My new book launches today, 4/13/2021. It’s been quite a journey. Five of my own startups, some success and failures. Working across different programs including Founder Institute, Techstars, and 500 Startups. A season as the SVP of Programs with UP Global (Startup Weekend + Startup America) that included 1200+ events in 120 countries with 74,000 …
How to do a monthly investor update for Startup Founders.
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: …
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 …
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 …
How do investors evaluate your startup company? Are you ready to raise capital? Let me take some of the mystery out of the process and give you one approach and some of the questions venture capitalists will be asking of your deck. It’s not the only approach and different investors will put a different weighting …
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 …
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 …
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 …
<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 …