Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

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 109

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 109

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

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.

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Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

Startup Metrics with Dave McClure Dave McClure has a great presentation on Startup Metrics where he points to some additional metrics that are useful to consider: A : Acquisition - Where / what channels do users come from? Be sure to check out the entire presentation. Please write us at blog@techempower.com !

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Metrics Startup Slides Technical Review 260

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 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. Information Asymmetry - The biggest problem that presenters face in large (5+ people) is information asymmetry. Congratulations. Does that sound ok?&#.

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Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

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

Berkonomics

MARCH 23, 2017

But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Writing 243

Writing 243

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. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. Be ready to map your presentation to their preferred method. And he / she wants to hear how you really think, not the presentation you’ve memorized.

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Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Thursday, October 6, 2011 -- EFactor presents: 7 Steps to a Successful Startup. Entrepreneurs don't like to write business plans, but how do you know if there is real potential for you idea? Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, will also give a presentation on tips and tricks of starting your own business. See [link] (more)

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TechEmpower Startup Tips Writing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2017

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. This means writing at the level of an average newspaper story (about eighth-grade level). On the other end of this spectrum are entrepreneurs who present long product specifications with a few financials at the end.

Writing 56

Writing Tips Content Summary 56

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have a piece from GRP Partners' Mark Suster , who--after watching and judging pitches at last week's Twiistup event--gives some hints and tips about how not to suck at presentations. Most people suck at presenting to big groups. No great presentation can be delivered like a conversation.

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Twiistup GRP Partners Tips UCLA 124

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.

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Class Coach Invest Sales 282

TechEmpower

AUGUST 7, 2023

Please write us at blog@techempower.com ! It’s just not a realistic expectation. You don’t want to be in the meeting when the investor asks why you didn’t use their favorite new technology - at least, not without a good answer! cto , infotech , innovation , product , project , saas

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CTO Hire Develop Development Fractional VPE 260

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

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Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 22, 2021

The theater has actually been largely unoccupied since 1988, which clearly meant even more work had to go into shining up the walls and making the grand old theater presentable for that modern retail vibe — not to mention a seismic upgrade to help make it more earthquake proof.

Education 299

Education Los Angeles Press Hollywood 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)).

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

Don’t forget business writing and communication. Most universities have formal incubator and business development organizations that focus on coaching, grant writing and technology licensing. These present a huge opportunity to take your first steps as an entrepreneur with minimal risk and maximal support.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 149

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 26, 2012

Miselu presented their first prototype, neiro, this year at SXSW for an early debut of what is to come from the company. Groesche got me intrigued with Miselu’s grand vision so I couldn’t help but ask him for a quick interview on the product: Tell us about presenting the product early at SXSW?

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Press Ideas Product Activity 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Every time I think to write a post about this I figure the most recent board meeting I’ve attended will think it’s about them so I don’t bother. So I’m going to write a series of board meetings posts unrelated to anybody or maybe an amalgamation of them all. I have much more to say on the topic.

Writing 337

Writing Venture Capital Help SaaS 337

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

I plan to write a series of posts on the topic. Equally, I plan to write for the benefit of investors and independents, too, to offer some tips on how can you get the most out of the boards on which you sit. I’m open to lobbying via Twitter (I’m msuster ) which order to write them in and/or if you think I’m missing a topic.

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Startup Writing Framework Summary 204

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

This is true whatever the reason the board observer is present. In other situations they might be writing smaller checks but want to be present at board meetings for strategic rationale. even though I know I’m going to p**s off a few friends by writing this. Strategic Investors ?—?This

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Startup Venture Capital Writing Training 255

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 19, 2021

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. This means writing at the level of an average newspaper story (about eighth-grade level). On the other end of this spectrum are entrepreneurs who present long product specifications with a few financials at the end.

Invest 135

Invest Tips Writing Content 135

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

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. The first post & the full outline if you click the link.)

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

Founded in 2020 by two former Meta executives, Tome is a business-focused storytelling and presentation tool that leverages generative AI. Writesonic Writesonic is an AI writing tool designed to help writers overcome writers block and level up their skills. Tome Tome is another AI startup that's been causing a stir in 2023.

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Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 196

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I recently attended and presented at Dave McClure’s PreMoney conference in San Francisco. I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. Here is the video of the presentation that I gave that preceded our debate. tl;dr version. And we ended. Startup Lessons'

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Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Berkonomics

AUGUST 2, 2017

Apple and Samsung do that with elegantly packaged, beautiful hardware, presented in a clean package with easy instructions and a “wow” user experience upon first use. Do you want to wait until that day to reform, and later write your own love letter to a battery backup? Didn’t think so….

Software Review 266

Software Review Screening Writing Activity 266

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 24, 2022

So the lion recruited a cockroach who had extensive experience as a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports. He also needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports. Poor thing had to write this parable and broadcast it through social media, just to get her point across.

Course 156

Course Writing Report Startup 156

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 2, 2009

But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Startup 159

Startup Writing 159

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2017

There are so many moments from the Upfront Summit that I want to share with you — it just takes time to watch through all the videos, do write ups and still do my day job. One of the most exciting thinkers at Summit was Rebecca Kantar, the founder of Imbellus.

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Resource Help Technology Writing 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

I often felt like it was a sort of Meeting Tourette’s Syndrome problem I had but when people present and move very slowly covering obvious ground and making no point the pressure in my builds and builds until I almost accidentally blurt out uncontrollably. ” I write. This hit me over the head. I wish I didn’t.

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Startup Entrepreneur Writing Help 416

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A It’s why I always work hard to find images for my blog posts & why all of my keynote presentations are visual rather than bullet points with words. When I write a blog post I often see the words before I write them.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

TechEmpower

MAY 17, 2013

Additionally, we have added a new test type focused on writes, wherein a variable number of database updates are executed per request. Note that the Windows configuration presently retains the Linux-hosted database server—only the web/application server is running Windows Server 2012.

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Framework EC2 Web Writing 524

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2011

I wanted to write a quick post on a pet peeve that I have when teams present “who they are” whether in a bio slide or just in the up front introductions. For starters I think that if you bring people to the meeting with you they should all have a role in the presentation. Why is it a pet peeve?

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Slides GRP Partners Venture Capital Writing 296

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I did a presentation about the use of Social Media to a great group of people who mostly are different kinds of service professionals (attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.). I promised that I would do a follow-up post with some thoughts out of the presentation and providing links. Be interested in what they write.

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Social Media Services Media Blogging 222

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 15, 2010

Jason started the Open Angel Forum in response to his frustration that entrepreneurs were being charged by some angel organizations to present at their events. Asking young companies with limited capital to pay to present to a group of potential investors is insane. 5 companies presented for 7-8 minutes each followed by Q&A.

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Angel Startup Tech Coast Angels MyShape 254

SoCal Tech Calendar

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Software engineers write the programs for computers to process the data. On December 8, 2012, the Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum presents a stimulating and revealing program on the latest in technology and entrepreneurial opportunities in medical imaging. Entrepreneurs dream and bring the dreams to reality. See [link] (more)

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Enterprise Forum CalTech Software Engineering Writing 113

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

I'm presenting Making Sure You Are Ready to Begin Building Your MVP next week at Coloft ( Details/Registration ). They look at the following high level definition of Lean: and they interpret that as write up an executive summary with your ideas and hand it to developers to build. What's going to go wrong?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219