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Today’s post is a subtle one about positioning yourself in a presentation. It’s any meeting where you are in a small room and are being called on to present on some form of overhead slides. From witnessing all of these presentations I can tell you that there is a right place and a wrong place to sit.
I sit through a lot of presentations. Understand Personality Types – One of the benefits of working for a big company (Accenture) was that we had lots of speakers come in and train us in topics like leadership, creativity, presentations, strategy, etc. I’m also reasonably intelligent as most VCs you present to will be.
The worlds of standup comedy and business presentations are not as disparate as they may appear at first glance. Comedians are entrepreneurs. In addition, both comedians and entrepreneurs must engage and entertain their demanding audiences. As such, there is much entrepreneurs can learn from their comic brethren.
(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.
” This sentiment is probably familiar to many entrepreneurs and it must certainly resonates with anybody who suspects he or she has ADD. It was called “ Delivered from Distraction ” and it outlines many successful executives with ADD and in particular some famous entrepreneurs. Often doing many things at once.
As part of UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Lecture Series, Jason Nazar, Co-Founder and CEO of Docstoc , recently shared ten lessons that emerging entrepreneurs can learn from superheroes. You can watch Jason’s presentation below or on YouTube here: [link]. You can check out Jason’s original entry HERE.
On why you should be an entrepreneur, “A lot of people do what they have to do. He said that he noticed a lot of tech entrepreneurs don’t speak into the mic, don’t project their voices with confidence and aren’t necessarily paying attention to the mood or energy of the audience.
.&# It was my investment philosophy that observing teams’ performance over time was far more insightful than reacting to how good of a product demo they do, how good they present Powerpoint slides or how great tech blogs say they are. I felt the exact same way when I was an entrepreneur. Lines vs. Dots is all about people.
tl;dr version: If you’re an entrepreneur or VC or will be working in this industry - buy this. – entrepreneurs never seem to focus on anything other than ownership percentage. From there VentureHacks was then launched which gave entrepreneur advice on fund raising from your point of view. Drag along rights?
It was difficult to make the transition to a “top down&# thinker but as a senior executive – and as an entrepreneur – you’re far less effective without this skill in your arsenal. It is about structuring your thoughts, presentations and communications. You group items into component parts in a top-down manner.
” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. When you begin to peel back the onion some surprising data presents itself. If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. LA By The Numbers.
I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. It’s about presentations in front of large audiences. It is election season.
After speaking with many entrepreneurs over the years, each defines success in his or her unique way. We all see the examples of well-known successful entrepreneurs, many in our chosen field, who achieve success by anyone’s measure, and we optimistically expect to emulate these role models with at least some level of success.
It also applies to other parts of my life such as presentations. I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. The first was to do a 5 minute “ignite&# presentation – 5 minutes, 15 slides. I left that presentation and sat down in a coffee shop.
Paul Singh, a partner at the seed stage firm 500-Startups, effectively articulates the market forces driving this investment strategy in his Money Ball presentation. Fortunately, there is a key difference between startups and baby turtles: entrepreneurs can make their own luck. In addition, be on alert for camouflaged fees.
I’ve often wanted to let people see what a VC pitch is like to help new entrepreneurs have a better sense of what it’s like to present. But this interview is fairly authentic.
November 23, 2010 Entrepreneurs, Using Outsourcing to Obtain Capital Efficiency Needs to be Thought Through to be Effective - Robert Ochtel , June 7, 2010 Teen Entrepreneur, Brian Wong, Youngest Founder to Receive Angel Funding - teenentrepreneurblog.com , October 28, 2010 Build Your Own Silicon Valley?
One of the hardest things for most entrepreneurs to know is how hard to push in situations where people tell you “no.” ” But then again most entrepreneurs fail. I’d say less than 20% of of entrepreneurs fit into that bucket. ’ “ In fact, NO is the one word that no entrepreneur should accept.
Yet every business and every entrepreneur I know struggles with this challenge, focused on hiring the right people and implementing the right process. I was happy to see my own view reinforced in the classic book, “ Innovation Thinking Methods for the Modern Entrepreneur ,” by long-time entrepreneur and innovation expert Osama A.
As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.
Later today I’m presenting at the annual Rincon Ventures Summit in Santa Barbara. There is a mythology amongst some LPs (funds that invest in VCs) and some VCs that “entry price doesn’t matter – only investing in the absolute best entrepreneurs.” Startup Exits: A Primer from msuster.
Yet being in a fraternity was one of the most transformative experiences I had in college and prepared me better for becoming an entrepreneur than any class that I took. I presented behind a lectern. Keep it human -Far too many presentations, keynote speeches, conference panels or blog posts seem wooden. That’s a fact.
Some people even believe that entrepreneurs must be born with the right genes, and no element of education is relevant. In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities.
As an entrepreneur, I understand your passion when pitching your solution to investors and customers, but passion alone won’t make one more technology pitch stand out above all the rest. I can tell you from my own experience as an advisor and an investor, what everyone remembers is a good personal story.
In my Twitter bio is says that I’m “ looking to invest in passionate entrepreneurs ,” which almost sounds like I was just looking for a cliché soundbite to describe myself. Passion is also the featured heavily in nearly every presentation I give to entrepreneurs or on college campuses or in talks with MBA students.
Often I see executive summaries from entrepreneurs who have never managed any form of business, or even managed employees in their past life, and who don’t know the first thing about business formation and managing for growth. I used to tell them to find a partner with knowledge in business creation and management.
His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. His top eight required skill set elements for sales don’t even mention product skills, and match my view of the right skill set for successful entrepreneurs, with only a few priority changes: Creating and sharing a vision. Negotiating and creating win-win deals.
As a mentor to entrepreneurs and business owners, and seeing their workload and challenges, it would be easy for me to conclude that starting a business is a big hit to health and happiness. If you are sick of the corporate grind, take your favorite idea or hobby, and join other happy entrepreneurs. Stay rooted in the present.
Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. I see you were involved in the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur effort at the Montgomery Summit this year, tell me a little about what that is all about?
It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. As a business mentor, I sometimes feel besieged by people begging for my view and support of their latest idea.
As an advisor to entrepreneurs and active angel investor, I often get questions about the realism of the Shark Tank TV series, compared to professional investor negotiations. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons. Personalize your presentation, if possible, for every investor.
Although most people believe that being a successful entrepreneur is all about having the right idea, I’m convinced from my years of experience as a startup advisor and investor that’s it’s more about you as a person. The best entrepreneurs are not just dreamers of the next big thing – they have to be great facilitators and problem solvers.
Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, But it’s very easy to be flattered into “here’s why we want YOU as an investor” by entrepreneurs and earlier-stage investors alike.
As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game.
Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Is it any wonder why so few entrepreneurs ever find the professional investors they seek? Yet I’m still often approached by aspiring entrepreneurs who have neither.
Monday, August 3, 2020 -- Fixing the Top Fundraising Mistakes Startup Entrepreneurs Make. Join JJ Richa in a fireside chat with Scott Fox, CEO of the OC Startup Council, for a discussion of the top mistakes that early stage entrepreneurs make when pitching their startups for funding. See [link] (more)
First, if your vision is limited and you will be happy with a successful local dry cleaning enterprise or small restaurant around the corner, you are not the target for this effort to help entrepreneurs build great businesses that change the world. Please take what you can from these weekly posts. Many will apply directly to you.).
Each has a process in place to accept applications or recommendations for investment into new companies, and to review these and make decisions based upon their exploration, previous experience in the field, knowledge of the company or industry, or about individual entrepreneurs. Raising money'
The 20-minute video of my presentation is here if you’re interested. You can of course view the presentation in SlideShare above or download it directly for free here. I believe that market conditions drive innovation as much as great entrepreneurs do. These types of trends are unsustainable. Market meet reality.
But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. I was interested in learning more.
You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos. Since we all lose when an entrepreneur with a great idea is held back by a failure to communicate, I would like to offer a quick summary of business writing basic strategies.
People with a victim mentality should never be entrepreneurs. They live in the present or the future, and rarely dwell on mistakes of the past. This victim mentality is not a good thing under any circumstances, but it’s particularly lethal when applied to an entrepreneur. They have faith in themselves, and life as a whole.
Entrepreneurs seem more quickly frustrated these days when their “million-dollar idea” doesn’t turn into a sustainable business overnight. So why do entrepreneurs think that building a business is intuitively obvious, and should happen overnight? Staying in the present.
We live in an era where the press espouses the entrepreneurs who have five startups. In the ways that Brad has described, Ian has been able to see the board dynamic from a perspective more distant than having to be the person on the hook presenting his results. So I was intrigued by Brad’s post.
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