Technology with Dianasaur

Pitching 101: State of the Union Slide

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to write another post, but I’m back! I’m continuing with my series on covering the slides to include in a typical pitch deck. Last time, I talked about the product roadmap slide. This week, I’d like to cover the “State of the Union” slide (henceforth abbreviated as SOU). I view this slide as optional, but it does serve an important purpose. As you know,…

Pitching 101: Defining Product Roadmap

A lot of entrepreneurs treat the product roadmap slide as an afterthought, but it’s actually one of the key factors we consider as investors. It also seems to be a widely misunderstood slide – I see slides that range from extensive excel spreadsheets detailing every product feature and release date to slides that should really be more accurately titled as a “hopes and dreams” slide. So what does…

Creating Your Financials Slide

It’s pretty common for start-ups to omit a standard P&L from their pitch deck in favor of a revenue bar chart going up and to the left. But here’s the punch line: Your revenue bar chart does not show burn, and burn MATTERS. As tech stocks get hammered in the public market and tech IPOs slow down, it is more important than ever to show your projected burn. Is your revenue growth being generated by…

My Startup Litmus Test

I imagine that as an entrepreneur, it often feels like there’s a barrier that prevents your message from reaching VCs. VCs get to ask all the questions without explaining themselves, so I can see how it might appear as if we operate behind a very thick set of curtains. If we push back the curtains though, our motivations are quite simple. We are looking for companies that will make it big. Which…

The purpose of your pitch is to convince a VC that they should spend more time with you. The first pitch requires a fine balance between cramming too much information in an hour and not providing enough information. Your first pitch matters a lot because VCs often don’t have the time to give you the benefit of the doubt if you don’t present your message clearly, and how you present your message…

The Standard Due Diligence Process

A lot of start-ups like to ask me this question, and the short answer is that each process is different. However, there is a common denominator across the majority of the deals we look at. A good way to think about what a potential due diligence process might look like with an institutional investor (note that this may not be as relevant for angels) is to explore the key questions driving a…

Reflecting on 2015 – Less is More

It’s the end of the year, and I inevitably have to succumb to the urge to write a retrospective blog post detailing what I learned over the last year.  I’d like to end this year by sharing the number one thing I learned this year: less is more. Let’s dive in on what I mean here, since obviously less isn’t more all the time. I like to believe that less consumption of fried foods is definitely not…

The Danger of Being “Heads Down”

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs use this term nowadays – it’s usually the nice equivalent of “I’m not ready or willing to talk at this point about funding.” However, I’ve also seen some entrepreneurs use it in a way that I find incredibly dangerous – namely in the context of building a product within a vacuum. I remember back in the day when I was working on a start-up idea with a couple of my…

How Big Should My Vision Be?

There is this dangerous balance when you think about how to pitch your vision. Don’t step forward far enough, and you aren’t being innovative enough; step too far and you’re falling into the cliff of insanity. I am a big believer in thinking big – if you’re going to quite your day job and make your night job your day job, what’s the point of going halfway? However, when you emerge to pitch your…

How Much Traction Do I Need to Raise Funding?

I meet a lot of entrepreneurs when they’re looking to raise (obviously), but I also meet a lot of entrepreneurs who aren’t looking to raise yet, but are looking for honest feedback about when they should raise, what metrics they should hit, and first impressions on their business idea. The one recurring question I get is: how much traction do I need to raise funding?  It’s a funny word –…

Today is my 13th month anniversary working in venture capital. The thing about getting past your one year mark is that it becomes a conversation piece – everyone asks how venture is going out of curiosity and probably out of a sense of social obligation as well. Regardless, I got to thinking about what I have enjoyed the most over the last year. I enjoy meeting entrepreneurs and hearing about…

http://abovethecrowd.com/2015/07/07/in-defense-of-the-deck/ Just read this excellent piece on why entrepreneurs should consider bringing a deck with them when meeting VCs. I’ve definitely noticed a trend towards omitting the deck, especially if it’s a first meeting. In fact, I’ve taken a liking towards that trend. Sometimes I suggest a casual meeting first, and get confused if someone sends me…

I noticed on my nexus tablet today an option to cast my screen to a Chromecast. I used to think that Apple’s ability to cast screens to Apple TV was one of the value propositions behind using Apple products (aka deep integration across devices), but it appears that Google is similarly moving in that direction.This points to a deeper lesson to be learned about the competitive dynamics behind any…

Two Charts – AVC 3 out of 4 of my most recent posts have been related to the funding climate right now. Here’s another look at the story. It’s interesting to see the multiples versus index value in the public markets. I think some companies are getting ahead of themselves in terms of valuation and staying private longer as a result.

Google Reveals Plan To Get Android Powering IoT I’ve been keeping my eye on the IoT space for a while. It’s one of those spaces that everyone likes to say is going to be the “next big thing,” and naturally, I’d like to be able to see the trends that start driving the space right when they start. I’ve always liked platforms and networks – they create, as everyone knows, significant barriers to…

Just wanted to share this article: http://stratechery.com/2015/bloggings-bright-future/

Check out the Social/Communications Map graphic in the article – interesting way to group social media offerings.

Just sharing this website – it has some interesting content

https://modelviewculture.com/