Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

And they will offer you some of the best business advice you will ever receive if you’re open to it. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital. And that’s why it’s super important to reference check your VC as I wrote in the linked post. No exceptions.”

startup 363

startup real estate VC venture capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

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?&#. It really started simply enough.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. But I used to jokingly refer to bridge loans as “pier&# loans. You might have legitimate concerns that warrant not funding the ongoing operations.

startup 290

startup advice financing finance 290

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

there was no frame of reference for the value. My key take away – frame of reference in pricing is important. Advice, coaching, intros? Gregg says at $9.99 At $12 / year he was able to frame users with the thought, “Am I getting a dollar of value per month from JibJab? Sure, of course I am. Sign me up.&# Awesome.

mix-use 303

mix-use VC advice creativity 303

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.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

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. . Linkedin : Versatile Venture Capital / David Teten personal. It’s also helpful for identifying people with whom we can do reference checking. He recommended:

venture capital 123

venture capital capital ventures VC 123

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. It’s what kills most sales cycles including raising venture capital. Tags: Start-up Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. I know I didn’t.

startup 319

startup advice entrepreneurs networking 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. Taking reference calls from prospects considering using our products. Tags: Sales & Marketing Advice Startup Advice. Heroes told our success stories, not us.

peer-to-peer 294

peer-to-peer advice innovation support 294

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

They are at the tops of their classes and want to get into private equity or venture capital some day. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice. I have nothing against these young people – the dialers. They are often from the best universities: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Princeton, Yale.

VC 294

VC entrepreneurs advice investing 294

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. And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking. I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table.

VC 314

VC advice pitching investing 314

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

with $15 million to Prove It The venture capital world has started firing up a few cylinders again and looking for businesses that it believes will help us all succeed in ways that resonate with new ways of working as we begin to return to work. Community-building is advice I give to nearly every startup team with whom I work.

communities 234

communities peer-to-peer venture capital enablement 234

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Large companies can be strange sometimes. Already covered the topic here.

startup 298

startup advice entrepreneurs venture capital 298

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

This was customer interaction at its finest and as a result they invited him to meet with our entire sales staff and offer advice on the sales process from a customer’s perspective. Who else is going to tell a VC if he got a bad reference from an entrepreneur or fellow VC? Contrast that with a VC conversation I had.

peer-to-peer 341

peer-to-peer VC entrepreneurs support 341

Hunter Walk

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. One element of venture capital that I don’t think is discussed or appreciated nearly enough is “founder-investor fit”.

venture capital 85

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 85

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. They said they’d call references but haven’t? Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital. This post covers the day after. Do the market sizing analysis for them and send it.

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 2, 2010

But I strive to impact the lives of many more through hours of coaching entrepreneurs, challenging people to be better, making human connections for people or providing timely advice. Your advice made a difference.&#. I’m not a saint who wakes up every day trying to make the lives of other people better.

consulting 352

consulting peer-to-peer advice entrepreneurs 352

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

And chances are you’re in big need of a killer customer reference. It also is a great way to finance your business without facing dilution before you actually raise venture capital and when the valuation you might get from angels is less than you’d want.

support 321

support strategy venture capital accelerator 321

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Selling tons of “shelfware” (customers who buy but don’t use your software) and thus having bad customer references. Startup Advice' In the Early Days. Photo credit from 500px.

board 325

board media mentorship advice 325

Hunter Walk

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. I gave this advice to a couple entrepreneurs once that were killing themselves trying to find away to keep their company from going to zero. Reporting out in batches of five.

venture capital 74

venture capital ventures capital board 74

Hunter Walk

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. When people want to better understand it to raise capital from folks who can help, they are best served accepting the annoying bespoke/boutique nature of it and handling it accordingly.

venture capital 73

venture capital capital ventures VC 73

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Gaetano Crupi is a partner at venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab. This is one of the lessons I wish I understood when raising a Series B, so I hope you find this advice helpful when you navigate your larger raises. Gaetano Crupi. Contributor. More posts by this contributor.

founder 97

founder strategy pitching venture capital 97

StartupNation

JUNE 1, 2021

Oftentimes, I read articles offering tips for entrepreneurs that revolve around generic advice on getting started. However, what is often direly needed is how to appeal to investors and raise smart money — knowledge that is essential for fundraising and a master key to building, accelerating and scaling your new venture. Keep it short.

entrepreneurs 109

entrepreneurs pitching construction accelerator 109

TechCrunch

MAY 3, 2021

One thing that recruited me was this brilliance that we can kill two birds with one stone,” she said, referring to Duolingo’s original translation-service business model we talked about in part one of this EC-1. “It She invested because of Duolingo’s growth and engagement numbers, but confronted von Ahn with some direct advice.

peer-to-peer 116

peer-to-peer education culture venture capital 116

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.

advice 110

advice ventures sustainability investing 110

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. Additionally, Do you have any other advice for anyone looking to start a fund?

ventures 97

ventures startup VC strategy 97

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.

ventures 371

ventures startup venture capital pitching 371

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. “The invoicing company” “When they started, they didn’t position themselves so much as a startup or as a tech company,” recalls Skype founder Niklas Zennström, whose venture capital firm Atomico would eventually become a Klarna investor in 2012.

investing 143

investing investment media mix-use 143

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Lak Ananth is founding CEO and managing partner of the global venture capital firm Next47 and serves on the board of several companies that he has helped to grow beyond $1 billion valuations. Not all money is created equal: A VC’s advice for founders. Share on Twitter. More posts by this contributor.

founder 79

founder board advice investing 79

TechCrunch

MARCH 29, 2023

But when he announced his new project, Hampton , an invite-only club for chief executive officers, the references started rolling. He and his co-founder have pledged to invest up to seven figures of their own capital in the business, and as a result, they don’t need to turn to investors for starter capital.

communities 99

communities leadership media ventures 99

TechCrunch

MARCH 12, 2021

Last week, Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed experts who had some strategic advice for finding the right time to bring a product manager on board. As Roblox began to trade Wednesday, the company’s shares shot above its reference price of $45 per share. Image Credits: Steve Jennings / Getty Images.

startup 106

startup collaboration sustainability SaaS 106

FundersClub

JUNE 12, 2017

Venture capital investing offers different challenges than those associated with tech entrepreneurship, but Alex Mittal, co-founder and CEO of FundersClub, approached the sphere of venture capital the same way he did as a tech founder previously: is there a better way to do this? There are a lot of inefficiencies in VC.

VC 93

VC venture capital networking founder 93

TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

I asked five early-stage investors to share frank advice for first-timers, and I’m going to save you some time: many (if not most) of you are probably not ready to pitch an investor. Please share one piece of advice that can help a first-time founder stand out from the rest.

pitching 98

pitching incubation board opportunity 98

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.

peer-to-peer 59

peer-to-peer pitching advice economic growth 59

TechCrunch

APRIL 16, 2021

But since I’ve never actually done those things, I would encourage you to ignore any advice I have to offer. Trusted advice comes from experience. During a seed-funding round, a founder needs to convince a venture capital investor on a vision. Building the right team for a billion-dollar startup.

venture capital 68

venture capital mix-use financing finance 68

TechCrunch

JUNE 1, 2022

This includes AR smartglasses and VR headsets, but also smartphone apps — collectively referred to as XR , or extended reality. Reeves’ decision to take this extension capital despite still having money left from its last round is also in line with a lot of the advice we have been hearing from investors lately.

health 99

health enablement advice support 99

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. But it got me thinking about how often entrepreneurs overplay their PR so I thought I’d try to offer some advice and how to play PR with VCs (or more broadly with customers or business development partners).

VC 291

VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 291

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?

SaaS 82

SaaS pitching advice VC 82