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The 3 Steps of Provocation-Based Selling

Dream It

In addition to his books, Geoffrey Moore assisted in writing “In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers” for the Harvard Business Review in 2009. His strategy for selling in 2009 is relevant to any economic downturn. Do you have a track record that proves you’re a credible source of advice on this issue? What keeps them up at night?

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Here Are the Details About Upfront Ventures’ Newest EIR – @Chamillionaire

Both Sides of the Table

This was 2009 and his understanding of audience engagement was far beyond anything I was hearing from most people at that time. And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever. I reached out after the event to learn more.

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Angel Funding Advice

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. They have advice to share. Ask them for advice. Most Venture Capital “A&# rounds (as of 2009) seem to start around $3 million pre-money and may go as high as $5-6 million pre-money if you’ve made a lot more progress or for some other reason the deal is “hot&#.

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Do Less. More.

Both Sides of the Table

There are too many pulls & tugs at our elbows for time, for coffee meetings, for advice or speaking engagements or cocktail parties or dinners. My general advice is to do less. I offer the same advice for many of my friends who are newer VCs. The best of the best in our industry are feeling it, too. Easier said than done.

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Three Exercises Every First Time Venture Fund Needs to Work Through

This is going to be BIG.

If you’re lacking for track record as a firm, here’s three exercises you should walk through to help turn your pitch and due diligence meetings from guesswork into something more substantive. Obviously, that’s ideal, but that’s not where everyone starts. This is actually easily referenced. For example, let’s say I had a more national fund.

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Upfront Ventures Raised New $280 Million Fund

Both Sides of the Table

Our 3rd fund began investing in March 2009 (raised in 2008) and our 4th fund started in April 2012 so this fund will naturally begin investing around March / April 2015. As I like to say when asked, “For entrepreneurs you generally need to go to 2-3 cities max and probably pitch 5-15 investors. But thank you.

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2010 VC Funding Outlook for Startups – Prepare for Winter (Part 3/3)

Both Sides of the Table

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. Unemployment continues to rise – Unemployment as of September 2009 is 9.7% My advice : if you’re raising a $750,000 round and you have demand for $1.2 then the world will be fine for fund raising.

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