Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. I think the issue I have always had with investment bank pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. It’s a Demo Day thing. They know how to build pitch decks.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC.&#. Some readers have commented that in today’s world you shouldn’t even need a PowerPoint presentation – in this era you should always just demo your product. I need something structured like slides or a demo to orient me. Act III – The Demo.

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VC advice pitching venture capital 238

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

The idea is simple enough: several female VC partners at top funds will hold 1-hour meetings with 40 promising female entrepreneurs looking to get advice on their business and pitch in a friendly, non-judgmental, safe environment. In Dan Rather’s book he talks about Ruth Bader Ginsberg who was appointed the the Supreme Court in 1993.

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founder peer-to-peer mentorship VC 256

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I’m comfortable with introductions and then getting into the demo.&#. Mobile app?

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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

JANUARY 21, 2023

Moritz Baier-Lentz joined Lightspeed Ventures as head of gaming, and Nihar Bobba joined Better Tomorrow Ventures as a new principal. Amazing advice for anyone who is a student or just … new. Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital raised $2.1 Billion, reports Bloomberg. TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20.

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construction ventures energy founder 92

Entrepreneur's Handbook

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. Go deeper into these lessons and more: Why Startups Really Fail, and How To Fix It Don’t hide in shame from your startup failure “When I stepped on stage at Demo Day to pitch our company to hundreds of investors, I had never felt so confident.

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startup leadership entrepreneurship advice 59

Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 19, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week! Here’s his advice so you can do the same: Don’t rush as it’s a waste of time to generate buzz if your landing page isn’t perfectly optimized. Use the first comment on the ProductHunt page as your elevator pitch. Here’s a sneak peek ??.

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advice entrepreneurs pitching communities 59

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Always be Pitching (line stolen from my favorite scene in one of my all-time favorite movies. Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks.

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VC pitching advice venture capital 309

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 25, 2012

3) Have offline copies of whatever you're doing, so you can demo using screenshots if you have to. 4) Be able to say what you do in a concise manner, in the pitch, in the opening e-mail: "We do X for Y using Z solution, and that's exciting because there are a billion Ys who currently pay a million dollars a year for that.".

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pitching energy advice development 382

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

So what is driving the new energy in the remaining venture capital firms when we kept hearing how much the whole industry was “against the ropes?&# … 1. note: there is one rare exception – in 2006 Sevin Rosen declared that Venture Capital was broken and actually returned money to their LPs !

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VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. The value of Pitch Decks; Brad’s personal preferences on deal presentation; and Brad’s practice of accepting cold approaches via email. Are Pitch Decks becoming obsolete? was starting.

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venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. If you demo your product (which is always great) then tell us part of the story while you’re demo’ing. Also, asking is not appropriate at a marquee conferences like TechCrunch50, DEMO, Twiistup and the like. NEVER lead with features.

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advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

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

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “ Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. After the sales meetings I would ask the exec afterward, “how do you think it went?&#

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VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence.

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startup founder founder startup VC 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. I became quite good friends with a journalist at the Financial Times and eventually helped her as she wrote a book on the venture capital industry. Robert’s article is worth reading.

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advice media startup SaaS 307

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2012

Given the proliferation of accelerators and incubators that pre-vet entrepreneurs, roll up their sleeves to help companies, and dress them up for demo days, the best and brightest are being showcased to look better than ever. Are you waiting for them to pitch you? It's happening on their side, too.

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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. Give everybody pages of the deck they’re to cover or parts of the demo for which they are to talk. Can’t you just demo & talk?

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VC venture capital leadership pitching 340

Angel Capital Association

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

By: Dror Futter, Legal and Business Adviser to Startups, Venture Capital Firms and Technology Companies The SEC announced a series of amendments (likely to be effective early next year) to the rules governing private offering exemptions – by far the most frequent path for venture fundraising.

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frameworks incubation venture capital angel capital 52

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

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 26, 2012

In venture capital, you say "no" a lot. I want your pitch to be the one I say yes to--and I want you to solve the inherent problems in your business model. 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. Take pitches?

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VC pitching venture capital creativity 397

TechCrunch

MAY 21, 2022

The advice was one of ten bullet points in a memo meant to help companies navigate the economic downturn crushing tech. The email is a vibe shift from just a few weeks ago , when hundreds of Y Combinator startups — many of which already raised venture funding — presented themselves to the public on Demo Day. Seen on TechCrunch+.

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startup pitching accelerator transportation 102

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

David Teten VC

JUNE 14, 2021

At my prior firm, ff Venture Capital, we invested in a company co-founded by Nate Jenkins , who had a successful exit, but not quite enough to buy a private plane. Angel Investing, Venture Capital, and Mentoring. If you love the team and traction, you can pitch them to join them as an advisor or cofounder. .

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consulting founder investing investment 119