Book 100 of the 100 Book Challenge
Last New Years Eve, I was having dinner with Dan Rossi and our wives and we were talking about a blog post I had read where the author had read 200 books in a year. At the time, we both discussed the fact that we were active readers, but didn’t have a goal to target
Read MoreDon’t be Disappointed with your Startup Ecosystem. Change it!
I had a great opportunity to speak at Startup Spokane last night. Thanks to Megan Hulsey @StartupSpokane and Brady Ryan @UWCoMotion Spokane’s office for the invitation. One of the things I’ve noticed and it hasn’t changed since I was traveling as SVP of Programs at UP Global (Startup Weekend + Startup America) there is a
Read MoreSeattle Startup Ecosystem – Start Here
New to Seattle or the Seattle Startup Community? Here’s a presentation to help you navigate the resources, events (and some of the people to avoid). The following presentation was given at University of Washington CoMotion Startup Fundamental Series. 10/13/2017
Read MoreSeattle Startup Week – Pitch Clinic
Seattle Startup Week is an annual event to help entrepreneurs navigate the Seattle Startup Ecosystem in five days. Finding resources, meeting people, visiting coworking space and meeting investors. Techstars purchased UP Global in 2015 and these programs that I helped launch globally became part of their community programs. These slides are from a Pitch Clinic
Read More5 Epic Fails in Pitching
I love office hours and listening to pitches – most of the time. This week I had an odd meeting that reminded me of some epic fails in pitching your startup idea. I will protect the “Pitching Parties” in this post and not identify them, but here are some quick reminders and lessons learned: Don’t
Read More8 Observations – Halfway through the 100 Book Challenge
I’ll admit, when Dan Rossi and I started discussing this idea of reading 100 books in 2017 it was New Years Eve and we were on the second bottle of wine! I had read a recent post of from Brian Sanders Medium post that had read 200 books in a year. That seemed like such
Read MoreStartup Team Formation: Mentors, Advisors and Early Team Members
How much equity should you give early team members and why? This list includes mentors, advisors, board members and potential co-founders in your startup? I’ve personally had challenges on this front and find it an area that benefits from experience (read as mistakes). I know I’ve both over-asked for equity in early days as well as
Read MoreLevantando investimentos para Startups: Evento de Pitch, o que acontece depois que você deixa a sala?
<Special thanks to my friend Felipe Chaves for translating my first Portuguese post! Here’s to a group of up and coming Entrepreneurs in Rio!> Você preparou seu “investor pitch”, sumário executivo, modelo financeiro. Você ensaiou seu pitch, listou perguntas e respostas (Q&A) e montou o seu 1:1 para investidores. Agora está de cara com um
Read MoreStartup Fundraising: Pitch Events, what happens after you leave the room?
You’ve prepped your investor pitch, executive summary, and financial model. You’ve rehearsed your pitch, prepared your Q&A and done the 1:1 investor meeting. Now you’re faced with the thoroughly contrived startup group pitch event. instead of a conversation with a potential investor you now have a timed event with timed Q&A. This can take place in the
Read MoreStartup Fundraising: Executive Summary, Pitch Deck and Financial Models
Fundraising as an Enterprise Sales Process. Which means it’s going to take time to get fundraising done and you’ll need a lot of prospects at the top of your sales funnel. As you prepare for your fundraising effort and you need to get the basic tools of the trade completed before you start the process.
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