Dream It

MAY 19, 2021

In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Director Adam Dakin presents his view on the right way to answer it after hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of founder pitches. Make the specific amount you are raising and corresponding milestones clear at the beginning of the pitch, and do not give a range. The amount you're raising is your ask.

pitching 393

pitching board health VC 393

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 17, 2016

Now that they have to go back into the market next year to pitch their own fund, they're going to have to answer some tough questions about valuations. They might be doing board meetings more frequently, coaching first time founders through layoffs and debating with their partners which companies they should bridge until things thaw out.

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VC pitching board capital 220

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. Then I realized that it's probably not obvious what the dynamics are around how VCs tend to get introduced to companies and what works best for people, so I figured I'd blog about it. The Cold Intro. If I don't.

VC 289

VC pitching entrepreneurs networking 289

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2014

These are things that other VCs think about, but founders who come to pitch don''t think about too much. as a VC, sometimes your own website becomes an afterthought. How many more investments could I do? How where things going? That''s also why I''m finally launching a real website at brooklynbridge.vc. So there ya go.

pitching 412

pitching board VC opportunity 412

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Over the last two and a half months in the hospital, I’ve actually been fairly productive—no doubt setting the record for VC term sheets offered literally from inside the NICU (three). She’s even been on several board calls already and last week showed up on her first pitch call. Home is a different story.

hospitality 469

hospitality board energy pitching 469

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

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. I have sat on a board with Howard and have known him a few years. It is clear that he is simply passionate about being a VC and participating in this industry.

capital 284

capital board VC pitching 284

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 25, 2023

Does the VC think that a designer needs to be on the team from day one if you’re going to build a better version of Instagram? Does the VC think that a machine learning engineer needs to be there to build a real version of Tony Stark’s Jarvis? That’s fair. Let’s first talk about the definition of a co-founder.

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founder VC board pitching 364

Dream It

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Keep reading for some more of the most common mistakes startups make when pitching and for Steve’s tips on how to fix them. Investors want to hear, “Our unique insight is __”… in your pitch 2. VCs are judging your ability to sell If you are running a B2B company, investors know that you need to “sell” to potential early adopters.

startup founder 397

startup founder founder startup pitching 397

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.

VC 308

VC pitching entrepreneurs advice 308

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

Try and figure out exactly what a startup had to show at the moment a VC chose to invest in them. Half the time, founders were pitching a completely different idea than what took off--so the VC who looks brilliant for funding the latest viral app really funded a B2B product that never took off. They don't stress test.

advice 412

advice startup VC strategy 412

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. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. We are their sparring partners, their sounding boards.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 23, 2018

I've seen this so many times over: A founder pitches a VC, or several of them, and then they come back from that process with all sorts of new strategy goals or worries that they need to be doing something differently. So why is this feedback seemingly all over the board?

VC 155

VC advice pitching strategy 155

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

The perverse nature of raising capital is that “no’s” almost always precede “yeses” because it’s very easy for a VC to tell you that you’re not a good fit without doing any real work to evaluate your company so you hear “no” far before others start doing more work. By the end the buyer forgets why they loved your presentation.

pitching 238

pitching VC mix-use entrepreneurs 238

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

People like Vinod Khosla, Keith Rabois, Brian Singerman, Marc Andreessen and others have all made head-scratching private comments to me that sounded so foreign to what I thought other people were doing in VC that they caused me to challenge and ultimately change some of my own views. In the End Go with Your Gut.

advice 407

advice frameworks startup mix-use 407

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

VC 275

VC venture capital pitching board 275

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Sometimes it pays to jump on board before a lot of big questions have been answered—simply because you can feel the market starting to notice it and create mindshare momentum. I remember one day last summer when Dennis Crowley and I both went to pitch the same biz dev partner—me with Path 101 and him with Foursquare.

VC 186

VC venture capital media board 186

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Luckily for aspirational baseball players, pitch velocity, spin rate, and just about every other aspect of playing baseball are highly quantifiable in real-time. You throw a pitch and you don’t find out the speed for a year or even longer. That pitch you threw a year ago, that was 92. Actually, it’s even worse than that.

pitching 243

pitching peer-to-peer board VC 243

Dream It

MAY 4, 2021

In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Director Adam Dakin reveals the right approach on how to answer the valuation question when pitching VCs. Valuation is not set by you, your team, your investors, or your board. It’s important to understand VC Math 101. Most early-stage VC’s are aiming for a 5-10x return.

VC 300

VC board pitching health 300

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. As an investor, it’s easy to come into a board meeting asking probing questions, demanding information, and sharing your opinion without first having built up a base of trust.

venture capital 413

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 413

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Board Meetings. 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? I want to make sure that my sixth year as a VC doesn’t just become an automatic continuation of what I’ve done in my first 5 years.

creativity 400

creativity venture capital entrepreneurs board 400

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2011

Advisors, investors and board members come in all shapes and sizes. I'm a strong believer in having a board, even at a seed stage, to report to and set strategy with. The most successful companies have strong boards and so as a good housekeeping practice, why not start acting like a great company as early as possible.

board 278

board advice consulting angel investing 278

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 16, 2012

His story of overcoming child abuse, a missing arm ligament, a decade in the minors and going on to reinvent himself in his mid-30's using a pitch few have mastered is nothing short of inspirational. Oh, did I mention it turns out he's been pitching with a torn abdominal muscle all season? The movie centers around a lawsuit.

pitching 261

pitching frameworks construction consulting 261

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

They now have a strong VC lead from Foundry Group and from experience when you get advice from Foundry it comes with authority, experience, empathy and the right amount of straight talk. Another founder … “When I pitched the idea to Adam, he was super on board,” Mr. Sloyan said. All of my partners at Upfront do.

startup 323

startup advice pitching VC 323

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? One of the main co-investors was High Peaks capital and one of their team members, the uber talented Rahul Gandhi , loved the deal so much he quit his career as a VC and jumped in as a co-founder. And could we then compete?”

real estate 380

real estate ventures innovation pitching 380

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.

pitching 98

pitching incubation board opportunity 98

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Who was willing to jump on a plan on a Sunday morning with a hang-over to make sure they were there the night before an important biz dev pitch on a Monday morning. Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. My other partner, Steven Dietz, was on the board of my second company.

board 320

board VC construction opportunity 320

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

The most interesting thing I’ve learned by being an investor and sitting on boards & seeing so many company pitches is how different reality of what is going on at companies is from what you’re reading about them in the press. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

angel investing 288

angel investing investment investing advice 288

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

I got three calls from another big name, big check VC. I read the pitch they had sent my friend. I got an email recently from a VC who had invested in a company a small amount in a seed round. And why would it make sense to bring me on board?” He opted for two big VC funds up North who split $1.5 But barely.

advice 333

advice VC pitching investment 333

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Sometimes it pays to jump on board before a lot of big questions have been answered—simply because you can feel the market starting to notice it and create mindshare momentum. I remember one day last summer when Dennis Crowley and I both went to pitch the same biz dev partner—me with Path 101 and him with Foursquare.

VC 150

VC venture capital media board 150

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Improve your pitch: Startup Battlefield isn’t just thrilling to watch; it’s a masterclass in how investors think. All right, here are the final five business Brahmins who will help judge the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. Mar Hershenson , co-founder and managing partner at Pear VC.

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disruption VC ventures startup 91

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

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Board meetings at @amplehills are dangerous. Would we pitch Series A players? It's too easy to think that if you tilt the pitch just a little one way or the other, that's going to make the difference, but that's Monday morning quarterbacking. Did that seed make this round our Series A? Who cares what we called it?

pitching 230

pitching VC investment investing 230

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

On Losing in VC. By Monday morning after their board meeting in NorCal I didn’t get a return phone call. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. You can try to convince them of your “pay no more once you’ve signed up&# model but they fall for the other guy’s pitch every time.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. OK, I know this is true with VC also, but to a lesser extent. One was the hardest working guy on our board and the biggest mensch. I will be on your board but don’t ask me for anything.&# He literally said it that bluntly. I saw this directly.

advice 279

advice venture capital frameworks entrepreneurs 279

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

On Losing in VC. By Monday morning after their board meeting in NorCal I didn’t get a return phone call. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. You can try to convince them of your “pay no more once you’ve signed up&# model but they fall for the other guy’s pitch every time.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Pitching is all about telling a story. The average partner at a VC firm probably meets with at least two or three companies a day. You''ve been to demo days and pitch meetups and read Techcrunch and Mashable about product launches. What the hell are you pitching? You''ve practiced long and hard on how you tell your story.

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pitching venture capital energy technology 288