TechCrunch

AUGUST 18, 2023

Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members Use discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription “Starting a tech company today costs 99% less than it did 18 years ago when Y Combinator was started,” says Brett Calhoun, managing director and general partner at Redbud VC.

VC 81

VC frameworks mix-use pitching 81

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

How long does it take from first meeting a VC to getting cash in the bank? If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data. If you meet someone at a pitch event, they''ve already got a company and they''re looking to close as quickly as possible.

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VC pitching networking venture capital 418

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog was wiped out. And covered we did.

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VC venture capital pitching capital 274

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2010

Personally, I find pitch events to be a little bit contrived. However, the innovation community seems to be in love with this format, so you can’t be a VC without watching a bunch of them. For the most part, while the companies may be interesting, the actual pitches are usually so-so. Those stand out. That's why I have a job.

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pitching VC technology communities 327

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I’m comfortable with introductions and then getting into the demo.&#.

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VC board pitching venture capital 299

David Teten VC

JULY 27, 2021

We have collected a wide range of freebies, contests, accelerators, online communities, and VCs designed for student tech founders. I have been researching this both to support Versatile VC ’s portfolio companies and also as part of research for my new book, To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear. 1) Your school.

founder 144

founder mentorship peer-to-peer pitching 144

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. ” The other Paul Graham quote from the article is this: “The other thing they say is that they can’t tell on Demo Day which are the good start-ups.

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VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 347

TechCrunch

APRIL 9, 2021

Scale’s story starts with a pivot, and with a bit of rule-breaking, too — Wang went off the typical YC book by speaking to investors prior to demo day when Levine cold-emailed him after seeing Scale on Product Hunt. The Product Hunt spot wasn’t planned, either — Wang was as surprised to see his company there as anyone else.

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VC pitching financing finance 96

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC.&#. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. A large part of my series has been outlining what the typical VC PowerPoint presentation should look like. You want to build a dialogue where you get to know the VC with whom you’re meeting.

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VC advice pitching venture capital 238

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. They make progress.

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VC pitching advice venture capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

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VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Throughout all of these years I was a full-time VC so Launchpad really came out of evenings and weekends for me. Adam had a full time startup and then was doing consulting (he later raised a VC fund). And Jim & I went on to raise several more venture capital funds in our day jobs. Demo’d to death.

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accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about the new career path to CEO, our favorite startups from Techstars Demo Day and the latest SPAC you should probably know about. A triple-hitter Demo Day. TechCrunch covered favorites from Techstars’ three Demo Days, which were focused on Chicago, Boston and workforce development.

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startup financing finance creativity 127

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2023

I’ve been among the group of TechCrunchers watching pitch after pitch at Y Combinator’s Demo Day. Startups and VC Meal replacement startup Yfood did a thing today. Connie notes that the market might be slowing, but venture capital firms are continuing to amass big funds, as we also saw S2G Ventures do today.

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pitching venture capital VC media 96

TechCrunch

MARCH 25, 2023

However, that’s what we’re seeing happen in the solo GP world, where investors, hearing about institutional investor risk appetite changing, are extending fundraising timelines, cutting investment vehicle targets or planning to leave venture altogether. In the rest of this newsletter we’re talking AI, icons and demo days.

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pitching construction energy investing 93

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

But over the years, it has forced Floodgate’s small team to sort through many thousands of pitches and identify those it thinks have the most potential. Somewhat relatedly, Y Combinator just wrapped up its latest Demo Day. VC Ann Miura-Ko is looking to help more students answer the question: Is this idea big enough?

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VC networking incubation investing 96

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

Startups and VC. Denver-based VC firm SpringTime Ventures is pivoting away from its original focus on its home state of Colorado, despite being the only local fund in two of the state’s 10 unicorn companies, Becca reports. Three more from the TC+ team: Smart dog collars, smart pitch deck? Hitting rock bottom…maybe?

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capital investing investment pitching 99

TechCrunch

MARCH 30, 2023

Cashing in on the generative AI frenzy : In Kyle ’s second top story of the day, Fixie, backed by $17 million in venture capital, wants to make it easier for companies to build on top of language models. Startups and VC “Our story starts 15 years ago,” Frédéric Utzmann, founder and CEO of Effy, told Romain.

energy 99

energy venture capital strategy pitching 99

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. What stage?

advice 361

advice VC pitching entrepreneurs 361

David Teten VC

AUGUST 20, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. In addition, their portfolios look far more diverse than VC industry norms. Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs?

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founder investing investment venture capital 74

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

The idea is simple enough: several female VC partners at top funds will hold 1-hour meetings with 40 promising female entrepreneurs looking to get advice on their business and pitch in a friendly, non-judgmental, safe environment. 8% of VC partnerships, for example). Now 33% of Supreme Court Justices are women (vs.

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founder peer-to-peer mentorship VC 256

TechCrunch

APRIL 13, 2022

TC Sessions: Mobility will feature speakers on the main stage, a bevy of startup exhibits, demos, networking and a live pitch-off with a pretty sweet prize. Buy your general admission or early-stage startup demo package today before prices increase. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off.

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micromobility transportation pitching collaboration 82

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

It turns out that while later-stage investors, mostly international VC firms, grabbed headlines by writing immense checks, pre-seed and seed-stage investors were instrumental to the growth of the continent’s tech ecosystem. The most active African investors were involved in 15-20 deals, according to a report on African VC activity in 2022.

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startup ecosystem startup incubation VC 96

TechCrunch

APRIL 12, 2022

TC Sessions: Mobility will feature speakers on the main stage, a bevy of startup exhibits, demos, networking and a live pitch-off with a pretty sweet prize. Buy your general admission or early-stage startup demo package today before prices increase. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off.

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micromobility transportation pitching collaboration 78

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

This class of investor, once quite disorganized, has become much like the venture capital community, creating a process including due diligence (careful examination of a business before investment), terms of investment that match those of venture capitalists, and a process that sometimes takes months from introduction to investment.

accelerator 118

accelerator mix-use financing finance 118

TechCrunch

APRIL 15, 2022

TC Sessions: Mobility will feature speakers on the main stage, a bevy of startup exhibits, demos, networking and a live pitch-off with a pretty sweet prize. Buy your general admission or early-stage startup demo package today before prices increase. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off. TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off.

micromobility 71

micromobility transportation pitching collaboration 71

TechCrunch

APRIL 7, 2023

Startups and VC Everyone needs some good competition to get the creativity flowing. Going through the company’s pitch deck, the trio describe the business model that will take Anthropic there and the investors behind it. Kyle , Devin and Manish teamed up to look at Anthropic’s $5 billion, four-year plan to take on OpenAI.

media 98

media VC creativity sustainability 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. 50% of these meetings led to pitches to individual partners. About 30% of partner pitches led to full partnership pitches. I suggest use the Founder Institute Mad Libs elevator pitch.

pitching 53

pitching ventures VC capital 53

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 8, 2014

someone who can win over the VCs, the CTOs, create content, etc. All he had to do was hangout at hackathons and do demos where he wrote code live. I think big companies (and sometimes VC firms) invest too much in personalities when a big personality or someone with a big network should be used more like a tool than a centerpiece.

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venture capital communities pitching networking 278

TechCrunch

MARCH 29, 2022

It will be all hands on deck today and tomorrow as we listen to startups pitch at the YC Demo Day, so look out for a deluge of stories over the next two days. Startups and VC. YC’s Demo Day showed off 32 startups from India (the accelerator has funded almost 200 Indian startups to date), with heavy focus on fintech.

transportation 84

transportation startup ecosystem pitching VC 84

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? Venture Capital & Technology'

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pitching venture capital energy technology 303

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

So what attracted Howard Morgan, the VC with the hottest hand in NYC as of late ( Turntable.fm , Fab.com ), to bring the investment back to First Round? Joe and Mary Bureaucrat who don't even use the internet because Smalltown, USA blocks it as the decisionmakers. Ugh, right? Except that its working. how many salespeople do you have?

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real estate leadership SaaS education 356

TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2023

of all VC funds in 2022, a drop from 2021 Image Credits: Emily Malan Gas Discord has acquired Gas, a compliments-based social media app for teens. If you missed my most recent Startups Weekly, read it here: “The slow-burn standardization of venture capital.” TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20. Book your pass ASAP!

construction 92

construction ventures energy founder 92

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. The value of Pitch Decks; Brad’s personal preferences on deal presentation; and Brad’s practice of accepting cold approaches via email. Are Pitch Decks becoming obsolete? was starting.

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venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

This class of investor, once quite disorganized, has become much like the venture capital community, creating a process including due diligence (careful examination of a business before investment), terms of investment that match those of venture capitalists, and a process that often takes.

accelerator 106

accelerator mix-use financing finance 106

Don Dodge

APRIL 6, 2015

I remember the Demo Day in 2007 where DropBox presented to about 30 Boston area Angels and Venture Capital investors. None of the local VC firms invested. from Sequoia Capital and have gone on to raise over $1 Billion from VC investors. Classic VC funding is a well-understood model.

incubation 40

incubation angel investing pitching venture capital 40

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

A typical VC might see 500 opportunities cross his or her desk every year; for larger, more prominent ones it could be 2,000. VCs therefore use whatever heuristics they can in order to triage the deal flow. That means they spend a lot less time actively seeking out new deals than they do responding to inbound deal flow.

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VC angel investing pitching entrepreneurs 159