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. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. They make progress.

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VC pitching advice venture capital 309

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

How about as a VC? If* you believe that a good venture capitalist should have launched their own company and exited, then I simply don't have that track record. Fred has basically always been a VC, Mike was a reporter, and Jim worked in product marketing and management consulting. Charlie is a nice guy, but his company failed.".

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VC peer-to-peer board advice 275

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. The following are some tips for the debate style VC meeting.

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VC peer-to-peer pitching advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

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VC venture capital networking innovation 255

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. All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC &# tab).

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. They know how to build pitch decks. They know the VCs so they know what interests them. What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage? What price?

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VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 347

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

I recently appeared on Fox Business News covering the topic of raising Venture Capital. If you’re in the market or thinking about VC in the future the following video may be of interest to you – click here to view. If you want to learn more about “Pitching a VC&# make sure to check out the entire series here.

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VC advice pitching networking 210

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

When this first ran on TechCrunch I got the greatest comment in the world that I had to repeat here, “VC’s are like martinis: the first is good, the second one great, and the third is a headache.&# I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. In my second company I had only 1 investor. I love that.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? She has a quote from literally every major VC from whom you’d want to hear. My guess is that probably only 2-3 out of every hundred pitches I receive are from women.

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entrepreneurs entrepreneurship VC pitching 341

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

A number of individuals also participated, including partners from First Round Capital and Wilson Sonsini, Wiley and Allison Cerilli, David Rose, Tom Wisniewski, Chad Stoller, and Ramesh Haridas, among others. VCs pitch for money, too. No one ever thinks about VCs having to pitch, who they pitch to, or how it works.

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ventures pitching VC startup ecosystem 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. Congratulations. Sometimes that works.

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advice VC pitching venture capital 318

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. 2006 was the last time I went out to raise venture capital. They eventually took money from non-traditional VC based in the UK.

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founder pitching VC advice 252

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. Why don’t VC’s follow up? This post covers the day after. So how to proceed?

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VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. I can then change my focus based on the results.

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advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

My friend and fellow SoCal venture capitalist Peter Lee wrote a post about the different roles within a VC and spent much time on the role of an associate. These are the permanent members of a VC. The process for raising money from a VC is a sales process and as such much of what is taught in enterprise sales can be applied.

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VC pitching entrepreneurs advice 308

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

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advice venture capital frameworks entrepreneurs 279

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. That’s OK, too.

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startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. What stage?

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advice VC pitching entrepreneurs 361

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. They get pitched by so many blowhards that more genuine people who aren’t in it for just a story stand out from the crowd. It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

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pitching media advice venture capital 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital? Board Meetings.

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creativity venture capital entrepreneurs board 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? 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. Absofuckinglutely.

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startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I have sat through countless pitches with Ivy League grads spewing off intellectual descriptions of the details of their product or service and why it will win in the market. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. These messages need to pass the cocktail party pitch. And I think this is a mistake.

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entrepreneurs pitching startup education 370

Entrepreneur's Handbook

NOVEMBER 29, 2022

You’ll receive practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. Are you actually ready to pitch? When pitching, the startup has to put a number on the table. Thankfully, seasoned investor DC Palter offers some advice: Find the deal lead?—? Did you know the average new business pitch costs $450,000?!

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venture capital capital ventures pitching 80

Smart Hustle Magazine

JULY 17, 2019

The number one challenge women face is a significant disadvantage in securing access to venture capital funding compared to their male peers. of all venture capital in the US went to companies founded solely by women. Find the Right Investors - don’t throw your pitch to just anybody. In 2017, just 2.2%

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venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 95

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. Many businesses that pitch to me have White Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not.

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VC venture capital advice capital 264

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. 8% of VC partnerships, for example). Now 33% of Supreme Court Justices are women (vs.

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founder peer-to-peer VC mentorship 256

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. First Round Capital receives about 2500 submissions each year.

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capital board VC pitching 284

David Teten VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

One of the first decisions we had to make in setting up our new VC fund, Versatile Venture Capital , was our CRM and marketing technology infrastructure. . I’m very interested in the tech stack of private equity/VC firms , both to improve the efficiency of Versatile VC and also as a focus area for our investing.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 123

StartupNation

JANUARY 20, 2022

This is where venture capital comes into play. Defined as a type of private equity investor funding given to startups that have growth potential , VC can play a huge part in business growth success and can facilitate a number of startup-based costs. Must-Read: 5 Terms That are Killing Your Startup’s Pitch.

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venture capital capital ventures startup 89

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

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. I have been researching this both to support Versatile VC ’s portfolio companies and also as part of research for my new book, To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear. 1) Your school.

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founder mentorship peer-to-peer pitching 144

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Incidentally, VC’s hate when they hear companies pitching who say, “ I don’t have real competitors &# as I outlined point three in the linked post). It’s what kills most sales cycles including raising venture capital. I know I didn’t. Why Buy Now?

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startup advice entrepreneurs networking 319

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2011

VC Blogger Fanboy This geek reads all the blogs religiously and is a lean startup ninja. Seems like a good pick, except that every piece of advice given comes from their own experience--experience that is all during a a single up cycle. By the way, do you know who (surprisingly) *doesn't* fit into this catagory? Nice work, aplusk.

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board advice consulting angel investing 278

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Unlike a venture capital firm that states its criteria on its website and has forms, e-mail addresses, etc to encourage outreach, your site does a lot better job of saying "Go away!". The interesting thing is that being connected to wealth isn't necessarily a driver of good venture capital performance--why would it be?

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venture capital VC capital networking 244

Jason Malki

MARCH 9, 2023

I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Sheffield, the Founder & Managing Partner of Pachamama Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in US early-stage climate tech companies. Then, I stumbled upon PE/VC after chatting with a good college buddy of mine. I would break it down into 3 steps.

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VC ventures angel investing venture capital 98

TechCrunch

JULY 14, 2021

Pitching is perhaps the single most important skill that any founder needs to hone, so not surprisingly, we kicked off our TechCrunch Early Stage 2021 — Marketing & Fundraising event with a deep dive on all the tips and tricks required to get the most out of pitching and slide decks. What to expect when pitching European VCs.

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pitching VC advice ventures 115

TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

But dealmaking is idiosyncratic: a few investors might be content to make a deal over coffee, but early-stage teams still need a sturdy pitch deck or memo they can leave behind. Similarly, one VC may encourage newly minted CEOs to eat ramen and ride the bus, while another might suggest a salary in the low six-figures, depending on geography.

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