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Advice for writing startup business plans
If you are thinking of writing a Powerpoint to pitch your startup to investors, you first need to read this page on Sequoia’s site and this post from David Cowan at Bessemer.
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Pitching the VC partnership
The last step to raising venture capital is normally a 1 hour pitch to the whole partnership during their weekly monday meeting. This is often described to entrepreneurs as a formality, but at least...
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VC’s care about the upside case, not the mean
The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when pitching VCs is to argue that their startup is likely to succeed. Instead, they should argue that there is a small probability their startup could be a...
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Information is the (other) currency of venture capital
Many seasoned entrepreneurs have had the following experience. A VC eagerly wants to meet with you. You have what seems like a very good meeting, and yet the VC’s excitement level drops noticeably in...
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Which VC firm should I pitch?
A friend asked me the other day “Which VC firms should I pitch?” and I started to respond to him, but then realized that most of my knowledge of VC firms is already available online in the Which VC...
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Pitch yourself, not your idea
There is a widespread myth that the most important part of building a great company is coming up with a great idea. This myth is reflected in popular movies and books: someone invents the Post-it note...
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Does a VC’s brand matter?
Suppose you are in the enviable position of choosing between offers from multiple VC firms. How much should you weigh the brand of the VCs when making your decision? I think the answer is: a little,...
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Being friendly has become a competitive advantage in VC
Over the last decade or two, the supply of venture capital dollars has increased dramatically at the same time as the cost of building tech startups has sharply decreased. As a result, the balance of...
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Best practices for raising a VC round
Having raised a number of VC rounds personally and observed many more as an investor or friend, I’ve come to think there are a set of dominant best practices that entrepreneurs should follow. 1....
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Notes on raising seed financing
Last night I taught a class via Skillshare (disclosure: Founder Collective is an investor) about how to raise a seed round. After a long day I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it, but it turned...
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