pitching Archives - The 411 On Startups (tm)

Raising Seed Investment for Africa focused Tech Startups

Feb

2012

(This article is focused on raising money for startups with an African focus but it contains some great generic advice on for all startups on needed steps before spending considerable time in fundraising.) 1. Make sure you are ready – Checklist This first step is actually common everywhere, entrepreneurs think they deserve financing when its ...

Investor Presentation On A Napkin

Feb

2010

Investor Presentation Guidelines (The 7P’s you can do it on a napkin!) Southwest Airlines business plan was conceived on a cocktail napkin. Compaq Computers ‘portable’ design was originally sketched on a restaurant napkin. An investor presentation can equally be simplified by following some guidelines that offer thoroughness with simplicity. The following presentation offers some guidelines ...

Raising Venture Capital

Nov

2009

The initial section covers what to do before you approach a VC (or if you should even raise VC at all), the middle section is what the presentation you send should look like and the final session covers what to do after the meeting. If there a post description but no link it means I ...

What VCs Look For and How to Pitch

Nov

2009

Not all VC firms are the same. Fund size, fund tenure (how far into the current fund is the firm?), firm’s track record, partner’s areas of interest and the firm’s areas of focus all affect the types of deals a fund wants to do and their expectations for returns. It is essential to understand this ...

Pitching Hacks at Stanford – Venture Hacks

May

2009

This is a talk on pitching startups to Investors given to students in Stanford’s business plan competition. Lots of good advice. The talk was recorded with an iPhone and sync’ed with the slides. It contains alot of material from the book, Pitching Hacks.

How To Avoid Making A Bad Pitch – WSJ

Apr

2009

All venture capitalists have probably experienced a bad pitch from an entrepreneur. But a couple years ago, the team at Canaan Partners heard a real sleeper. No, we mean, a real sleeper. The chief executive and vice president of sales for a start-up company visited Canaan’s Menlo Park, Calif., office. Just as the CEO was ...

TEST YOUR METTLE AT VENTURE CAPITAL FORUMS

Sep

2008

You need tons of money. You have no financial contacts. Where can you turn? Many entrepreneurs have found what they need in venture forums. Any entrepreneur who’s ever chased venture capital dollars can tell you the process is often a brutal, soul-stripping experience. For those without Ivy League connections or friends and family in the ...

Listing of Venture Forums – Google Search

Sep

2008

Try this google search to get a list of many venture forums

The Venture Forum 2008 — Entrepreneurs and Investors

Sep

2008

The Venture Forum is Produced by LARTA.ORG. The format includes startup company pitches to investors, and general networking sessions.

Pitching to VC’s : Kentucky Startup Blog

Sep

2008

At the Techcrunch 50 event, they had a panel of VC’s answering 20 questions on a wide variety of subjects. You can read the full text here or watch the video but i think the following exchanges go a long way towards understanding how VC’s think when it comes to evaluating entrepreneurs and pitches: