Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” Founder: “$250k / month.”

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Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2010

Additionally, you need to be able to communicate the essence that story and value to investors in a couple of sentences – your elevator pitch. Don’t waste time talking to VCs for requests less than $1M, or very early stage, and don’t expect professional investors to jump in if you have no “skin in the game.”

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Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Startup 239

Gust

JULY 23, 2014

So even if my own mother asked me to meet with you, and you were pitching me a biotech opportunity for a $10 million investment at a $90 million valuation, I might take the meeting, but it wouldn’t be particularly useful for either of us. In this case, it’s not a lack of interest, just a lack of time and efficiency.

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Angel Investor Elevator Pitch Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review 153

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Shy introverts may be great technologists, but they won’t be entrepreneurs until they learn to nurture relationships with friends and family, practice their elevator pitch and respectfully ask for funding. Waiting for someone to give you a gift with no specific objective is likely to be a long wait.

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Sweat Equity Elevator Pitch Startup Equity 274

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Practice your “elevator pitch,” and end it by asking for the order. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. On the other hand, if you open every conversation with “I need money,” you won’t have any friends or any money. Be upbeat and respectful.

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Technical Review Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Due Diligence 273

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2021

Shy introverts may be great technologists, but they won’t be entrepreneurs until they learn to nurture relationships with friends and family, practice their elevator pitch and respectfully ask for funding. Waiting for someone to give you a gift with no specific objective is likely to be a long wait.

Sweat Equity 346

Sweat Equity Elevator Pitch Equity Venture Capital 346

VC Cafe

AUGUST 9, 2012

Building a good reputation is one of the most fundamental components to a successful start-up and is particularly invaluable in the early stages. For example, the ‘Visa Elevator Pitch’ will only accept video entries, whilst you have to be a country-based business to be eligible for the ‘House to Home’ competition.

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Elevator Pitch Startup Europe Reputation 109

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

What’s the difference between an elevator pitch and an elevator speech? An elevator speech and an elevator pitch are very similar, but a pitch is frequently delivered to investors in a more formal setting and it’s likely that you’ll have a presentation slide deck (also called a pitch deck) to help you out.

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Elevator Pitch Audience Matching Conversion 118

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

You’ll need a few paragraphs that you can email — often called the elevator pitch — meaning you should be able to give it during a brief elevator ride up to your investor’s office. In fact, keep the material clear and concise instead of trying to make it visually appealing. An executive summary.

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Venture Capital Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence 100

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Be willing to take feedback and tweak your model, especially in the early stages. It may sound obvious, but I can’t tell you how many pitch meetings I’ve sat through in which the entrepreneur hadn’t done their homework on me or my areas of interest/expertise. Perfect your elevator pitch and get it out there.

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Cofounder Elevator Pitch Early Stage Valuation 154

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

Each team gave each professor a three-minute elevator pitch for their idea, and we let them know if it was good enough for the class. It will be an improvement over mammography by detecting abnormal cells in an early stage, is radiation-free, and is 2-5 times less expensive than mammographs.

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Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Eric Friedman

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

Through the initial program and the mentoring I have done since, I have learned a lot about working with early stage teams, certainly what it takes to be a reliable mentor during and after the program, and more about what teams need. I have certainly learned I do not have all the answers, but now I am not afraid to let founders know.

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Elevator Pitch Early Stage New York Framework 60

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Key to any early stage fundraising effort is a well-crafted Executive Summary, or Exec Summary. Your Executive Summary is your verbal elevator pitch. by Ralph (Buddy) Arnheim , partner at Perkins Coie. I have read hundreds of executive summaries over the years. And, the few good ones remain very memorable.

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Elevator Pitch Early Stage Venture Capital IP 154

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 27, 2011

When you first start a company, the corporate brand hasn't yet developed a reputation or any customer momentum, so most early-stage companies leverage the brands of the individuals involved for credibility. Refine your personal elevator pitch. There are tons of tips for developing your startup's pitch.

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Elevator Pitch Management Aggregator Curation 144

Early Growth Financial Services

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Think of your executive summary as the halfway point between your elevator pitch and your business plan—you have about 2 pages (give or take) to communicate your value proposition and get you to the next stop on your startup journey. Here’s how to write an executive summary with impact: 1.

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Elevator Pitch Early Stage Business Plan Startup 58

Eric Friedman

JANUARY 24, 2020

Everyone seems to have their elevator pitch down of themselves, their company, and what they are doing. Spending time with someone in a series of meetings can get to the root of who they are. If possible, try to have a meal with them. Getting to the deeper conversations and questions takes time. The Place.

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Elevator Pitch Valuation Revenue Early Stage 135

Early Growth Financial Services

MAY 22, 2014

They’re mostly self-made individuals who typically invest in early stage companies on a part-time basis. First, make sure you can distill your idea into a 2 minute elevator pitch. And what are they looking for? So how can you be successful at scoring angel funding? Next, work on getting exposure.

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Elevator Pitch Due Diligence Angel Investor Early Stage 46

Austin Startup

AUGUST 24, 2019

Visit Us: [link] Call Us: (+1) 512-827-2252 #realestate #Florida #Texas #Home #HomeSeller #Property  —  @ListingSpark Can you introduce yourself and give us your elevator pitch? You’ll definitely find that here, I think we have plenty of that Mentor guidance.

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Dallas United States Startup Elevator Pitch 48

Board Effect

MAY 10, 2019

At some point in the early stages of a startup, companies often need funds to take their company to the next level. If you can get an appointment, craft a warm, well-developed elevator pitch that includes the problem your product solves, how the product works, and how large the market is for the product.

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Venture Capital Startup Elevator Pitch Angel Investor 49

cdixon.org

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Even if your idea gets in the wrong hands, they will probably just get the high level “elevator pitch” which isn’t worth much anyways. Great points, though your bio does read “Personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including … a handful of other startups that are still in stealth mode!”

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Stealth Startup NDA Cofounder 68

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking? Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. is quite good.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Austin Startup

JUNE 17, 2010

If you’re unfamiliar with DFJ Mercury, they recently provided early stage funding for Macheen , and Graphicl.ly. Blair, Dan, and Ned are the three managing directors of the firm, so if you are selected, you will definitely be pitching the decision-makers. We will start with your 30-second elevator pitch (have one prepared!),

Houston 59

Houston Elevator Pitch Venture Capital Early Stage 59

Up and Running

DECEMBER 4, 2014

When you’re first considering a new business idea, skip the formal business plan and start with a one-page business plan or a simple elevator pitch to jot down the basic components of your idea. Start by documenting your key assumptions about your business. At a minimum, you’ll want to cover the following: Why are you doing this?

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Forecast Elevator Pitch Lean Silicon Valley 152

Up and Running

OCTOBER 22, 2014

In the early stages of fleshing out your business idea, you can just write down a few bullet points about how you will make money and what your key expenses will be. The beauty of the pitch format is that you can come back and revise as you go. See Also The Key Components of a Perfect Elevator Pitch.

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Business Plan Elevator Pitch Forecast Partner 130

VC Cafe

MARCH 4, 2024

Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia ( source ) Michael Eisenberg, co-founder of Aleph, an Israeli venture firm, said in a recent post: “What is the elevator pitch for investing in Israel for the next decade? credit rating forecast dropped in November, and since then the S&P 500 index has jumped by 15%.

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Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital 78

Up and Running

DECEMBER 16, 2014

” The book is the inspiration for today’s webinar, and if you enjoy her PR tips for early-stage and established entrepreneurs, I’d really encourage you to check out her book, which is on shelves now. For early-stage entrepreneurs, yes, you’re getting out there. That is an unbelievable number.

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Public Relations Small Business PR Entrepreneur 117

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Reply Dan Hodgins , on November 13, 2009 at 1:12 am Said: Hi Steve, Just listened to your “Retooling Early Stage Development&# for about the 10th time tonight as I was cleaning my room. This is my new favorite post on your blog. 9 companies in 6 years… did any of those other ones catch on?

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Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 4, 2023

I mean, I have, for example, every month I have what I call elevator pitch sessions. They want a path to grow themselves. They want, obviously we want to earn, but people wanna be engaged, you know? Like, anybody can turn up to this call. It's like 15, 18 minutes long. You get two slides, you get five minutes. What do you wanna do?

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SEO Audience Channel Campaign 87

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2010

But disappointingly, dollars invested in early-stage deals fell nearly 21%. To me, this indicates that venture capitalists (VCs) are looking for business, but they are clearly moving away from early-stage (pre-revenue) deals. Angels are also moving up-stage, leaving a bigger and bigger black hole for new startups.

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Venture Capital Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley Massachusetts 123

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

I mean, I have, for example, every month I have what I call elevator pitch sessions. They want a path to grow themselves. They want, obviously we want to earn, but people wanna be engaged, you know? Like anybody can turn up to this call. It's like 15, 18 minutes long. What do you wanna do?

SEO 84

SEO Channel Campaign Audience 84

ReadWriteStart

MAY 4, 2012

But, when it came to the pitch, nearly every one of them earned an “A” for the day. Rae and the TechStars staff prepare companies for the Demo Day pitch from Day One at the accelerator. In the third month of TechStars, CEOs start practicing their pitches nearly every day for a month before the fateful Demo Day. “I

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Startup Boston Elevator Pitch Database 117

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Tech Gadgets Mobile Enterprise GreenTech CrunchBase TechCrunch TV Disrupt SF More TechCrunch TV Beta Invites Crunchies Elevator Pitches Gillmor Gang Podcasts TechCrunch Europe TechCrunch Trends TechCrunch France TechCrunch Japan Whats Hot: Android Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Twitter Yahoo Zynga Subscribe: From Nothing To Something.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

mashable.com

MARCH 24, 2011

Winging the 60-Second Pitch We’ve all heard of the elevator pitch , but last year, when asked to produce it, only two succeeded in delivering one in under a minute, and that’s among the select three dozen startups invited to do in-person interviews.

Programming 86

Programming Startup Technical Review Software Review 86

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Tech Gadgets Mobile Enterprise GreenTech CrunchBase TechCrunch TV Disrupt SF More TechCrunch TV Beta Invites Crunchies Elevator Pitches Gillmor Gang Podcasts TechCrunch Europe TechCrunch Trends TechCrunch France TechCrunch Japan Whats Hot: Android Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Twitter Yahoo Zynga Subscribe: Think Your Start-up Is Venture Worthy?

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

sites from scratch - Experienced with the majority of the social api’s (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Meebo, PayPal, Flickr) - Experience managing offshore dev teams - Most recently a Director of Product Development at an early stage funded startup [link] meeblog » Blog Archive » starting up: finding your co-founders [.]

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Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 66

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Elevator Pitches. NESTA : They invest in early-stage companies, inform and shape policy, and deliver practical programs that inspire others to solve the big challenges of the future. VC & Startup Resources. Seed Startups. Amazon EC2.

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Software Review Technical Review Startup 53