Dream It

AUGUST 10, 2020

Adam Dakin , Managing Director of Dreamit Healthtech, sees founders make the same common pitch mistakes over and over. Luckily, he’s a pro when it comes to pitching investors and distills the advice so it’s easy to avoid. Perhaps worse, Adam points out that unfounded superlatives point to a lack of self-awareness in founders.

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pitching disruption startup advice 341

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2013

It also demystifies any assumptions that our founders were “puritanical” – they were anything but. And from an entrepreneurial point of view – it starts by acknowledging that foreign-born founders that don’t match our normal recognition pattern can be some of our best innovators. Startup Advice'

innovation 391

innovation culture advice education 391

David Teten VC

JULY 27, 2021

We have collected a wide range of freebies, contests, accelerators, online communities, and VCs designed for student tech founders. The Kauffman Foundation found 47% of US tech founders held degrees in STEM while 34% held degrees in business, finance, and accounting. 1) Freebies for Student Tech Founders. Right here.

founder 144

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TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

It’s demo day season. This morning marked the kickoff of VC firm 500 Global’s Fall 2022 Demo Day, which saw over a dozen startups give their best pitches to prospective investors — and customers. Both outfits look to back early-stage founders with money and advice in exchange for equity.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Don’t even get me started on Demo Days. You could spent 20 days / year at Demo Days now. Co-founder discontent. And why my advice to newer VCs would be not to feel bad if you’re missing out on what is perceived as a few hot deals. You have to deal with CEOs who resign. Health destroying stress. Motives matter.

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VC investment investing entrepreneurs 374

TechCrunch

APRIL 7, 2023

Y Combinator’s Demo Day took place this week , and although the event itself was virtual-only, 86% of the founders in YC’s winter 2023 batch lived in SF while participating. As a result, “the average Black founder raises less than around $1,000 from family and friends,” reports Dominic-Madori Davis.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Smart founders use this extra resource to their advantage. Even though my wife thinks my true mental age is still around 13, sadly I am not in this youth demo. Startup Advice' Just ask Rob Bailey. Most firms hire associates straight out of MBA programs and usually it is a “2-3 years and out” type of job.

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investment investing VC board 365

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The reality is that you need to standardize many things in a company if you’re to scale quickly, which is why many founders depart at the time of the transition. Demos – One of the things that most people are bad at and that are hard to standardize is the demo. A good demo tells a story.

advice 296

advice SaaS startup pitching 296

500

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Under no circumstances should any of the below content be construed as legal, tax or investment advice from 500 Startups or any of its affiliates. The outcome was that it was both – and when you’re at Demo Day, you’re going to be grateful to the part that’s ‘too challenging’. What Alluva is.

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startup advice opportunity investment 183

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 26, 2012

One event organizer had even asked me if I wanted to give my talk before the company demos, enabling me to duck out before the crowds could rush me. There was a pretty major theme I saw from a founder's perspective: VCs are jerks because they don't follow up. I know that a startup at the early stages is the founder's baby.

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Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2025

After analyzing hundreds of sales organizations across startups, I’ve distilled the key pieces of advice that founders and leaders should keep in mind. Create a consistent demo : Develop a compelling product demonstration that clearly shows value and addresses pain points.

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advice founder startup enablement 72

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

Or riding a crazy party bus and sitting next to Aaron Batalion the co-founder & CTO of Living Social. As a founder you end up having to deal with a lot of sensitive information & discussions. I refuse to go to demo days. Not just TechStars but any demo day, really. Nom nom nom. Office Space. We’ll see.

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pitching culture entrepreneurs mentorship 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

It can be a good strategy to bring just the CEO because 1-on-1 rapport is easier to build but if you have equally strong co-founders bring them. Whether or not they are co-founders or not – they want to know you can build a team. Can’t you just demo & talk? Demo could go here]. Details on the solution.

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VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

The Zapier Blog

JUNE 19, 2025

They typically highlight key features, benefits, or use cases, often with a quick demo or close-up visuals. In-product demo : Quick cuts through the user interface (UI) show exactly how the feature works, helping users visualize themselves using it. The goal is clarity: show the product, show the value, and make it easy to say yes.

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culture pitching media education 98

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. 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. That’s OK, too.

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startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Y Combinator

MAY 10, 2023

Curtis Fonger and Matthew Busel met on YC’s Co-Founder Matching (CFM) Platform, a tool we built to help co-founders find each other. Even in early conversations, their fit as co-founders was clear to each of them. What brought you to YC’s Co-Founder Matching Platform?

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NZ Entrepreneur

MARCH 16, 2025

James covers the genesis of Ministry of Awesome following the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, and provides updates on Ministry of Awesome approaches to startup founder support and programming. We run programs like Founder Catalyst, which is our flagship incubation nine-month long program that happens year-round.

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startup ecosystem mix-use advice incubation 52

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

I attended the Facebook Fund Demo day about a month ago in Palo Alto and it blew me away the pace of innovation and the focus on monetization that came out of this group. million even before the demo day to help you integrate your social network with dating ambitions. Seems an obvious fit.

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VC venture capital networking innovation 255

TechCrunch

MARCH 28, 2022

The Family co-founder and CEO Alice Zagury announced in a blog post that the French startup accelerator is suing Oussama Ammar for multiple claims — breach of trust, forgery and use of forgery. The Family was originally founded in 2012 with three co-founders — Alice Zagury, Oussama Ammar and Nicolas Colin.

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accelerator founder startup accelerator communities 91

Jason Malki

OCTOBER 31, 2024

I had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Wright, the founder and CEO of Grapevine Software , a cutting-edge Virtual Office platform designed to centralize communication, knowledge sharing, and team alignment for distributed workforces. As a founder, what keeps me motivated is the process of constant learning. Startups take time.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

Paul Graham’s assertion that “any startup founder can tell you the most common question they hear from investors is not about the founders or the product, but “who else is investing?&# if you need advice on how to find / work with startup lawyers cheaply click that link). When I’m in, I’m in.

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financing finance advice VC 286

Y Combinator

JULY 20, 2021

The program offers all YC founders resources to help them achieve the best possible outcomes when raising capital: year-round workshops, detailed fundraising guides & templates, and 1:1 support. This is a great role for somebody who loves helping startups, is eager to talk with YC founders (our customers!), Learn more.

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advice opportunity support investment 143

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Justyn Howard, founder of Sprout Social has a blog post that he’s written about his experiences of migrating from scrappy tools to more efficient ones (i.e. And this is especially important since the people who get sucked into this admin the most are the founders – the people who you most want focused on high-value tasks.

culture 333

culture construction startup advice 333

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. This is where most founders err.

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VC advice entrepreneurs energy 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

It is with this backdrop that I was really happy to learn from my friend Ethan Anderson (HBS alum & founder of RedBeacon) about an awesome program at HBS run by Tom Eisenmann called Launching Technology Ventures. Here is a sample of the reading list for the course that gives you a flavor for just how modern and practical this course is.

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startup consulting pitching support 319

Hunter Walk

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Second, it matters to us externally that founders know it’s always Homebrew making the investment – never a situation where one of us was excited and the other one didn’t block it. We spent months having general conversations, but eventually, we sat down and did a Founder Dating Quiz. Thanks Alex!

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coworking accelerator investment investing 77

Y Combinator

JUNE 8, 2021

Work on everything from our Demo Day experience, internal financial systems and tools to help founders connect with one another for advice, intros, deals, networking and more. Product Engineer – Y Combinator : Join a small-but-mighty software team that builds the OS that runs all of YC. Learn more. Learn more.

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incubation advice financing finance 99

Y Combinator

DECEMBER 9, 2020

The founders are likewise transformed by the many years of struggle and personal growth necessary to build and successfully lead a large business. Gone is the uncertain new startup founder, replaced by someone almost impossibly formidable and experienced. I first met and interviewed the DoorDash founders on Friday, April 26, 2013.

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pitching founder advice support 145

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

There are moments like being on stage when your demo crashes, reading about your competitors raising a ton of cash or having one of your top team members resign that test your will. Losing a deal that you had worked on for months after being told you won and then have snatched away from you will ruin some nights of sleep. It looks so easy.

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entrepreneurs startup VC real estate 384

TechCrunch

JANUARY 8, 2022

Even to outsiders, the inner workings of startup accelerators has become familiar: pumped up on camaraderie and energy drinks, scrappy founders do product demos onstage before a room full of buzzy journalists and investors. In this instance, we failed to follow our own advice.”. Let’s start with a juicy topic: pro rata.

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startup accelerator accelerator startup energy 92

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike is a no BS guy, has all the attributes I look for in a founder and says things like, openly shares knowledge and opines without a filter including this one, “whoever invented uncapped convertible debt should be spanked!&# This is an interview you’re not going to want to miss, I promise. How Hashable Got Buzz.

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disruption technology financing finance 302

David Teten VC

AUGUST 20, 2019

Many are reporting that they’re seeing a more diverse pool of applicants than traditional equity VCs… even though virtually none have a particular focus on women or underrepresented founders. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A new option for founders who care about control.

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founder investment investing venture capital 74

Y Combinator

MARCH 15, 2024

When I joined YC in 2014, I thought I was transitioning from the management role I had as a startup founder to a job where most of my time would be spent doing office hours with YC founders.  After investing in over 800 companies I have much more perspective on how to select and help founders.  I

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leadership advice VC accelerator 112

TechCrunch

APRIL 4, 2023

Generative AI startup founders within the cohort can expect to have access to AI models and tools as well as machine learning stack optimization and custom go-to-market advice. There’s also a Demo Day in San Francisco at the end of the program. AWS will not invest in startups and does not yet have an AI/ML investment arm.

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startup accelerator creativity advice 88

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2011

When meeting with early stage entrepreneurs for the first time, after reviewing a demo or hearing their pitch, I often ask them to articulate what they’re most focused on building. I don’t fault entrepreneurs for relegating startup legal work to the bottom of their daily triage list; founders are spread incredibly thin.

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entrepreneurs advice pitching board 114

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

You’ll hear from iconic founders, unicorn makers, boundary-benders — all of it served up with a gigantic side of DIY tips, actionable advice, encouragement and inspiration. Visit their virtual booths, get a product demo and start a conversation. You can also catch Startup Alley founders pitching to TechCrunch staff.

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disruption opportunity pitching advice 85

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 16, 2023

However, a fear of long sales cycles, heavy compliance requirements, and opaque organizational structures preclude many early stage founders from pursuing this go-to-market channel. With massive annual technology budgets and scaled distribution, the largest FIs are the ideal end-buyers.

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