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Summer: The Midway Point, Part 1

Summer: The Midway Point, Part 1

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Things have certainly changed in the startup landscape. Investors haven’t completely unplugged for the summer, as they had previously. Their offices might have moved to non-sanctuary cities or they may no longer have offices at all. And investment into female founded companies is down.

Okay, so not everything changes, fair enough.

While none of us have any control over investor behavior, and as someone who is hired to ‘fix’ pitch decks all the time and make introductions to investors where and when appropriate, we can tell you that founders can control their own behavior, and give themselves a leg up, by presenting their offering clearly and concisely and grabbing the attention of investors, provided that they’re truly on to something – some of whom might actually write a check. Read More...

The Startup Methodology, Sung to the Tune of…

The Startup Methodology, Sung to the Tune of…

Jimmy Chamberlin, founder and drummer for The Smashing Pumpkins, spoke at a recent StartupOneStop investor breakfast. Besides being a rock star, he is also not only an investor, but a tech company founder as well. It was interesting to get the perspective of someone who is involved in technology – and who has a very successful career outside of the industry.

As he was describing the process of songwriting, it struck us that those rules do apply to startups as well, whether you’re working on an investor deck, or your business plan. And note: whether you’re looking for investment or not, always important to have a business plan when you’re starting a business. We paraphrase:

You have to have a story to tell – and believe in it Read More...

Why We Need to Stop Calling NewCos Startups

Why We Need to Stop Calling NewCos Startups

In case you haven’t notice, the lockdowns have led to an uptick in entrepreneurship and as many newly-minted founders are discovering, starting a business is easy. Building one, not so much. Instead of ‘startups,’ we prefer to call them ‘newcos,’ as you’re building a new company, and a company is about doing business. Startup? You start up a car, you’re off to the races. Or to the grocery store or wherever, provided that you’ve maintained the car, it’s charged or filled with gas, etc. Eventually you will have to get it serviced, and if something goes wrong, you call in a specialist. In tech, they’re called mentors/advisors/consultants. Like the mechanic, they do expect to be compensated for their time and expertise. Like a mechanic, they may do a free assessment. But if you need some work done, well, you have to pay them. Otherwise your vehicle won’t…startup.

  Read More...

Dumb Things Founders Do, Say or Believe

Dumb Things Founders Do, Say or Believe

Summer break is over. Time to get real again. Speaking of which, we’d like to offer a few observations which may help your pitch or strategy and which will hopefully help you move the needle just a bit. Or at least to get real. We do actively mentor at accelerators, and attend pitch events and demo days and host semi-monthly investor breakfasts for entrepreneurs. We don’t claim to have seen and heard it all, but there are a few things you might want to take note of – and a few claims and phrases we’d rather not hear again:

“We have 30+ years experience in ecommerce.” A team of maybe four young co-founders pitching, say, an ecommerce play and claiming to have 30+ years of experience between them. Note to self: most of your team looks as though they’re under 30. Ecommerce itself has only been around for some 20+ years, when most of your teams were still in diapers or hadn’t made his or her debut yet on the planet. Stop it. You’re not fooling anyone. Read More...