Dream It

APRIL 7, 2020

The venture fund launched a completely virtual program with a focus on helping 13 Urbantech, Healthtech, and Securetech startups with business development, customer growth, and capital raising in a time of economic uncertainty. View Dreamit’s full portfolio here. pic.twitter.com/oNozwB4OF3 — Dreamit Ventures (@dreamit) March 19, 2020.

ventures 369

ventures accelerator enablement communities 369

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 16, 2021

Led by Jan Heybroek, the closed, coached conversations facilitate shared experiences around one presenter’s specific business challenge in a deep-dive presentation format. Business challenge: Scaling a SaaS business. Dan’s ultimate goal is to scale the business for a lucrative exit in about five years.

SaaS 294

SaaS leadership accelerator entrepreneurs 294

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

I''ve closed three investments in the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures fund that haven''t quite been made public yet, bringing the total to 13 companies. If you''re looking for business development partners, is there a "Partner" section on your website, or a way to capture leads from all the attention?

startup 381

startup construction venture capital financing 381

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 19, 2024

Starting a business is often romanticized as a journey filled with exciting milestones and instant success stories. Yet, as most seasoned entrepreneurs will attest, the reality is far more complex and challenging, particularly when you decide to bootstrap your business. I also did not have a business partner.

finance 255

finance financing entrepreneurship mentorship 255

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. Now we’re down to nine core business functions on a small startup team. Let’s take sales and business development.

creativity 381

creativity financing finance development 381

Dream It

MAY 29, 2019

These types of questions are a part of what’s called a trial close. What’s a trial close? It’s the act of asking your customer for their business and finding out what objections they have to the sale when you do so. A practical example of a trial close is going to buy a new car. source ) What price is it OK to sell at?

pitching 284

pitching VC investment investing 284

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months.

startup 418

startup VC investment venture capital 418

Dream It

MARCH 6, 2020

Does the founder know how to sell into real estate? One thing we look for is an understanding of what it takes to sell into real estate,” states Berman. The best startups listen closely to their customers and adapt to their needs. Is it pure play software or business innovation? Does the founder know their customer?

real estate 406

real estate pitching VC opportunity 406

American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 2, 2024

The two-year-old startup having served approximately 40,000 customers announced the closing of a $21 million Seed funding round to support its AI speech models and an AI voice agent platform. PlayAI accomplishes these significant improvements by using custom large language models (LLMs) trained on an extensive dataset of diverse human speech.

entrepreneurship 98

entrepreneurship enablement media support 98

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

My 3 siblings & I make the trek to spend 4-5 days with the 9 grand children, my mom, my cousin and few other very close family members. I have a close family member who lost her job and was in need of a bit of extra cash while she looked for work. Every year my family meets in San Diego for Thanksgiving. What to do? I paid $2.99

collaboration 344

collaboration VC accelerator consulting 344

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

TrueCar, an LA-based company, sells more cars now than any physical dealer in the country and recently went public and has a $1 billion market cap. There is no question in my mind that getting the startup community located within close proximity of each other has enormous benefits. Indeed we have already seen the beginnings.

startup 390

startup communities venture capital angel capital 390

Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

For many founding teams, pricing is one of the most difficult and complex decisions for the business. Apple sells the latest iPhones at the highest prices, and repackages older models at lower prices to address different customer segments. Salesforce sells CRM seats based on an aggregate ROI of increased sales productivity for example.

SaaS 113

SaaS strategy enablement startup 113

Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

APRIL 24, 2020

The issue on everyone’s minds was how to get their businesses through the current crisis caused by the health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and by the quarantine that has forced them to close their restaurants. And 3) how are they preparing for the day when they can reopen their businesses? Government.

strategy 246

strategy networking health media 246

Dream It

APRIL 3, 2020

In this episode, the two discussed how you can effectively sell in an environment where budgets are being cut, executive decision-makers are distracted with other priorities, and companies are less inclined to invest in innovation. His strategy for selling in 2009 is relevant to any economic downturn.

pitching 221

pitching strategy advice board 221

Y Combinator

APRIL 1, 2025

Tyler knows firsthand what it takes to beat the odds and turn an early-stage idea into a thriving business. He brings a natural talent for connecting with customers, building trust, and closing deals. His famous “ How to Sell ” class remains one of YC’s most-watched videos.

founder 76

founder mentorship entrepreneurship education 76

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

If they don’t – you simply won’t sell anything. If you have a product, knowing who the “typical buyer” by department or title is helps you greatly because you can quickly get to somebody likely to be familiar with the space in which you’re selling. Nothing is worse than maybe or not knowing.

VC 329

VC entrepreneurs investment investing 329

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

To grow faster businesses need resources in today to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months.

startup 227

startup venture capital VC capital 227

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 12, 2020

From donating reusable diapers to manufacturing parts for PPE, businesses are showing us it’s all about taking care of each other. One of our closely held values is ‘win as a team’ and never before has this felt more apt. Out of EO San Diego, Magaly Chocano is a small business owner intent on “paying it forward.”

hospitality 237

hospitality collaboration health support 237

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 15, 2024

Don’t miss our previous posts on How to Protect Your Mental Health When Starting a Business and 5 Strategies To Change Your Inner Dialogue From Critic to Advocate and 3 Steps to Safeguard Your Mental Health and Become a Better, More Effective Leader. I was proud of what my business accomplished, but I wasn’t proud of who I had become.

peer-to-peer 253

peer-to-peer founder health entrepreneurship 253

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 13, 2022

I’m incentivized to buy up as much of the company at as low a price as possible and you’re incentivized to sell as little of the company as possible by raising the price.”. Whenever I submit a term sheet, I always caveat it by saying the following: “This is the one time we’re completely misaligned. Founders seem to get that.

founder 411

founder VC board strategy 411

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

This post is about the “U” or Unique Selling Proposition, which in industry terms is often called a USP. Ideally it will be close to the problems that your prospect is trying to solve. So you need a business case to persuade customers that they should buy now. It’s called ROI (return-on-investment) selling.

advice 336

advice opportunity development investment 336

Dream It

AUGUST 29, 2019

The definition of Exit Strategy from Investopedia: “The method by which a venture capitalist or business owner intends to get out of an investment that he or she has made in the past. Sell the idea that your startup is going to change the world. This should be an easy sell if you believe in your own vision.

strategy 299

strategy VC energy disruption 299

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 15, 2020

In recent months, small business leaders around the world have faced the toughest decisions of their careers. Nearly 40 percent of respondents in a National Small Business Association poll said they were worried about staying afloat much longer after losing income and customers due to COVID-19. Yet here we are. Why the optimism?

opportunity 250

opportunity health education leadership 250

Red Rocket

APRIL 30, 2025

With all the chaos in the economic and financial markets these days, largely around the impact of new tariffs, it is causing unexpected and unfortunate turmoil for many businesses today. Businesses that used to be growing are seeing declines, and businesses that used to be generating healthy profits may now be experiencing losses.

culture 71

culture creativity capital startup 71

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. I have observed from close range many more difficult factors: A co-founder who go through long periods of drinking excessive alcohol. They were close friends, lived down the road and members of our synagogue.

founder 340

founder board culture advice 340

Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

JULY 27, 2021

While it’s true that some businesses are situated in markets where creating a community around their brand is easier for them than others, all businesses or organizations have an audience with which they can create a community. What do I offer in addition to what I sell? How do I complement what I sell? government.

advice 246

advice communities networking health 246

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 12, 2020

We have focused on “direct to learner” businesses and have mostly avoided investing in companies that sell to the established education system. And yet this portfolio will generate close to a half a billion dollars of revenue in 2020. What this tells me is that direct to learner businesses are very attractive.

investment 177

investment investing education strategy 177

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 28, 2022

Brooke is founder and president of Cathedral Capital , which provides strategic financial advice to drive profit by creating customized teams of financial professionals to analyze data trends and guide entrepreneurs through their numbers so they can predictably scale and grow their businesses. They asked how close I was.

entrepreneurs 233

entrepreneurs advice accelerator capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day. Sam & Rahul have worked closely together on “innovate & operate” since the earliest days of MakeSpace. Whereas New York City had people living in close clusters , Chicago and Washington D.C.

innovation 286

innovation startup board leadership 286

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

That’s why having long-term relationships with journalists matters and why having people close to the journalist who can vouch for you. They sell accounting services. But look at what PwC actually does in this report, “ CEO Surveys for Business Growth ” which has a POV, two charts and a video to watch.

mix-use 389

mix-use advice VC technology 389

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 27, 2020

Agonise over whether or not you need business partners. If you can afford it, don’t have business partners. The tenth entrepreneur without the headache is usually the one without a business partner. For me, not having a business partner is one less problem. Ai-Ling Wong—founder at The Decorateur. Measure Twice.

advice 325

advice entrepreneurs creativity culture 325

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 21, 2021

Contributed by Vincent Finaldi, an EO New Jersey member and vice president of TeleCloud , a second-generation business that provides seamless VoIP communications solutions. Small businesses are significant contributors to the economy of nearly every country. The odds are stacked against small, family-owned businesses.

founder 286

founder financing finance investment 286

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 16, 2023

In December 2022, my co-founder and I closed a friends and family seed round for Popsmith , raising US$1.53 She did everything she could to make ends meet — cutting hair during the week and making and selling jewelry at night and on weekends. I discovered that I had a knack for business at a very young age. Business is hard.

entrepreneurs 180

entrepreneurs entrepreneurship health support 180

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Nothing seems to apply--you're not a tech company, you bootstrapped your way to millions in revenues before taking on capital, and you sell mostly through brick and mortar. Rounds aren't close--they either happen or they don't, and an investor on the fence is a pass. Closing this round was a real team effort.

pitching 230

pitching VC investment investing 230

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. VC is a long-term business Some businesses are overnight successes but few of them really move immediately up and to the right.

VC 223

VC venture capital investment capital 223

Dream It

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

To put your company in the ‘buy’ bucket, you’ll have to show that your product adds significant value to their business. Instead, you will be able to sell on your own terms at the optimal point in time for the company. M&A Insight #3 VCs aren’t going to build your business, you’re going to build your business.

board 195

board VC strategy construction 195

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 18, 2020

Is your business struggling due to the pandemic? While business may be slow, client outreach must never slow. FOCUS ON SPREADING POSITIVITY, NOT SELLING. She shares, “when COVID and the first round of lockdowns hit us, as a skin clinic, we were forced to close our doors. You’re not alone. Re-model to thrive.

health 276

health education media support 276