Venture Capital: 5 Tips for Nailing the Full Partnership Pitch

You have already had one (or likely multiple) meetings with a subset of a firm’s investment team, including a principal and perhaps a general partner. You’ve impressed your point person (or people) sufficiently so that you have been invited to present to the broader partnership. What do you do now? Here are five things to keep in mind.
 

1. Focus on Style, Not Just Substance

This may sound counterintuitive. However, if you have been asked to come in and present to the full partnership, you have already done a good job defining, defending and articulating your business plan, and addressing many questions and concerns. Your initial contacts from the firm have likely already written up one or more memos introducing your company, and have had multiple internal discussions about your company’s compelling prospective investment.

Now it's showtime! Most likely, the partnership will already be familiar with the facts around your team, market, business model, product, customers, competition and financial projections. They are now looking for the “X factor” — your ability to present with pizzazz, to capture and sustain the attention of the room, to project a degree of informed enthusiasm and to showcase your natural leadership and sales abilities with a healthy spark of charisma.

2. Balance Confidence With Thoughtful Introspection

You know your business better than anyone else. It is important for you to project confidence and conviction around the viability, magnitude and trajectory of your business. It is the job of those in the room to challenge your assumptions or to present perspectives that counter your thesis. It is your job to respectfully but credibly convey what you are doing and how you will actualize your plan.

At the same time, be introspective. The best CEOs and entrepreneurs know their strengths but also recognize where they need help. 

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Simple Tips to Attract Venture Capital

When it comes to technology ventures, software has been taking the lead in terms of the number of rounds cleared, however shifts in technology have made it practical for hardware companies to raise capital for their projects. The biggest reasons why software has taken the lead is because the iteration cycle is smaller and also the fact hardware tends to be more cumbersome.

Today however, investors are now branching into hardware startups because device development has become much easier than in the past. Rather than requiring specialized equipment which often filled entire labs, Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards now allow virtually anyone (including children) to hone their Electrical Engineering skills with only a standard computer and a curious mind.

Ultimately however this shift in hardware will be covered in a later article, but it is important to note that venture capitalists are now warming up a bit to hardware despite it being more complex than software.

The Benefit of Crowdfunding

While many venture capitalists and traditional financiers look down on crowdfunding as being a modern day gold rush where everyone is looking for a quick buck, crowdfunding can be a vital entrepreneurial tool if used properly. In particular a crowdfunding campaign can be used to test the waters and make sure your idea actually has a market. Additionally if you have a successful crwowdfunding campaign, you can take that to an investor to justify your request for funding.

Keep in mind that this method only works with hardware/product startups since crowdfunding isn’t really intended for service oriented companies.

What VC’s Look for in Entrepreneurs

One of the most important points taken from the venture capital panel at CES is that the average venture capital investment lasts longer than the typical marriage. This means that one of the biggest factors an investor considers when making a decision is how well the team members know each other. Ultimately investors will only consider working with teams who have already weathered major challenges since entrepreneurship is rarely a smooth path.

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Entrepreneurship - What do you need to know?

In today’s day and age, consumers possess a very calculated mind as it helps them see every company they come across in a clear, context manner with reference to cost factor, time taken for travel, quality, quantity, and many more .This is where a wise businessman must equip himself with fair knowledge and understanding of these needs and desires of the customers, and know how to canvass them using his innovative skills, in order to attract a large set of people towards his business. After all, why would they seek his company’s service when they can get a better service at a cheap rate in a neighbor company?

He must also be aware that people keep changing. If you are desperate about succeeding, you ought to think differently, that is the rule. Hence on knowing this well, he must operate in a more established manner as his only goal is to satiate his customers in general, making him standout from rest of his rivals.

Moreover, he must thrive hard to change their mentality in order to become his regular, loyal customers. But he never should take them for granted. Each customer is unique, such that their tastes and expectations tend to be different. He should consider this fact after doing a thorough research and form a more realistic approach rather than an artificial one. The following are the essential questions to ask yourself, if you are sincere about starting a business.

1) Are you going to take risk as a sole proprietor? What sort of customers are you planning to deal with? How will your business be different from that of your competitors? Do you have effective marketing techniques to run the same?

2) When the idea of a business startup popped into your head, was it because were you inspired by the victory of another startup? If it is so, you should be unduly cautious and brilliant enough to avoid imitations or falsifications of any kind that might lead to unnecessary conflicts.

3) You may start your business any time at any place; but a crucial point or situation may arise where you have to abandon it due to family issues, time constraints, and lack of money, investors, etc. Are you 100% sure, you are ready for this?

4) Let us suppose you have started running your business and is quite content with its progress coupled with auspicious and impressive profit  of which you are confident in getting .Suddenly, an unexpected, heavy loss occurs and ruins your business abruptly leaving you all scattered to tiny pieces. In this case, will you promptly quit or have the courage to start over again?

After asking these questions, you still are very much interested, the following are some of the important aspects that you should never fail to concentrate during the course time of running your business.

a) Enthusiasm for Entrepreneurship

The advantages of having a partner for business startups

Two types of business operations in the form of a partnership that has been very popular today. Because if compared to the benefits the business owners who have the sole monopoly on the business owner is one of the shareholders that the difference is quite large. Together with the form of business in the current structure in the economy to facilitate business operations in the latter, more in this era, so you do not really have a chance to see emerging businesses that stem from the same owner, but only a little. The advantages of strategic partnerships with the following.

1. A capital increase.

Fund business is that of matching the story is well known for business. The partners will help business operators are promising to raise capital to expand much more. This is beneficial to invest in things that will not expand branch offices. Funds for the purchase of products. Employs. Working capital in the company. That these issues will have very limited if the company is owned only one shareholder. The financing will be difficult to run than companies that have business partners who share the same management.

  

2. Have an advisor on hand to help.

The assisted forward advice without having to pay employment benefits that the company is a partnership with business over the sole owner. Of course, because it operates in part to be indispensable, although, it is not difficult to see problems in the operation. This is to meet all the experience of business life. Having a good advisor who understands the problems and needs access to the company will help alleviate the burden on the operators to be very they are ready to be behind the scenes who help support the idea of ​​entrepreneurship and ready to be ahead in removing obstacles to encounter problems. It is helpful if businesses will open tremendous business partner with a partner. How bad because two heads are better than one head, lean on dinner.

3. has broad social networking business.

Restructuring: Do You Need to Restart Your Startup?

You wouldn't start a business if you didn't think it could work.  Yes, entrepreneurs tend to have an outsized sense of the possible, no one would put in the time, money and effort required to start a business without a compelling sense that it could really become a success. Why, then, do so many startups fail?

One big reason is because entrepreneurs aren't known for listening and learning from their mistakes.  When everything seems to be falling down around you, there's a fine line between blindly sticking to your original plan and being open to pausing, analyzing what went wrong, and making course corrections with the benefit of your recent experience and new information.  Ending up on the correct side of this line can be the difference between failure and success.

Mistakes are inevitable, especially in a startup where so many factors must come together simultaneously.  It is almost as inevitable that an entrepreneur will become overextended during the startup phase.  Every entrepreneur has war stories of the chainsaw juggling that's inherent in the first few years of a company's existence.

No Room for Error

Our war story starts when we hit our stride and were maturing as an organization.  We were growing at a rapid clip, were 100 percent staffed with our strategy consulting business, and had just doubled our associate class.  We were fully extended financially and had more than doubled our team; we had no room for error.

Our business can be spikey and, as bad luck would have it, two of our biggest clients had a change in their business that reduced the need for our support.  We had to cut our cost structure fast and deep to get it in line with the new forecasted revenue base.

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12 Essential Traits Of Successful Start-up Leaders

From humility to the ability to stay focused anytime, 12 start-up founders share the traits they consider hallmarks of great leadership.


We asked 12 successful founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council which traits they believe--above all others--define great start-up leaders. After all, passion is one thing--but what actually makes a good leader great? Their best answers are below.


1. Flexibility

"No plan survives contact with the enemy." This variation on German Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke's original quote could not be more true. Leaders of start-ups need to be flexible and be able to alter (or even throw out) plans as their business rolls forward. And they need to be able to do it without getting angry, stressed, or insulted. Emotions like that from a leader crush company morale. --Matt Peters, Pandemic Labs

2. Humility

Whenever the company fails, it should also be the leader's fault. Whenever the company succeeds, it should also be the employees' fault. Your employees are not a vehicle to fund your ego. If you run a company, your employees are now your customers--and your top priority should be to serve their needs, not your own. --Liam Martin, Staff.com

3. Focus

8 Tips to Become An Outstanding Entrepreneur

Have you ever wondered what sets successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson apart from others? What do they do differently to guarantee success?

When I co-founded a start up boutique advertising agency I learned a few things about what it really means to be an entrepreneur and I’d like to share these with you today. I’ve discovered that entrepreneurs tend to have a few common traits and the good news is – there’s nothing to stop you from applying these traits this month, this week or even today.

Productivity 

 

In my opinion – entrepreneurs are a rare breed and they truly value productivity over the ‘number of hours worked’. This isn’t to say that they don’t work hard – because believe me you need a strong work ethic to succeed as an entrepreneur, the point is – they work smart.

I’ve always been a believer in the art of productivity – and I strongly believe that most people are not as productive as they could be. A lot of time is wasted when we are not focused on what we’re doing each day.

Entrepreneurs however, do not waste a single second. They have learned how to use their time to the max and this is why they can somehow achieve the impossible!

Instead of working by a set number of hours each day (ie 9 – 5), they apply a whole host of productivity techniques to ensure they get things done quickly and efficiently. I’ll share a few of their productivity techniques here with you today – the first is goal setting.

Entrepreneurs set goals because of the following reasons:

* A goal (with a deadline) creates energy that naturally motivates you to get things done quicker than usual. This energy powers you through to achieve things.

* A goal allows you to overcome any feelings of inertia or procrastination

* A goal allows you to really ‘focus’ on what you’re trying to achieve

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7 Best Personal Branding Tips for Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, your personal brand is just as important–if not more important–as your company’s brand.

When beginning a new business venture, it may be easy to focus on your company’s brand and completely forget your own. But the days of an invisible founder are long gone. We’ve now entered a time where a highly visible CEO is the norm, as well as a unique opportunity for growth and success.

When your sales leads, team members, and marketing materials are largely garnered from how people feel about you personally–it’s easy to see how your personal brand can make or break your business. Developing and maintaining your identity should be first priority, with your company’s brand following suit.

Here are seven tips to get on the right track to building an exceptional brand as an entrepreneur

1. Build your brand with a direction in mind. As an entrepreneur, your personal brand is tied directly to the business or businesses you’ve built. Developing a strong personal brand means positioning yourself in the direction you would–and your business–would like to go. When developing your brand, it’s important to highlight the key attributes and values which you hold close, but don’t forget to let your brand embrace those aspects you hope to attain in the future–like innovation or expert status.

2. Find your niche and dominate. Fitting in isn’t acceptable when it comes to your personal brand. Brand success is often related to the unique aspect which sets you apart from the rest. Defining and projecting what makes your personal brand different will help you stand out from the crowd. If you can’t find a category to stand out in, create your own and dominate it. Your business brand will soon follow.

3. Implement your personal marketing strategy.