TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

After attending TechCrunch Early Stage last week, I was cheered to meet so many first-time founders and experienced investors who are looking for opportunities. 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.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

MAY 2, 2023

Partnering with the right co-founder is the biggest determinant of your future success. Having founded multiple startups across various industries, I firmly believe having the right co-founder(s) is the most significant determinant of startup success. A co-founder is someone you’ll practically be married to (time commitment-wise).

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 17, 2021

Most innovation models refer to the final stage of the process as “execution” or “implementation”–making it sound very straightforward. A fantastic example is Demis Hassabis, co-founder of the machine learning AI lab DeepMind. In preparation, he spent months researching who might be amenable to his pitch.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Smart founders use this extra resource to their advantage. a really wide angle view of the tech industry since you see so many concepts / so many pitches and REAL data points on how startups perform financially. Just ask Rob Bailey. inside insight into VC decision-making.

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Startup Catalyst

MARCH 27, 2018

Some of the top startup accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces, maker spaces, investor groups, and founder support groups are located in San Francisco, making it the ideal location to visit. The meetings included co-working spaces, accelerators, investor groups, tech giants, University startup hubs, maker groups, and pitch events.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 11, 2022

Today, we’re taking a closer look at the pitch deck it used to raise its pre-seed round. We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to tear down, so if you want to submit your own, here’s how you can do that. . Well, that’s the world Five Flute wants to live in. The company raised a $1.2 Slides in this deck.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking. When you consider that they’ll also want a 15-20% option pool in the company you’re talking about founders owning as little as 40% after just one round. Always Pitch Outsiders for Follow Ons. Here’s my guide to how to do that.

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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. When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

Back in 2006, when I started working on putting together some community groups for entrepreneurs and tech people, I looked for a better name to reference this collection of people. Tech community" seemed too much about people soldering things together and writing code. So, want to know where to find me over the next thirty plus years?

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TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Founders should think of three primary documents as their “holy trinity”: the deck, the strategy memo and the forecast model. I have also heard it referred to as a “narrative deck” — basically a detailed, written version of your pitch. I see the deck almost as a derivative of the strategy memo.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 26, 2022

The secret to doing great reference checks for potential hires. I’ve hired enough people to understand that cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias is endemic when it’s time to check a candidate’s references. The secret to doing great reference calls. Learning from my failures: Lessons from a 2-time founder.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

This led median valuations to triple in 3 years and led to this stupid phenomenon that people refer to as “unicorns ,” which I am convinced will the the thing most historians laugh most about in this era. The fact that I still see it referred to in pitch decks is farcical. Late-Stage VCs Pay Up. But now the trend is in-fighting.

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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.

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StartupNation

JANUARY 18, 2022

If you’re a company’s founder in an early market, you know how hard it can be to cross the chasm between early adopters and mainstream customers. Early markets are by no means easy to tackle, so in this post, I’ll discuss seven tips that will help founders navigate these difficult waters. The bottom line.

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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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Gust

JULY 23, 2014

So even if my own mother asked me to meet with you, and you were pitching me a biotech opportunity for a $10 million investment at a $90 million valuation, I might take the meeting, but it wouldn’t be particularly useful for either of us. In this case, it’s not a lack of interest, just a lack of time and efficiency.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 23, 2023

Your first slide is obviously important for a pitch deck; first impressions count, and having a solid introduction goes a long way. It seems that founders often forget that the last slide is just as important. As a founder, you have an opportunity to influence how someone summarizes your company. Are you Turo for caravans ?

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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.

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StartupNation

JUNE 1, 2021

As part of my role as a partner of HealthInc, I sit on the jury for the startup competition in which 20 finalists pitch their ventures, with 10 then selected to enter the program. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman once said, “Starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down.”. Keep it short.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 25, 2022

I get a lot of pitch deck submissions for this TechCrunch Pitch Deck Teardown series from people who are raising friend and family rounds, and I mostly pass on them. Are the founders the right people to solve this problem? It was against that backdrop that I received the pitch deck for the Palau Project. Problem slide.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 13, 2022

Men’s Journal breaks down the simple genius of the business model, and TechRound has an interview with the founder that dissects the details of the company, its founder and its formation. We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to tear down, so if you want to submit your own, here’s how you can do that. .

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

AUGUST 12, 2022

dating app My pitch to investors I want to tell you my story as a founder and CEO and share some examples of my f**k-ups. They all refer to the Hola! There have been many victories and defeats throughout the journey, but I want to highlight three mistakes that led to detachment between the founders.

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StartupNation

MAY 16, 2025

Based on early results, founders can make changes. Getting a loan on this kind of site requires a compelling pitch. You need a good pitch and must have (or develop) marketing skills. Bootstrapping Bootstrapping refers to raising capital without using investors or financial institutions. Cons It’s a very competitive field.

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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. 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). 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

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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. 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). 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Imagine the “typical&# deal – somebody comes into a VC’s office, they’ve never met, they’re highly referred by a friend and they’re pitching a product demo and a PPT. Almost every deal I’ve ever funded I’ve gotten to know the founders over time.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Not all money is created equal: A VC’s advice for founders. I recently wrote a piece discussing how all capital is not created equal and we are living in a period of super-abundant funding — in many ways, the best times ever for founders. In this context, promises of exclusive value-add resonate deeply. The narcissist.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

As a VC, burn rate is one of the most discussed topics I have with teams who are pitching me for raising capital and it is one of the most common discussions points I have with founders in companies that I’ve backed. So let me walk you through the discussion points I have with founders.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 20, 2023

Investors like former WhatsApp product designer Anton Borzov and Looksery co-founder Yurii Monastyrshyn, among others, also backed the company. “We The visual reference tool is probably handy for set directors that want to visualize props for certain scenes. In 2024, it will roll out in Hindi and Chinese.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

Raising a Series A is a different ball game from raising a seed round, and for Akilesh Bapu, CEO and co-founder of AI-powered medical transcription platform DeepScribe, giving prospective investors a hard deadline while leaning on early investors for support and guidance made all the difference. References. Prepare for due diligence.

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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.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Day One Ventures , a venture firm launched in 2018 with a pitch to combine venture capital acumen with marketing and communications support, has launched a program aimed explicitly at those impacted by tech layoffs this year. million fund to back founders spinning out of turbulent startups. At least 0.1%

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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”. Always side with the founders.

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Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 15, 2023

A pitch deck template is great for telling a convincing story to investors, but not a practical guide for execution. When it comes time to craft a pitch for funders, the KISS Canvas covers 80% of a typical Pitch Deck by telling the very information investors want to know, in the order they generally want to hear it.

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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.

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Jason Malki

APRIL 24, 2025

Originally from the United States and now based in Arusha, Tanzania, Kevin is the founder of iRideArusha , a motorcycle rental and tour company that offers immersive adventures throughout East Africa. I think it is important to remember that you dont have to swing at every pitch. Hold strong opinions loosely.

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investing investment sustainability energy 52

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

I am continually surprised at founders who spend ten minutes throwing up a barebones profile and are dismayed that money doesn’t start flowing in. At the very least, answer ALL the profile questions, include your company’s logo, create a two-minute elevator pitch video and upload your presentation deck.

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