“Organization is the foundation of success.” – Andrew Carnegie As a founder, one of the key tasks in raising capital is to effectively communicate the value of your company to investors. In my post “YC’s guide to series A” I shared Ycombinator’s advice on how writing your own investment memo can help articulate your value …
Continue reading “Startup 101: What goes in a startup data room”
After spending months and maybe years looking for product-market fit, you now proudly got a product and are ready to go to market. However, after a few weeks of trying to make customers fall in love with what you’ve created, you realise that nothing is as easy as “build it and they will come”. …
Continue reading “Short guide to sales and marketing for start-ups [Guest Post]”
Last week LinkedIn reminded me that it’s been 9 years since I started VC Cafe (Dec 2005). Several people sent their congratulations (thank you btw), and it reminded me it’s been a while since I blogged regularly. I prefer springing into action rather than being sentimental, but I thought a little summary and a selection of highlights may inspire someone who is thinking about blogging to share their thoughts through this medium.
Lessons from David Truong on how to nail the first business development meeting for startups. If you’re not finishing the meeting super excited for the next steps, you’re doing something wrong.
You’re probably familiar with the 60’s bestseller by Dale Carnegie, or at least you’ve heard of it. He’s main point is “Interested is interesting!”. The best way to get people to want to connect with you is to show interest in them. We’re all selfish creatures, or so it seems.
Funding is never easy. Even when you hear stories about entrepreneurs who walk out of a VC with a personal check from the managing director, it is usually after 6 months of pitching and hearing ‘no’. This is the story by Yaniv Nizan from Soomla, who raised a round from 7 investors and lived to tell the tale.
Ciaran O’leary of Earlybird, a VC fund in Berlin, gives founders a checklist for running due diligence on their potential investors. Due diligence should go both ways: VC check-list for entrepreneurs, suggests three main categories that entrepreneurs should check before accepting to take money from an investor. Pocket Size – will they have the money …
Continue reading “Startup Investors: Due Diligence Goes Both Ways”
I came across a very useful free Executive Summary Template, and I thought I’d share it with you. It gives entrepreneurs a pre-formatted template and step-by-step guide to writing an clear Executive Summary in English. The template was created by Israeli startup ebrain, a new online English editing service.
In a world of increasingly growing choice, consumers face a continuous need to make decisions. With limited resources (time, money, attention span), the decision to register/buy/vote/comment on your online store/website or blog, takes seconds at best. That is why, I suppose, creating differentiation for your product can make the difference between failure and success.
The term “Growth Hacking”, invented by Sean Ellis, and made popular by Andrew Chen, a Silicon valley marketer and entrepreneur, is a combination of two disciplines – marketing and coding. Learn the principles of Growth Hacking and how they apply to your startup – to avoid the Trough of Sorrow!
