Investor Presentations Archives - The 411 On Startups (tm)

Startup Industry Insights from First Round Capital

Jul

2015

According to First Round Capital, a top venture capital firm located in Philadelphia, PA, women founders outperform men. In a report published by the firm yesterday, First Round Capital revealed the finding as one of ten major insights it has learned over the past ten years the VC firm has been in operation. Called the ...

This app lets founders pitch startup ideas to investors, media with 2-minute videos – GeekWire

Jun

2015

For entrepreneurs, it’s not always easy finding the right time and place to pitch a potential investor on an idea — and that’s where Founderfox wants to help. The new app, which just launched this weekend, is a free video-pitching platform for startups that are looking to hail the attention of investors, media, and other ...

Top 12 lies angels tell

May

2012

Angel investors are among the leading sources of funding for many technology firms. Knowing how these investors think and evaluate a possible investment is therefore vital for any tech start up seeking funding. With a nod to Garage Venture’s Guy Kawasaki and his Top 10 Lies of Venture Capitalists, I offer my Top 12 Lies Angels Tell. ...

The Eight Best Questions We Got While Raising Venture Capital

May

2012

VCs are good at asking questions. They are unimplicated in your dumb decisions, unmoved by your original sense of mission and far less concerned than you that a blunder could bankrupt you. They re-imagine your business in terms of all the other businesses they’ve seen, pulling the arms off one doll and the head off ...

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 ...

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 ...

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:

BeyondVC: Tips for the first VC Meeting

Sep

2008

I had a meeting last week where an entrepreneur insisted on showing me a demo first. He was scrambling around asking for wireless keys and looking for ethernet jacks, while I sat there and tried to engage him in conversation. He lost my interest right then and there. As I started to think more about ...