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All about entrepreneurs
First, remember the “outcome” you seek. This is usually a meeting, so only pitch enough detail to get interest to have that meeting! Don’t over do it, keep it simple, and ask for the meeting (or other outcome you need)
Below, find a selection of some of the best Startup Secret workshops, hosted at the Harvard i-lab. Each video features rich content and real-life case studies. Take a moment to browse the collection and then join Michael Skok at the Innovation Lab this spring, as the Startup Secret series expands to include new workshops on…
Of course there a ton of these videos but not that many with Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen. This is less about the basics and much more about the nuances, watch the part about the “onion” and how risk relates to the rounds and the planning you need to do, really helpful stuff.
I have to say that I really love Paul Graham’s concise and direct writing style and content. I read it all, always, it’s gold! However having been around for a long time its not that often I read something on an a well worn topic that I go “wow” what a great way to look…
The excellent book “Venture Deals” by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson gives a ton of great advice, one nugget you should know is smart Entrepreneurs, even experienced ones like me, get a stable of experienced mentors. Here’s their specific advice: These mentors can be hugely useful in any financing, especially if they know the VCs involved.…
I often read Mark Cuban he has some really valuable insights for entrepreneurs. When you are trying to hit up a potential investor you will only get one shot (if you are lucky enough to get hold of their email address) so make sure its a good approach. Here is his pithy view on how…
I often get asked about how to raise Angel money and where to start. Well I have written a lot about this in the blog but personally I like learning from AV media more than blog posts so I tracked down this great session between my friends Tina and Mike (and Ron Conway). This video…
This is one of the best videos I have ever watched to help startups see what makes sense in coming up with an idea and other great lessons, how to avoid building something no one cares about, what angels want…esp. minute 4-7 if you only have a sort amount of time. Especially useful for Internet…
Like most people I hate writing business plans, I want to get on with the business at hand rather than keep writing and re-writing lots of words about what I plan to do! This must also be true for many investors too, as they don’t enjoy reading them, they prefer a pitch or PowerPoint! However,…
I asked a friend Bill Romans to recommend to me smaller VC funds that like to offer smaller amounts of funding and are happy to work with $1-2M and variations around that level. These guys are VCs but tend to be more boutique or smaller funds that prefer a smaller round to the bigger names.…
Tim Ferriss has had the foresight to ask some of the presenters at this years TiE conference (TiE’s annual conference on entrepreneurship, TiECON 2009 May 15/16) some very useful questions: What is the best pitch meeting that you remember and why? What are the most common mistakes or assumptions smart founders make in pitch meetings…
Writing a good and punchy “elevator pitch” is way harder than most people think. Plus I find that I really need to teach this skill a lot with my Stanford and UC Berkeley MBA’s to help them both with distilling their ideas, perfecting their business plans and finally pitching VCs – so this skill turns…
If you are making any form of presentation you will benefit from these quick tips. Get the content and flow right: First, make the presentation flow correctly – as most presentations are trying to convince someone of something, I tend to use the old A-I-D-A (a 1950s acronym for Attention/Interest/Desire/Action) system to build to a…
Below is the presentation given during by Adeo Ressi at Web 2.0 in New York. The talk focuses on helping companies find the “right” investor, versus just any interested party. It’s a very useful deck and from a very thoughtful guy that has been around this game a few times. http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=6146822&access_key=key-bj5yvf3bqjxa4hs18wf&page=&version=1&auto_size=true&viewMode=
Again and again I find myself telling my MBA students about how to present. They tend to get everything wrong, every time, no matter how many times I tell them or ask them to learn. Why? Well it’s probably because it’s very hard to “simplify” ideas and then present them in an easy to understand…
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