How to do a Monthly Investor Update
How to do a monthly investor update for Startup Founders.
Your Startup is NOT a Platform (yet)
Over the last year, I’ve looked at >150 deals (for some VC’s that’s tiny, for other’s that’s a lot). In that time a number of phrases have risen to the top of the list that makes my eyes roll or create a queasy wave of nausea that overtakes over me. Near the top of the list is: …
Play Bigger Seattle!
It’s time for Seattle to Play Bigger! As a startup community, we’ve had a chip on our shoulder for years. We’re not the valley. VCs would say we need better founders, founders would say we need better (and more) VCs. Both were right. Founders are flogged for thinking too small. But investors don’t want to fund …
Do’s and Don’ts of Venture Seed Fundraising
Here’s some of the “Sausage Making” of early stage venture funding. When we’re raising capital, we tend to over-index on getting the meetings and honing the pitch. Both are critical to the process. But, there are a number of other factors you need to take into consideration during the process, especially in a Venture or …
Is Your Pitch Venture Ready? Pitch Checklist
How do investors evaluate your startup company? Let me take some of the mystery out of the process and tell you one approach. It’s not the only approach and different investors will put different weighting on different parts of your company. The goal of the post is to help you be self-aware and ask your yourself …
Startup Marketing: Funnel Breakdown
A lot of startup founders work hard on getting their product ready to launch before understanding the economics of marketing. Specifically, how to acquire customers at reasonable economics. Sometimes that topic is met with a genuine head tilt and quizzical look. Sometimes it’s met with a “handwavy” response – usually by those who believe if they …
5 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 …
Startup 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 …
Levantando 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 …
Startup 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 …