Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. By Monday morning after their board meeting in NorCal I didn’t get a return phone call. As the founder & CEO I personally went and met with as many people at Thames Water as I could. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

In marketing materials founders often refer to their customer base as a “community”, but there’s a huge gap between having customers and creating a community. they could invest in entrepreneurial communities and the best founders would then bring in new founders. It’s no wonder they’ve both performed so well.

communities 234

communities peer-to-peer venture capital enablement 234

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. By Monday morning after their board meeting in NorCal I didn’t get a return phone call. As the founder & CEO I personally went and met with as many people at Thames Water as I could. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

StartupNation

JULY 5, 2025

Syed Balkhi , Founder, WPBeginner Showcase Real-World Impact and Metrics When pitching to investors, especially in the early stages, it’s easy to focus solely on financials — but in today’s landscape, especially in beauty and wellness, impact is a currency of its own. If you’re pitching impact, make it real.

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pitching advice hospitality frameworks 52

TechCrunch

APRIL 1, 2022

Perfect pitch, a singer’s ability to produce any given musical note without a reference tone, is a rare phenomenon — only 1-5 people out of every 10,000 have it. While your odds of creating a perfect pitch deck that captures coveted VC interest aren’t quite that dire, they’re not exactly in your favor, either.

pitching 89

pitching VC construction venture capital 89

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. More posts by this contributor. 8 disappointing investor archetypes.

founder 79

founder board advice investing 79

OnStartups

MARCH 24, 2021

My thesis was: I’d get to brainstorm and strategize with the founders, but then I’d get to hand their baby back to them and go back to my (so called) life. During the first week of that class, we all had to do a short pitch of a startup idea and convince our classmates to join our “startup”. No board seats or advisory roles.

angel investing 125

angel investing investment investing pitching 125

Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 15, 2023

There are a lot of tools that can help, but each has limitations: The Business Model Canvas identifies the big picture hypotheses of your venture… but struggles to help you ID what is needed to get all your key stakeholders on board. As you validate hypothesis, you mark them, highlighting what work is done and what is yet-to-be done.

funders 130

funders innovation pitching ventures 130

TechCrunch

MAY 11, 2021

As the company’s CEO and co-founder Shail Mehta explained in a TC Early Stage pitch-off earlier this year, The Last Gameboard is a 16-inch square touchscreen device with a custom OS and a sophisticated method of tracking game pieces and hand movements. This has been updated.).

social gaming 136

social gaming pitching VC innovation 136

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 4, 2023

One founder even told me over drinks and fancy snacks that they weren’t worried about losing talent — because those who leave just because there’s an in-person mandate weren’t truly mission-driven to begin with. While some founders are clearly set on a return, others are confused. As always, you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

founder 92

founder consulting VC construction 92

TechCrunch

AUGUST 15, 2021

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy founded theBoardlist , a premium talent marketplace that helps diverse leaders get discovered for board and executive opportunities. A technology executive and entrepreneur, board member and investor, she has 25 years of experience founding and helping to scale companies, including Google, Amazon and Yodlee.

board 98

board pitching funders opportunity 98

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. But I would hope that a reasonably competent founder could easily educate herself about what information an investor wants with some basic research. Here’s our checklist: Overview. The first page.

pitching 53

pitching ventures VC capital 53

Feedough

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

150Birds can be referred to as Uber for freelance marketing services. It charges $99 for its services of strategic guidance and mediator and $65/hr for every expert that gets on board. 150birds CEO and founder Rick Koletavitoglu was a marketing consultant curating and managing marketing teams for high-growth startups in Silicon Valley.

startup 119

startup creativity strategy SaaS 119

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 3, 2020

will hand-hold you through the process of building a super savvy customer service robot, is the pitch. can still offer a compelling sales pitch to businesses with more “consultative” customer support needs, where automation will only be able to play a far more limited role. will do the same for customer service.”

support 109

support consulting accelerator pitching 109

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

The funding is being led by Target Global, which is being described as a “co-founder” of the startup, alongside the other two co-founders Pierre Poignant and Michael Ronen. SellerX raises $118M to buy up and grow Amazon marketplace businesses.

mix-use 100

mix-use opportunity pitching strategy 100

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

He serves on the boards of OCEANIX, Atom Computing, Conscious Cultures and MycoWorks. Getting serious about Series B: 3 documents that will help founders control the narrative. Now, I want to highlight how founders can tie these materials together for investors. The DDQ offers a good reference guide for such simple questions.

board 97

board venture capital culture capital 97

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

We had every reference client we worked with call their senior team members (we had already won a major project at Scottish Water, Anglian Water and another at a large water company in Paris, France). As the founder & CEO I personally went and met with as many people at Thames Water as I could. We talked with lawyers.

consulting 151

consulting advice collaboration support 151

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. How do you prefer to receive pitches? How has your investment thesis changed over the last year?

advice 110

advice ventures sustainability investment 110

TechCrunch

MARCH 15, 2022

It’s identical to what’s happening in Africa: Less than 1% of all VC dollars went toward startups with one or more women founders last year, according to The Big Deal , which details investments in Africa. Why aren’t female founders getting a bigger piece of the pie? Tebogo Mokwena , co-founder and CEO, Akiba Digital.

VC 115

VC founder networking investing 115

Entrepreneur's Handbook

JULY 8, 2022

teams usually outperform individuals or groups of individuals) but very few Founder CEOs are skilled at creating a high-performing senior leadership team. If you are a sports fan, you will have regularly heard how important it is to have a team of leaders on the pitch, not just rely on one. High performing teams have more fun!

leadership 52

leadership founder sustainability collaboration 52

TechCrunch

APRIL 26, 2022

Lead generation is a critical cornerstone in the world of sales — in a seemingly infinite sea of potential customers, you need to know who wants to buy, or who might buy, what you are selling so that you can focus your pitches (and your time and energy) in a more focused way. He’s also joining Qualified’s board with this round.

energy 83

energy ventures media culture 83

TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2022

There are many ways of spinning up a startup, but it takes a particularly brave set of founders to take on a deeply entrenched industry with a small number of incumbents who have the market all sown up. Armed with a handful of patents and some cool reference speakers (i.e. And every year, it falls flat. Image Credits: Mayht.

startup 89

startup disruption innovation energy 89

StartupNation

JUNE 7, 2021

For founders and entrepreneurs building up their business, the initial startup stage typically focuses on the product, technology or service offering. Today, I am an angel investor as well as a board member and advisor to early-stage companies. You’re energized by your idea and engrossed in building the best business concepts possible.

strategy 111

strategy real estate entrepreneurs investment 111

Leapfunder

JUNE 5, 2025

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angel investing 39

angel investing networking VC investment 39

Leapfunder

JUNE 5, 2025

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angel investing 39

angel investing networking VC investment 39

Leapfunder

JUNE 5, 2025

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angel investing 39

angel investing networking VC investment 39

David Teten VC

APRIL 30, 2021

This can be particularly helpful for founders who do not come from a wealthy background, who may not be able to afford going without income for an 18 month fundraising period. You have a primary point of failure, and a really dominant anchor means you have a boss, which most founders are trying to avoid. Greater risk.

VC 98

VC venture capital capital investing 98

Leapfunder

JUNE 5, 2025

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technology 39

technology angel investing networking VC 39

Leapfunder

JUNE 5, 2025

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angel investing 39

angel investing networking VC investment 39

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Zeisser is also joining the board.). She said they thus refer to the category with a distinct term: “experience commerce.” investments at Alibaba. All this is sufficiently specialized enough, Lisa added, that they didn’t feel it really existed in the complex way that experience creators needed it to.

mix-use 83

mix-use pitching opportunity board 83

Leapfunder

JUNE 5, 2025

If you want to learn more or withdraw your consent to all or some of the cookies, please refer to the cookie policy. But job boards, LinkedIn, and social media own the gate. This spells out our use of functional, analytical and tracking cookies. You pay to search. You pay to contact. You keep paying to reach what’s already yours.

hospitality 39

hospitality angel investing networking VC 39

TechCrunch

JULY 14, 2021

So here are all of the bacteria and fungi and importantly what is the relative amount of each of those bacteria,” explains CEO and co-founder Priyanka Jain, noting that users also get their test data in a downloadable format so they can take the information to their healthcare provider if they wish.

health 103

health support data analysis education 103

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 30, 2021

Several times in my investing life, as the final board member making the arrangements to dispose of remaining assets, I have literally been the one to turn out the lights, carry out the documents, books and records to my car, and become the only remaining contact between the failed business and the investors, bankruptcy court, or creditors.

consulting 62

consulting pitching entrepreneurs board 62

Red Rocket

MAY 11, 2021

I recently stumbled on this great article below from my good colleague, David Gardner (pictured), the founder and General Partner at Co-Founders Capital , one of the most active early-stage venture capital firms in the Southeast, based in the Raleigh-Durham area. Our CEO can deliver a convincing investor pitch deck and plan.

startup 52

startup board construction creativity 52

Y Combinator

MAY 30, 2024

While adding in-app subscriptions to an iOS application, RevenueCat’s co-founders realized they were spending a ton of time building out the behind-the-scenes plumbing. I recently sat down with RevenueCat co-founder and CEO Jacob Eiting to learn more about company's origin story. They were fun for us. They were toys.

energy 98

energy founder development technology 98

David Teten VC

JANUARY 23, 2021

The next best move is to build your core team, e.g., recruit an Advisory Board, Venture Partners, and EIRs. Yohei Nakajima, Founder of Untapped.vc , said, “Before pitching LPs and building my firm, I talked with over 50 people I knew to get feedback.” . For your reference, here is our current deck (link).”

venture capital 59

venture capital capital ventures VC 59

David Teten VC

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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investment investing VC SaaS 49