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CHARGE!

CHARGE!

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Photo by Harri P on Unsplash

We recently hosted a very successful serial founder and sometime investor at our online Investor Insights, who just launched yet another company – his third. It was fascinating to listen to both his advice – and his history. His first company was quickly acquired by Google, which was ‘clearly’ a win, but careful there, founders: great to be ‘adopted,’ but not all ‘parent’ companies are the same. He served his time, celebrated the day the golden handcuffs came off, and quickly launched his next company, which pivoted a few times, as all companies do, but did find its footing and a sustainable revenue stream. Acquisition offers were proffered and rejected, perhaps since the entrepreneur had been there, done that.

The company is still alive and well and turning a profit to the tune of hundreds of millions a year.

Nice revenue stream. Read More...

The Founder Test: Do You Have What It Takes?

The Founder Test: Do You Have What It Takes?

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We all know the statistics: most startups fail for various reasons, primarily because they run out of money, or didn’t raise enough – or any. There is another factor to consider: do you have what it takes to be a founder of a company? There’s a lot of advice out there on the slides you need in your deck and why startups fail, but what about some basic skills you need to be a founder? We do know that many founders of very successful companies are psychopaths – do try to avoid going that route – and that aside, here are some things you need to consider: Read More...

The Pitch Deck: What Investors Are Really Looking For

The Pitch Deck: What Investors Are Really Looking For

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

It’s been a while since we discussed pitch decks, and it seems that it may be time for a refresher course/reminder.

We all know that there are a few points to cover. Again, in no particular order:

  1. Vision and Value
  2. Problem
  3. Market/Opportunity
  4. Solution
  5. Business/Revenue Model
  6. Competiton
  7. Traction/Road Map to Traction (aka Go To Market Strategy)
  8. Marketing and Sales Strategy
  9. Team
  10. Financial
  11. Ask/Use of Funds

If this is the latest project from a team of very successful serial entrepreneurs, you’re going to move that ‘team’ slide up. Investors want to know that if this startup’s founders are, say, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Read More...

No Is an Acronym, Revisited

No Is an Acronym, Revisited

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When you were a kid how many times did your parents say No! N-O, NO! More than once, we’d wager. How many times did they say, Yes, Y-E-S, YES!’ Bet I can count the number of times on one hand – zero. Never happened.

We did notice this at a fairly young age – long before we knew that there was such a word – that NO is an acronym. It was parent-code for ‘keep trying’ or ‘change the talking points.’ In some cases, and we found that if we changed our approach or arguments, we could get a yes. Persistence pays. And the same can be said of investors. Investors hate to miss opportunities, so they don’t really like to say No. Investors like to hedge their bets and keep their options open. Sometimes they will give you a hard and fast No and mean it. Still, that said, things change, so one never knows if it truly is a hard No. Read More...

Anyone Can Start a Company – Not Everyone Can Build a Business

Anyone Can Start a Company – Not Everyone Can Build a Business

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It’s not easy building a business – and do notice that we say ‘building a business’, ’rather than ‘starting a company.’ Anyone can start a company. Not everyone can build a business. To help you to get to the latter, we thought we’d offer some handy do’s and don’ts. They’re obvious enough. One would hope, although we are admittedly the consummate optimist.

There are two popular misconceptions of which founders need to be disabused (ok, there are many, but we’ll break it down as we go): Read More...

The Wright Brothers Didn’t Have a Pilot’s License and More Sage Advice from Investors

The Wright Brothers Didn’t Have a Pilot’s License and More Sage Advice from Investors

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Some investors put a lot of stock in startups or founders who have subject matter expertise. Jeanne Sullivan, founder of Starvest, loves to hear from founders who are doing something totally new, in which case, how can you be a subject matter expert. After all, as she said, “the Wright Brothers didn’t have a pilot’s license.“

We host a breakfast every two weeks with one investor and a small group of entrepreneurs. We prefer this over filling the room with 100-400 people, as investors tend to say things in a smaller group and impart information that might not come out during the Q&A in a larger group. Since it’s summer and many of the investors are away – which means that we’re only hosting one breakfast in July and one in August – we felt that this might be a good time to share some of the information that they’ve share with us (and the attendees) with you: Read More...

Common Mistakes Startups Make – And Knock It Off!

Common Mistakes Startups Make – And Knock It Off!

At one of our recent investor breakfasts, Howard Morgan, founding partner of First Round Capital and Chairman of B Capital, offered up the six P’s he looks at when evaluating a company: people, product, plans, profits, passion, and persistence, with ‘product’ including knowing your market, and ‘plans’ meaning financial planning. We’re going to add a seventh P, since Howard also believes that one of the most frequent startup mistakes is coming up with the wrong Pricing, whether it’s too high or too low.

Then there are the much more basics mistakes that startups make/common misconceptions that founders or the team have, which we feel contribute greatly to the fact that nine out of 10 startups fail. Remember: Anyone can start a company. Not everyone can build a business. These might be a few of the contributing factors that can make all the difference:

1. You don’t need to hire a writer. Anyone can write. Not really, but we’ll play. It’s not simply about writing – it’s about communicating. Effectively. Because founders believe that anyone can write, that skill is devalued. The concept needs to be rethought. Try this: you pay your tech developers, right? The writer is developing the concepts that will effectively get your message to your prospective audience/customers.  Think of it as a front-end coding skill. Anyone can learn to code. Not everyone can code well. Content writers are front-end developers who use a specialized coding language. Words instead of zeros and ones and symbols, etc. And remember: the first thing your customers see are the words, not the code. And glad we’ve finally clarified that one! Pay your writers! Read More...