Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

Paul Martino, General Partner at Bullpen Capital. During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital?

ventures 334

ventures startup capital board 334

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 29, 2016

Assuming they weren't unethical and they met your character standard, you went into a pitch with the goal of getting money from this person, and they didn't get there. It doesn't pay to look at it any other way--and I think too many founders focus on the investor as the problem versus their pitch or their company. Same with pitching.

founder 244

founder pitching board investing 244

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 5, 2019

It’s not actually surprising that investors bought into it, considering that for a long time, VCs have focused on one particular archtype of leader as being more worthy of venture investment than others—the bold, confident visionary who will talk big in the pitch meeting. that same founder will give the most unequivocal, most confident “Yes!”

founder 170

founder pitching leadership culture 170

David Teten VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

I’m surprised at how many funding pitches I get which lack some of the basic information which investors require before funding. 50% of these meetings led to pitches to individual partners. About 30% of partner pitches led to full partnership pitches. Raising capital is about quality of outreach, not quantity.

pitching 53

pitching ventures VC capital 53

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Sequoia’s Jess Lee will talk you through how to get that first investor on board, which will more often than not get other investors excited about the prospect of working with you. Peter Boyce II (Stellation Capital). Pitch Deck Teardown. Lotti Siniscalco (Emergence Capital). Nailing Your Series A. Wedge to TAM.

pitching 87

pitching SaaS health construction 87

TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

CB Insights recently found that two of the largest global VC firms, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, actually backed more fintech companies in 2022 than any other category. How do you prefer to receive pitches? In both cases, about 25% of their overall investments went into fintech startups.

advice 110

advice ventures sustainability investing 110

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. So how can a relatively junior VC hope to add any value to an investment and on a board--and is it enough value that you should have one on your board?

VC 275

VC peer-to-peer board advice 275

TechCrunch

APRIL 28, 2022

We kicked off a series of pitch deck teardowns, and we are looking for startups that want to have their pitch decks reviewed. Judge sides with Elon Musk : He is probably going to win with the Twitter deal, but he can definitely put a checkmark in the “win” category here. Get involved! Oh Snap! :

pitching 94

pitching media board VC 94

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Tiger Global is leading the Series A, with participation also from previous backers Notion Capital, Foundation Capital, Y Combinator (Easol was in the S18 batch ) and FMZ Ventures — which is led by Michael Zeisser, the former chairman of U.S. Zeisser is also joining the board.). investments at Alibaba.

mix-use 83

mix-use pitching opportunity board 83

TechCrunch

MARCH 4, 2022

Unless you’re a former CIO who already has a clear understanding of the decision-making process, you can only fall back on basic best practices that usually result in a generic sales pitch: “How do you do, fellow CIOs?” So that definitely stretched me in many ways.” Walter Thompson. Senior Editor, TechCrunch+. .

strategy 79

strategy venture capital ventures disruption 79

Ecosystem Builder Hub

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

I now realize a better approach is to take the time to set the scope as well as some parameters and definitions. Just because you accelerate businesses, that doesn’t make you an accelerator in our definition,” said Weissmann. “In Take the time to thoughtfully design your approach (definition, target group, scope & method).

entrepreneurial ecosystem 124

entrepreneurial ecosystem collaboration communities data collection 124

TechCrunch

JUNE 23, 2022

But climate change is definitely exacerbating it big time,” she said. Plus, having Hunt on board with his decades of experience didn’t hurt when it came time to pitch them. . “I quickly realized this is a climate-related issue,” Wolff said.

SaaS 102

SaaS consulting ventures collaboration 102

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Undaunted, he went back to work, got some great partners on board, and kept plugging away. Geolocation is so 2009.

VC 188

VC venture capital media board 188

TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2022

“If you believe VR and immersive computing is the future — whether for consumer or business use cases — Activision helps Microsoft build a flywheel of content and technology that gets more users on board to this future.”. The trick, according to Prashant Fonseka, a partner at Tuesday Capital: only ask easy questions.

VC 80

VC incubation angel investing investing 80

TechCrunch

JANUARY 15, 2023

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it definitely caught my attention for a few reasons. He told me: “The question I have is who will capitalize on this bear market to scoop up valuable technology or talent. To bring some context around all this M&A, I conducted an email interview with Jonah Crane , partner at Klaros Group.

incumbents 117

incumbents energy board investing 117

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Undaunted, he went back to work, got some great partners on board, and kept plugging away. Ok, so we’re all doing social TV now.

VC 150

VC venture capital media board 150

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 25, 2023

That includes investing way earlier than they would normally, investing outside of scope, investing with their personal capital outside of the fund, etc. Let’s first talk about the definition of a co-founder. Given the fact that the money you raise will mostly go to making hires, by definition, all teams are incomplete.

founder 368

founder VC board pitching 368

TechCrunch

JANUARY 12, 2021

I’ve heard more than one tech person complain about how a lot of what is pitched and peddled as AI is not really that. Others are using what others may call AI but in the definition of what AI actually is, it is not.” all previous backers) also participating. A lot of that, however, can be misleading.

SaaS 68

SaaS financing finance pitching 68

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur last week about how he decided which VCs he was going to pitch. I try and respond to pitches right away. Whenever an early stage entrepreneur tells me they're not raising capital, I always say, "Ok, well, I was going to give you $2mm on $20mm pre, but since you're not raising."

VC 303

VC pitching entrepreneurs networking 303

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.

development 85

development economic environments hospitality board 85

Entrepreneur's Handbook

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Take a densely packed forest, add a steep pitch, and throw in a couple feet of fresh snow, and I’m in heaven. My concerns about this potential outcome, which I handicapped would most likely happen later in 2023, has led me to keep my spare capital in money market funds and short-dated US Treasury bills. Its intended destination?

hospitality 104

hospitality investing investment advice 104

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?” There’s risks.”

startup 337

startup entrepreneurs consulting board 337

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 3, 2021

For example, for me, I didn’t just put in “e-mail time”, I divided up the amount of time I spend responding to entrepreneur pitches in e-mail vs other types of e-mail, which I labeled “correspondence”. I wanted to keep an eye on the overall work hour tally because I definitely have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew.

pitching 301

pitching board media consulting 301

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 3, 2013

After the investment closed, the founders wanted to renege on that part of the agreement , but the board asked the duo to meet some of the valley’s top CEOs. By definition, these roles are management roles, not individual contributor roles so the tactical tests aren’t the right ones. Eventually, they found and hired Eric.

culture 40

culture pitching board enablement 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Let’s say it’s for biz dev purposes, or you’re pitching investors, recruiting, or it’s a sales meeting – whatever. I like board meetings at your place so we can pull in other team members and hear from them. You can definitely ask senior people to dinners (VCs, senior execs at companies, etc.)

peer-to-peer 397

peer-to-peer advice VC networking 397

AsiaTechDaily

AUGUST 22, 2023

Or even if they are aware, vague definitions of royalty rights make it hard for them to receive a share of the revenue.” ” Getting artists back on board with NFTs The first challenge for the startup was bringing musicians onboard to the Remix NFT model. Instead, we should find a way to flow with them. Music was the answer.”

founder 70

founder communities creativity collaboration 70

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Definitely not. Wouldn’t you feel more confident about negotiating a big business development deal when you’ve got a supportive board of experienced people behind you telling you that this is going to be good for the company? Major league baseball players have trainers.

pitching 262

pitching board entrepreneurs financing 262

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 sit on a board with Howard Morgan of FRC and I can tell you this guy works harder than most and has a punishing travel schedule.

VC 283

VC real estate advice venture capital 283

TechCrunch

MAY 7, 2021

Through AaaS, managed services providers (MSPs) can help organizations get started on their analytics journey immediately without extravagant capital investment. Flywire, a Boston-based magnet for venture capital, filed to go public Monday. Fintech venture capital activity has been hot lately, which makes the Flywire IPO interesting.

SaaS 98

SaaS mix-use health peer-to-peer 98

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. Spend time researching your buyers and not just pitching them. I never suggest that entrepreneurs just randomly pitch VCs.

strategy 366

strategy development VC advice 366

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. They achieved all of this before they raised even a penny of venture capital. Absofuckinglutely.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

I know, because those people all used to pitch me as an institutional LP back in the day. What I'm not good at--or, rather, simply haven't done yet, is sit on a board for seven years helping a company go from $20mm in revenue to $100 million in revenue. If you're a multi-stage investor, I get this.

strategy 248

strategy VC ventures financing 248

TechCrunch

MAY 2, 2023

Come to TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, and pitch in front of a room full of fellow startups and — definitely more importantly — investors. Startups and VC Ann Lai, a general partner at Bullpen Capital, says she has been fired from the firm, Natasha M reports. Maybe one of y’all can explain it to us.

board 85

board pitching construction disruption 85

Y Combinator

MAY 22, 2019

90% of total commerce happens in these small mom and pop stores, and for every small shop that you see there are 99 other people who always wanted to start a store but just never could get capital. Most people do not have access to capital. You have to go back to the drawing board and understand, why are people calling me, right?

founder 55

founder communities startup ecosystem enablement 55

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. You’re not lecturing to a college class, you’re not at a cocktail party and you’re not chatting with a small group in a board meeting. It definitely is an IQ test thing for me. You’re on stage! Are you a moron?

advice 362

advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

Y Combinator

MAY 29, 2019

We had a whole bunch of these funny meetings where we’re trying to get in front of them to pitch them on a product and they’re happy to take the meeting because they want to hear about what we do. ” A good example of this would be if you are, so as a VC somebody comes in and pitches you. Bird comes in and pitches you.

investing 57

investing investment VC pitching 57

TechCrunch

AUGUST 23, 2022

billion pool of capital to work by backing early-stage web3 companies. with Vanessa Larco (NEA), Kanyi Maqubela (Kindred Ventures), Jordan Nof (Tusk Venture Partners), Bryan Offutt (Index Ventures) and Ulili Onovakpuri (Kapor Capital). Hear from Dixon about how a16z crypto is putting its massive $7.6 with Dylan Field (Figma).

disruption 81

disruption pitching VC ventures 81