Berkonomics

MARCH 28, 2024

They write in their investment documents that they will occupy a seat on the board for as long as they are invested in the company, thinking of this as a protection for their investment and tool for them to influence growth. All other board functions are secondary.

Class 282

Class Coach Invest Sales 282

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. This is true whether your at a sales meeting or at a VC firm. This happens often is sales meetings or VC meetings. Congratulations.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Everyone who manages a company or its sales force wants to write as many new deals as possible, and is usually warry about doing anything that might threaten the positive outcome of a pending sale. Deadlines are an important sales tool. The most powerful tool you have in a sales environment is a deadline.

Sales 120

Sales Tool Writing Customer 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. If you’re going to play in the big leagues you need to be writing checks from a $700 million?—?$1 Are we in a bubble?” By definition?—?I’m of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Rules about non-compete agreements So, what are the rules about those pesky non-compete agreements signed upon your discharge, or upon the sale of your previous company? As I write this in late 2024, legislation is being proposed at the national level to eliminate non-competes. Both in business suits and looking somber.

Design 156

Design Writing News Email 156

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

Sales 150

Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.” What happens is 18–20 firms access the data room and download all of your documents. For starters you have to realize that fund-raising is a sales process. It doesn’t. It felt like heresy.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

I hired a senior exec from the building materials industry (we were a document collaboration company for the engineering & construction industry) who was also ex McKinsey. From then on I was forced to do detailed sales calls, get intimately involved with product management decisions and even make minute technical operation decisions.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

The trouble is, nobody has an incentive to agree to write the first check. ” If you remember the three rules of sales : it’s. There is simply no reason for the first angel to write you a check until you have the whole round secure, which is why people herd cats. So you need an anchor. But how to get one?”

Pricing 294

Pricing Venture Capital Writing Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. I’ll publish the final post in this series this week and then move on to my next series – sales & marketing. I’ll be covering my PUCCKA sales methodology.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , January 10, 2010 Developing new startup ideas - Chris Dixon , March 14, 2010 Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images - Code as Craft , July 9, 2010 jQuery Plugin: Give Your Characters a NobleCount - The Product Guy , March 23, 2010 How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. What should not be in your deck?

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

If I could persuade you that they’re already in these documents would you consider abandoning this structure? Those terms you fought so hard to get out of “clean term sheets” by using TheFunded, VentureHacks and the like are in your current documents. What happens in a sale or acqui-hire? That’s right.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 13, 2011

With all these companies vying for attention & others just here to soak up the vibe I thought I’d write a much broader piece on how startups can make the most of their attendance at conferences & events. Write them in advance and request meetings. We didn’t have any documents due that night. We just hung.

Conference 289

Conference Startup Technical Review Writing 289

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

This can be your star Chief Architect who loves to code but hates having to handle the admin like testing, documentation, recruiting, etc. I’ve written about these sales mavericks before. Three years ago during Thanksgiving I told Nivi I would write down what I look for in an entrepreneur for a series of posts for VentureHacks.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2016

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing 62

Writing Summary Email Ideas 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2023

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Tips 123

Tips Writing Startup Summary 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2021

In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself. It only takes a little extra work to make it a professional document, with a cover page, table of contents, headings, and page numbers.

Sample 137

Sample Writing Mentor Content 137

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2012

When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. Persuading a journalist to write about you rather than the 1,000 other companies bugging them.

Startup 322

Startup Training Outsource Development Design 322

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

“Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not uttered by base sale of chapmen’s tongues” . There is a common misconception that an idea can be protected by documenting it, placing it in an envelope and then mailing it to yourself.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I don’t feel like canceling LinkedIn just because occasionally a well-meaning but slightly not-clued-in person from a faraway place wants me to be their personal mentor, answer 3-questions for their high-school entrepreneurship project or take a sales pitch for their recruiting services. I’m not an elitist a **e. I still sleep at night.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

You thought it was going to be as easy as just having term sheet transferred to a longer form document. But every freakin’ week there are delays in getting the lawyers to “turn around&# the documents. We’re both principals in a sale. You want the deal to close in 4 weeks. Their lawyers blame yours.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

They write into their investment documents that they will occupy a seat on the board for as long as they are invested in the company, thinking of this as a protection for their investment and tool for them to influence growth. All other board functions are secondary.

Class 179

Class Coach Invest Sales 179

Berkonomics

JANUARY 16, 2014

Create roles and guidelines in the potential partnership: What role and responsibility will each of the partners have including operation, financial, sales, marketing, etc.? Perform preliminary due diligence: Review the business plan including marketing, sales strategies and financial needs. How will decisions be made and by whom?

Technical Review 204

Technical Review Startup Examples Metrics 204

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Consider it a sales & marketing expense for them.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Berkonomics

MAY 29, 2014

Included in a business plan are financials, competitive landscape, marketing plans, and projected sales to name a few. But it’s a valuable document for you. Studies found that people who write plans are more likely to put their goals in action and increases your likelihood of success. assess past performances.

Startup 166

Startup Guide Help Mentor 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2015

In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself. It only takes a little extra work to make it a professional document, with a cover page, table of contents, headings, and page numbers.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 109

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. It’s the same as in any sales-oriented meeting and make no mistake raising money is sales. But flip you must – just as in a sales meeting. That’s an awesome suggestion.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Document why your team is the best for this challenge. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans. Set specific targets on the sales channels and marketing initiatives you need, including the use of social media, brand building, franchising, trade shows, affiliates, and distributors.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2010

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Startup 91

Startup Funding Sample Writing 91

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

At the big consulting firms, investment banks and established large technology companies we’re taught to produce long reports, make sure that every document is perfect quality and that every possible bit of diligence has been done. He encouraged me to write this post and after smoking me out on Twitter I had no choice. So here goes.

Startup 335

Startup Technical Review Framework Entrepreneur 335

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Oculus, Snap, Tinder and others.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

An approach I suggest these days is for freelancers to contract for the actual role, probably part-time, of startup CFO, VP of Sales, or President. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. There are a myriad of ways to make this happen in the world of startups. Specialist versus consultant.

Startup 150

Startup Slides Email Customer 150