Raising money is a dirty job, but someone has to do it right? Very true, but it’ll go a lot easier if everything behind the scenes is clean, well-organized and ready to go. If you get to the point where you’re about to marry a VC and take their money, there will be a due […]
Weekly Investor Updates (How To Communicate with Investors & Mentors)
At Year One Labs we had 20 mentors and investors. It was (and remains) a great group. Many of them were quite active in helping our portfolio companies; many continue to help. A number of them went on to invest in the companies as well. Our system for providing mentorship to the teams wasn’t perfect […]
There’s No Such Thing as a Nominal Investment
Micah Baldwin has a great post on the confusing roles and responsibilities between mentors, advisors and investors. It’s a must read for any entrepreneur (particularly those in accelerators where the roles are often mashed together even more.) Micah makes the point that even small investment amounts from mentors ($5-$10k) are important. And he’s absolutely right. […]
The $250,000 Funding Trap
$250,000 is a lot of money. Venture investors might not think so, but for most of us it’s a lot of moolah. And for early stage startups it’s often the amount they ask for coming out of the gate (or $500,000 – which seems to be pretty standard as a first, seed ask). The problem […]
7 Tips for Successful Board Meetings
Once you’ve raised funding, your board meetings will likely become a lot more serious. Prior to raising capital your board likely consists of the founders and that’s it. After funding, your investors will want a seat at the table (and maybe more.) Boards are often setup with 5 people (2 founders, 2 investors and an […]
Kill the Goddamn Buzzwords and Give Me a Use Case
Recently I’ve been reviewing a bunch of startup pitches (over 150) for a couple of different things, and it’s frustrating to see potentially good ideas and quality entrepreneurs get ignored too quickly because their pitches suck. It’s like resumes with typos – there have to be some basic filtering mechanisms for written pitches, otherwise reviewers […]
8 Questions on How to Prepare for VC Meetings
Lately I’ve been answering questions on Sprouter and having a lot of fun doing it. Hopefully it’s useful to the people asking as well. Not surprisingly, a lot of the questions are about VCs and investors – how to pitch them, what to pitch, how to prepare, etc. It’s a popular topic and something I’ve […]
Bashing the Competition
When pitching investors, don’t bash the competition. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend bashing the competition under any circumstances – when meeting with prospects, clients, or even internally. It sends the wrong message and positions the conversation around others and not you. Bashing the competition also makes you look petty and foolish. Jason Cohen expresses this […]
Do Investors Invest in Ideas, People or Markets?
Investors often say that they invest in people first, then the market and lastly, the idea. I’d say that’s generally true, but it’s also very difficult not to triage and make judgement calls in reverse. When an investor asks for a pitch, they don’t say, “Tell me why you’ve got what it takes to be […]
Founder DNA – How Investors Evaluate Startup Founders
Are entrepreneurs born or taught? I’d say a bit of both. Environmental and genetic influences are so intertwined for most things (diseases, our health, intelligence, etc.) there’s no simple answer. Having said that, when we talk about founders and startups we often think of it as something intrinsic to the people, something inside them, built […]
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