Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary.

Summary 90

Summary Writing Competition Sample 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

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.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

Paige is a gifted communicator and my summary does not do him justice. He offers a number of worthwhile tips and tricks that I was not able to capture in the textual summary, so the 14-minute audio file is well worth your time. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Paige’s responses. Click here to listen to the Audio File.

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

I think you'll enjoy hearing him, but if you're in a rush check out the summary notes below. As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. The Exchange Fund – This allows the entrepreneurs to diversify their founders stock into other portfolio companies stock.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Watch the 30-minute interview to hear why but summary notes below. In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. We talked about how business school historically hasn’t positioned entrepreneurs well for success. ” Who else does Clayton pray for?

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2010

I stumbled upon the Question, “ What-is-the-motivation-behind-writing-public-reviews-and-tips-as-on-Amazon-Yelp-Foursquare-StickyBits-etc &# and took the bait. Or let’s face it – writing lots of answers on Quora. So in summary, if you’re going to do a UGC site: Know that there will be three buckets of users.

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Writing Content Sites 294

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

Or if you’re pinched on time the summary is below and the time coding can help you watch a brief snippet on topics that interest you. 3:35 The real entrepreneurs come out during a down economy. 19:30 A teachable moment for entrepreneurs: HAVE A HYPOTHESIS! 41:00 Transitioning from software to writing.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. The entrepreneur lifestyle is all about doing something you enjoy, without undue stress, uncertainty, and risk.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital. One of the things AngelList helps us do is raise our brand, have a pre-existing relationship with many, many entrepreneurs and give us access into great deals.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

Below is a nice summary of our interview with some great quotes from Joanne. I think this video should serve as an inspiration to any young aspiring female entrepreneur (and male!) You already know that&# ), in sales and more broadly as an entrepreneur. Not enough entrepreneurs dedicate enough of their day to this.

Startup 311

Startup Sales Venture Capital Entrepreneur 311

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. But, in fact, I would rather have an executive summary than a pitch deck. And I would rather, even before the executive summary, have something to play with (a demo)…” It falls in the category of show don’t tell. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently. Back then VentureHacks didn’t exist.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. In the original version of his post, Andy writes. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. Get to the entrepreneurs earlier next time.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. Back to regular writing this week so check back in. TWIVC Summary – Richard de Silva. Are you thematic in your investing or entrepreneur focused? (11:40-14:15). Thank you. (if

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2014

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. Executive summary glossy.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Slides 108

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2016

It’s a testament to two fantastic entrepreneurs Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano — who have been nothing but a pleasure to work with over the years. We talk often about wanting to work with entrepreneurs who are truly committed to their cause and these two personify that belief. And here is Jason Del Rey’s announcement of the funding.

Venture Capital 199

Venture Capital Summary Writing Funding 199

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

Of course I can’t write every press release for the company nor would I want to. I get presentations from aspiring entrepreneurs. Having been an entrepreneur for near-on a decade and having pitched in 100 VC meetings I hated getting no feedback. In Summary. ” but I cared more about the outcome and the lesson.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years. I’ve also found him to not be dogmatic either.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I shifted my thinking a few years ago after I read Tim Ferris’s book The Four Hour Workweek (link is to a short summary I wrote). You’re writing a freaking blog post! I do what I wish all entrepreneurs would do. It’s an entrepreneur with whom I’ve been wanting to work for 6 years. I think so. [I

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.” Many pension funds are simply too large to write small checks and favor the ability to write $50-100 million checks to funds. Summary: Cheap, mobile, social, global, always-on, one-click-purchase =.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

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

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2010

I would take all of the one-on-one conversations that I have with entrepreneurs from the things I’ve learned and just write them up for anybody to read. You’re an entrepreneur – you’re allowed to be a bit of a control freak. Summary Recruiting is a very time-consuming and expensive exercise.

Startup 294

Startup Press Course Writing 294

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Summary: Team Leadership skills, operating knowhow and industry knowledge are all tremendously important. Most entrepreneurs I encounter seem to make their decisions more on perceived brand, past successes and ability to intro.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more. You need both to survive.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. Jody didn’t exactly have an easy time fund raising because he’s not one of the prototypical Silicon Valley funded entrepreneurs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. Most entrepreneurs are. You can also just generally ask entrepreneurs who have presented to the VC but who didn’t get funded (the majority of companies that actually present).

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

. - Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - Summary: Journalists are people. Many other great companies are not. - Deal with it gracefully.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2010

An entrepreneur recently sent me an @ reply message on Twitter asking for some help with a decision coming up in his business. But many well intentioned entrepreneurs are sloppy about how they ask so I’d like to give you some guidelines to help. Summary: Those the make it easier for others to help them will receive more help.

Help 332

Help Email Mentor Blogging 332

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 14, 2010

I believe that this creates more opportunities for both entrepreneurs (who have more exit options) and for investors. Or when I see somebody who is extremely “salesy&# in a VC meeting I often write them off too quickly. &# Ugh. That guy is never going to stop spinning.

Startup 343

Startup Examples Summary Venture Capital 343

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

As of today, I will have published an article here for entrepreneurs and startups every day for the last 1001 days, since I started Startup Professionals Musings near the close of 2008. Here are ten key messages that I would like to leave you with: I continue to gain respect for entrepreneurs. I’m sure you know what I mean.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Blogging Social Media 96

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Most entrepreneurs have learned that it’s almost always quicker and easier to get cash from someone you know, rather than Angel investors or professional investors (VCs). Here is a summary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends, family, or even fools: Don’t be afraid to ask, carefully.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Ideas 109

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2010

By Mahesh Raj Mohan Writing a business plan can be a difficult process. you still have to write the plan for a particular audience. Your business plan’s writing style should take their preferences into account. So what writing styles should you use for these very different audiences? Hi, I’m writing this plan because.”

Writing 97

Writing Summary Ideas Research 97

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Summary notes, as always, provide below. It was a pleasure to write them myself. He was a life-long entrepreneur and the first business he created out of college (actually, he founded it while he was at Caltech) was a company that manufactured high quality audio speakers. Too many entrepreneurs focus on dilution.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2021

Based on my experience as an investor and mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, one of the quickest ways to kill your credibility and your startup is to offer a poorly written business plan, or none at all. An entrepreneur who can’t manage a plan, probably won’t be able to manage the new business.

Sample 137

Sample Writing Mentor Content 137