5 Quick Tips on Pitching Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of pitching to investors, including angel investors and venture capitalists. It’s a fact of life when you run a venture-backed startup. It’s one of those things that no one ever tells you about raising moneyonce you start, you never stop.

It will take on average 4-6 months to raise money, so when you raise an early seed round (say in the $250k-$500k range) it won’t last long. That means the minute you cash that check, you’re out there again, raising more.

I’ve written about pitching investors before. And I’ve also posted some common questions investors will ask during the investment process. The points I made in both posts remain true, but here are some additional insights I’ve learned over the last few months of pitching, pitching and more pitching:

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May’s Montreal Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast

Most people will tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So if you’re in Montreal, and you’re interested in technology and entrepreneurship, you should think about joining us for breakfast on Tuesday, May 13th @ 9am at Bistro, Etc.

Here are the details:

We run the breakfast on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

Anyone involved in technology + entrepreneurship (developers, startup entrepreneurs, curious people, angel investors, VCs, etc.) are welcome.


Technology to Sales: The Evolution of a Software Startup

guy jumping

Software startups always start out very heavily focused on technology. They have to be; they’re building some kind of software application and most of their time has to go into doing that properly. Most software startup teams are made up entirely of developers or weighted in that direction. Have a team of 4? I bet 3 of those people are technical…

At Standout Jobs we have 8 people full-time. Six of those are on the technical side. That’s fairly common amongst early stage software startups.

But at some point, most software startups have to start changing. You can only focus on the technology for so long. Eventually, you have to start marketing and selling it. Occasionally you’ll find developers that can also serve as marketers and business development gurus, but more than likely you’ll hire on additional people to help.

Thats the evolution of a software startup — from being a technology company to being a sales & marketing company.

Most successful software companies make the leap.

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About Ben Yoskovitz
I recently joined GoInstant as VP Product. GoInstant changes how we use the web, making it shareable like never before.

I'm also a Founding Partner at Year One Labs, an early stage accelerator in Montreal. Previously I founded Standout Jobs (and sold it). I'm a hands-on startup guy, helping companies grow successfully from the idea forward. You can reach me at byosko at gmail dot com.

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The opinions and commentary on this site are mine and mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of my employer, GoInstant.