This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I have one failed attempt at a startup under my belt as a founder and I don't have any particularly usable skills that anyone would pay for like selling, designing, building, etc. Conferences, startup blogs, meetups--they're all filled with people telling you how to build your company. Most startups fail.

advice 412

advice startup VC strategy 412

Paul G. Silva

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

How Iteration Transformed Valley Venture Mentors Before I co-founded Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) and for all of my time there, we experimented with different ways to connect startups with mentors. Iteration #1: High-Value, but Unsustainable Our first approach was simple: hand-match startups with mentors for one-on-one meetings.

mentorship 130

mentorship energy pitching entrepreneurship 130

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 23, 2014

When I turn down the opportunity to invest in a startup, I really turn it down. It''s unclear what piece of information they were lacking or how someone could have gotten them over the hump. It doesn''t help them improve their pitch or adjust their model. The last thing I want is to not have a view on the space.

pitching 351

pitching VC venture capital opportunity 351

Dream It

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

When pitching a potential investor or customer, time is of the essence. But often, we’ll hear founders misstep and repeat easy mistakes that throw off Q&A flow and cause startups to lose points. But often, we’ll hear founders misstep and repeat easy mistakes that throw off Q&A flow and cause startups to lose points.

VC 513

VC pitching health founder 513

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

They pitched on a Wednesday. Didn’t I make myself clear about celebrities & startups ? Turns out she’s done this startup thing before. Soleil is paranoid about leaking design & product information because she’s been burned. Startup Advice' Turns out Punky was a childhood hero for Tasha.

startup 398

startup creativity advice entrepreneurs 398

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

So as a startup CEO you constantly have to suspend disbelief. ” A startup CEO’s job is to absorb stress so the team doesn’t have to. Startups have to be optimists because no rational person would actually believe you could build Uber into the amazing company that it is today. We just need your $500,000!!”

startup 417

startup peer-to-peer VC culture 417

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

He pinged me that he was thinking about joining a startup based in LA with the CEO in NYC and would I be willing to meet him and give him advice on this process. I looked up his bio, “UVA, banking analyst, doing some early startup work” and thought – sure – come meet me for a coffee. Not for me.

pitching 372

pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

Dream It

JULY 20, 2020

When you’re raising a bridge round and pitching investors, their first reaction may be that you’re in trouble. In this #DreamitDose, Managing Partner Steve Barsh gives founders tips on how to frame their bridge round ask, overcome assumptions investors often make, and provides a general way to structure startup bridge round pitches.

startup 269

startup pitching frameworks founder 269

Startup Blogpost

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

20 Tips for Pitching New Business Ideas to Potential Investors To provide you with the best advice on pitching new business ideas to investors, we asked twenty CEOs, Founders, and other professionals for their top tips. You should highlight the potential future earnings while pitching your proposal. Balance is key!

pitching 105

pitching strategy investing investment 105

TechCrunch

JUNE 28, 2022

Over the course of the past 10 weeks, I’ve taken apart 10 pitch decks as part of our Pitch Deck Teardown series. And it presents this information in a way that is easy to digest and discuss, without getting too bogged down in the nitty-gritty of the numbers. We want your pitch decks for our Pitch Deck Teardowns!

pitching 96

pitching venture capital startup ventures 96

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

They get pitched by so many blowhards that more genuine people who aren’t in it for just a story stand out from the crowd. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. Some final thoughts on PR.

pitching 319

pitching media advice venture capital 319

TechCrunch

MARCH 3, 2021

Weeks or even months of working on your pitch deck could come down to the 170 seconds (on average) that investors spend looking at it. “Investors see a lot of pitches,” VC and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman noted. “In However, volunteering certain types of information can have the opposite effect. exit strategy”.

pitching 113

pitching VC strategy leadership 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Will I have information that other journalists don’t have (otherwise known as a “scoop”)? Others were removed.

mix-use 389

mix-use advice VC technology 389

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

If you have investors or board members that have wide relationships you can get significantly more value out of them by keeping them informed. So naturally we’re pushing for him to drop critical information when their paths cross organically. More information comes out. Startup Advice' Meeting Dynamics.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JANUARY 4, 2023

Video pitching. I see an uptick in pitching via pre-recorded video. We used Loom to pre-record our pitch and share it with potential investors. It’s a great way to personalize a pitch deck and share it with interested parties. Opportunity for startups. Here’s what they shared.

ecology 252

ecology entrepreneurship pitching entrepreneurs 252

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 5, 2022

It’s an incredibly valuable event for both EO Accelerators and EO members with startups that want to attract investments in addition to EO members who are looking for the right investment opportunity. There’s a lengthy application and vetting process for EO members or Accelerators to qualify to pitch.

accelerator 273

accelerator networking pitching real estate 273

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

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. a top-down view on HR challenges at startups; and, obviously: a great network. Have really strong analytic skills to put large amounts of information into context.

investing 365

investing investment VC board 365

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2021

Below is a link to the pitch video. There wasn’t any context around it—not exactly something I’d call a “pitch”. I explained that this wasn’t really a pitch because it lacked all sorts of context. Honestly, I didn’t take it that seriously—mostly because I was starting with no information. Who was the team?

pitching 243

pitching transportation consulting creativity 243

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

Among all the buzzwords startups use when pitching investors and in their marketing, “data-driven” is nearly at the top of the pile. Previously trending tech startups in fields like BNPL, crypto and the delivery market are struggling to show the growth and returns they promised in their initial funding rounds.

startup founder 98

startup founder founder startup pitching 98

StartupNation

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

In the startup world, it’s pitch decks, not business plans that get companies funded. Making a pitch deck is an art, a science, but most importantly, a story. Angel investors and venture capitalists have also learned to expect a standard pitch deck as the first filter when evaluating a company to invest in.

pitching 110

pitching SaaS mix-use media 110

American Entrepreneurship

MAY 31, 2024

Entrepreneurs seek to find the right investor and to make the best pitch when the opportunity comes Entrepreneurs start their companies with great passion and big dreams. But how does an entrepreneur know if their startup is funding-worthy and meets investor expectations?

startup 104

startup pitching funders strategy 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. Your pitch deck should really be your best marketing tool Your pitch deck shouldn’t contain your deepest, darkest secrets and plans.

VC 239

VC pitching strategy investing 239

TechCrunch

JULY 23, 2021

We know how much you love a good startup pitch-off. Plus, you get to hear feedback from some of the smartest folks in the industry, thus learning how to absolutely crush it at your next pitch meeting with a VC. Extra Crunch Live is usually a combination of an interview with a founder/investor duo and an audience pitch-off.

pitching 106

pitching VC disruption startup 106

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. Truly, in many ways, my concern was the inverse of normal business pitches. How does one come up with the right idea to start a company?

incumbents 270

incumbents entrepreneurs education pitching 270

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

If everyone gets measured based on one set of shared norms around pitching, professional reviews, and updates—the language of straight white men—you’re going to wind up with a lot of mismeasurement of what’s actually happening and likely to happen in these companies.

venture capital 413

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 413

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

We are expected to know everything and many people rush to conclusions given a limited set of information. How should a large European telco deal with a rival “free Internet access” startup? ” Startup Lessons' She reminded us that in the world we live in we are often expected to be experts.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 2, 2023

I got to see all of the top VCs pitching their funds. What was notable was how similar they all sounded—that is, until I got the pitch from Brad and Fred at Union Square Ventures. USV came in pitching digitally native businesses models that could not exist until the internet connected everyone.

opportunity 250

opportunity investing investment disruption 250

TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2023

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. It’s remarkably rarely used in VC pitch decks, which I think is a tremendous shame. I reviewed 1,000+ pitch decks.

pitching 88

pitching collaboration creativity VC 88

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 17, 2021

Current innovation frameworks–think lean startup or design sprint–emphasize speed and action over reflection and strategic breaks. What might look to outsiders like procrastination is often the time needed to process a mass of confusing information. 2 for his age group at 12.

entrepreneurs 236

entrepreneurs frameworks innovation pitching 236

TechCrunch

MARCH 21, 2023

For most of the Information Age, companies that wanted to scale invested in server farms and hired teams to keep them running. At one of my first startup jobs, I walked in one day to find two sleeping co-workers who’d spent the night configuring servers at a co-locating facility 60 miles away.

pitching 86

pitching SaaS startup innovation 86

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2023

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. In the rest of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three things Smalls could have improved or done differently, along with its full pitch deck! How does it know that it can continue growing?

pitching 95

pitching mix-use opportunity innovation 95

Ben Franklin Technology Partners

MARCH 1, 2022

STATE COLLEGE, PA –Ben Franklin’s Tech Celerator @StateCollege; a partnership with the Invent Penn State initiative, is again offering local tech entrepreneurs, grad-students, professors, and university researchers a fun, informative 10-Week Business Startup Boot Camp. Invite your friends and family to the pitch event.

funders 98

funders business incubator pitching startup 98

TechCrunch

MARCH 17, 2023

It’s too early to determine whether SVB’s downfall heralds a new era for venture capital, but based on anecdotal evidence, off-the-record discussions and chats with co-workers, it seems like we’re back to business as usual as far as pre-revenue startup fundraising is concerned. Más o menos.

pitching 92

pitching frameworks advice strategy 92

StartupNation

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

The biggest challenge for a startup founder is knowing where to focus. You’ve got to pitch investors, target the right customer, hone your business model and raise critical funding just in time. Key turning points on the startup journey cry out for coaching. Related: This is the Secret to Building a Successful Startup Team.

peer-to-peer 135

peer-to-peer startup pitching incubation 135

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2023

You need a solid business plan, traction to demonstrate market fit, and the skills to pitch effectively. Don’t neglect ongoing investor relations “A lot of startup founders think that the only way investors will respond favorably is if they provide their best pitch on first contact,” said Mohammadi.

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pitching consulting advice communities 213

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

It’s a fantastic startup that has had a amazing impact on society. I was at the first pitch meeting they ever did to raise capital. This is covered in this poignant article outlining that too many startup companies snoop on users. This is a real startup problem. Increasingly startups want access to our emails.

mix-use 418

mix-use innovation pitching board 418

Dream It

OCTOBER 1, 2019

The startup will use the funding to enhance product capabilities and accelerate sales growth with key hires. IP Group’s expertise in university spin outs combined with Dreamit’s successful track record with health tech startups and its vast network of leading payers, providers, and pharma companies are ideal partnerships for TrekIT Health.

health 34

health investing investment hospitality 34