Entrepreneur's Handbook

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Snippets of advice, tactics, and tools I used to raise an oversubscribed round during an economic downturn Image: Author I’m writing this blog post on the heels of closing our oversubscribed round during what’s been described as the worst time in history to raise capital. Taking on venture capital is not for everyone.

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peer-to-peer pitching advice economic growth 59

TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

Diligence cycles have extended, better relationships with founders can be formed, investors can enter new spaces with more preparation, and a thoughtful approach to early-stage venture capital can emerge,” Kareem added. Plus, they were gracious enough to share some of the advice they’re giving to their portfolio companies.

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advice ventures sustainability investing 110

Entrepreneur's Handbook

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Unfortunately, the venture capital scene is embarrassingly backward in terms of diversity, and women and ethnic minorities are shockingly underrepresented among investment decision-makers. but that won’t stop the almost daily influx of unsolicited advice and second-guessing you’ll receive. Oh, most definitely.

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entrepreneurs advice VC venture capital 114

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Definitely not!). Pitch Deck Teardown: Syneroid’s $500K seed deck. million valuation, the company’s founders shared their 12-slide pitch deck with TechCrunch for a review. Pitch Deck Teardown: Syneroid’s $500K seed deck. Can getting married actually solve an immigration problem?

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pitching advice financing finance 79

TechCrunch

JULY 15, 2021

The overlapping in job roles is uncanny: The best investors and founders have to find focus through the noise, understand the weight of due diligence and pitch others with conviction. Pitch deck or pitch blurb? While the format definitely works, the influx of pitch decks in a hot deal environment makes it harder to stand out.

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VC pitching advice ventures 102

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 29, 2021

“Denver was ready for the Zoom boom, and is reaping the — venture capital — rewards.” Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? My dream is to immigrate to Silicon Valley to start my own venture. Any advice? Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley?

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SaaS pitching advice VC 82

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

As Rebecca Szkutak reported this week, SaaS startups that ignored this advice outperformed the ones that followed it. If someone offers you free business advice, it’s probably for their own benefit. In business, if someone’s offering you advice, it’s probably for their own benefit. Newbie in Newark. Conclusion.

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advice pitching SaaS frameworks 89

AsiaTechDaily

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Fong’s Capitale Ventures is an investment and advisory group with expertise in complex, cross-border transactions. It partners with entrepreneurs in funding their growth stories through innovative market access and public venture capital strategies. We pitch to investors without requiring them to commit to a blind pool.

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ventures startup VC strategy 69

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

The point is, someone building a career in venture capital that doesn't include prior entrepreneurial success probably doesn't look like they have much to offer in the beginning. Facing live pitching is a new thing, but that's no excuse for not having an approach to hitting and studying up to face this particular pitcher.

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VC peer-to-peer board advice 275

David Teten VC

AUGUST 20, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. I have been impressed by how these venture capitalists are accomplishing a major social impact goal…without even trying to. I contacted every RBI venture capital investor I could identify, and learned: .

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founder investing investment venture capital 74

TechCrunch

MAY 8, 2023

A lot of my work as a consultant involves helping founders come up with a good fundraising story, but a surprising number of founders seem to get stuck on the next step: Finding the right investors and landing a meeting to pitch their companies. That’s a problem. ” It’s crucial to be clear about what applies to you.

startup 82

startup pitching SaaS financing 82

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. You''ll get an entrepreneur who has raised one and only one round of financing in his or her entire life--all from relatively unsophisticated individuals, giving fundraising advice.

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ventures startup venture capital pitching 352

TechCrunch

JANUARY 6, 2023

A definitive founder’s guide would have to include chapters like, “So you’ve hired the wrong person,” or, “Five ways to tell if an investor is lying to you.” It’s impossible to plan for everything that can go wrong while building a startup. ” On Thursday, January 19 at 10 a.m.

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construction investing investment advice 83

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

And when asked about the topic, I definitely don’t shy away from the topic as you can see in this 8-minute YouTube interview that Pemo Theodore asked me to do on the subject of Women in Entrepreneurship. My guess is that probably only 2-3 out of every hundred pitches I receive are from women. But then the truth sets in.

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entrepreneurs entrepreneurship VC pitching 341

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. By definition you can’t have 3 investors each wanting to increase from 5% to 20% ownership or you’re fawked anyways.

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VC advice pitching investing 314

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital. Look at Josh Kopelman over at First Round Capital. I think they definitely qualify as a VC and not a seed fund. I could definitely see that happening. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice.

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VC real estate advice venture capital 283

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I’ve tried to make this advice as well-rounded and biased free as I can. Raising money is hard. Meet in person.

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strategy development VC advice 366

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. Everyone has their own definition of momentum (user numbers, revenue, channel partners, biz dev deals, whatever). Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice. Maybe this CEO doesn’t see me as a great fit.

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startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

It’s the one bit of advice I find myself giving most frequently these days, “raise money at the top end of normal.&#. Prices have definitely gone up in 2011 as depicted in the anecdotal chart below. To any prospective investor you look like you’ve failed even before your first pitch. Here’s what I mean.

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startup advice pitching VC 336

TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2022

In a deeply researched post, Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm examine how fintech overtook and outperformed every other sector to the point where its outlines mirror that of the broader venture market. “To Fintech is like most venture, but simply more extreme.”. The berserk pace of fintech investing outshines the global VC boom.

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VC incubation angel investing investing 80

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. Problem definition (with the market … it’s why you exist). What should be in the deck? Bio of top 3 people in the company.

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VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. It definitely is an IQ test thing for me. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. I can then change my focus based on the results. But ONLY do this if you plan to adjust your approach. People say this all the time.

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advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. 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. Or “I’m a new entrepreneur, why would I offer advice on how to run a startup?&#.

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startup advice communities VC 373

TechCrunch

MARCH 6, 2023

Let’s kick this off by reminding you there’s only 5 days left to save $1,000 on Disrupt passes ! — Christine and Haje The TechCrunch Top 3 No one likes a cheater : Definitely not Russian game developer Battlestate Games, which banned and doxed 6,700 cheaters from its Escape from Tarkov game. Lorenzo has more.

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development economic environments hospitality board 85

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 2, 2021

Those that are allocated shares have definitive and explicit monetary gain within a 24 hour period of receiving an allocation. If you look up a definition of underwriting it involves “taking on financial risk” and “putting capital at risk” which they do not actually do in a typical IPO transaction. Party B: The investment banks.

peer-to-peer 82

peer-to-peer VC advice capital 82

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I guess if you do more than one, I guess by definition, that’s serial. So then when I wanted to go into venture capital, they said, “You can’t do that, you need to be in EIR.” So when I got into venture capital, I thought, “Well, what can I do that’s different?”

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startup entrepreneurs consulting board 337

TechCrunch

APRIL 10, 2022

Between his roles as co-leader of Mayfield Fund’s engineering biology practice and founder at IndieBio, Arvind Gupta reviewed approximately 470 startup pitches last year. “In 10 days, I can do the primary research and work with the founders to come to a conclusion there. Because no one cares if the market is terrible.

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startup economic environments venture capital advice 87

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 31, 2020

“Enterprise expenditure on custom software is on track to double from $250 billion in 2015 to $500 billion in 2020,” so we’ll definitely be diving deeper into this topic in the coming months. For starters: he’s never had an opportunity to pitch at a VC firm where there was another Black person in the room.

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construction mix-use education hospitality 128

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

There are a lot of people that artificially group together performance metrics for venture, and try to extrapolate successful stratagies from it. I know, because those people all used to pitch me as an institutional LP back in the day. Google Ventures comes to mind. I won't tell you who comes to mind here.

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strategy VC ventures financing 247