opportunity investing 299

TechCrunch

JANUARY 25, 2021

With no on the ground know-how as to which startups to fund but an interest to do so, for portfolio diversification and other personal reasons, Microtraction and a few other early-stage investors present the best bets to accomplish this goal. 2019 saw the local VC firm invest in six companies.

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VC accelerator venture capital startup accelerator 138

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Do I have data or facts to present so the story has legs? I am a VC. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? If I’m covering a company can I get evidence of what the competition is doing so the story is balanced?

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mix-use advice VC technology 389

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

MAY 3, 2015

Every VC firm works differently but when asked about our process I always reply the same way, We’re a “high conviction” shop. A company presents. If you pound the table on deals over a period of time and you’re consistently wrong it’s clear you won’t make a great long-term VC.

advice 332

advice peer-to-peer startup frameworks 332

Dream It

MAY 19, 2021

In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Director Adam Dakin presents his view on the right way to answer it after hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of founder pitches. VC funds value-creating milestones, not runway. question is a common and important component of investor Q&A. Remember, time is not a fundable milestone.

pitching 393

pitching board health VC 393

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

We feel pressure to hit milestones for a variety of reasons: Investor presentations, conference demos, customer sales meetings, competitive pressures, a need to drive revenue, business development commitments – whatever. Obviously you can’t always present at conferences to hit delivery dates or this would happen.

creativity 344

creativity leadership board energy 344

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 16, 2021

Led by Jan Heybroek, the closed, coached conversations facilitate shared experiences around one presenter’s specific business challenge in a deep-dive presentation format. Use these resources to understand how your company will look when you pitch a VC or angel. Business challenge: Scaling a SaaS business.

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SaaS leadership accelerator entrepreneurs 294

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 13, 2021

Teaching is another occupation that presents a lot of opportunity to rethink time and location. And, naturally, this coming work-life balance revolution presents tremendous opportunities for new products, services, and companies. They should. Commuting and business travel are not the necessities they were last century.

health 255

health energy opportunity investing 255

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

So understanding the stage of a VC matters. Also, you need to consider the type of investments each VC does. Finally, the same rules apply for VC firms raising money from LPs. ” I told him he had nearly zero chance of closing a pension fund on a first-time $50 million VC fund. Many have $25 minimums.

VC 329

VC entrepreneurs investment investing 329

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2015

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. ” The report also notes that 75% of mega financings are led by non-VCs. You do it eyeball-to-eyeball in discussion.

advice 360

advice pitching disruption VC 360

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Stuart is well worth following on Twitter & now that’s he’s a VC he is likely to share his wisdom more freely. Neither is very strategic nor in the best interest of either set of customers that VCs have (portfolio companies & LPs). Sometimes life presents that opportunity, sometimes it does not.

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David Teten VC

MAY 5, 2022

We cover Versatile VC’s strategy and many other topics relevant to family offices. ” For the slide deck and video presentation version of the paper, click here. Angelo Robles, Founder of the Family Office Association , just posted a video interview with me. If this was helpful to you, please sign up for my newsletter.

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disruption VC investing investment 97