233 Posts Found

Since the 1970s, venture capitalists have backed about one-third of all large publicly traded companies started in the U.S. That’s one of the remarkable findings from Ilya Strebulaev, a finance professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business who studies the inner workings of the VC industry.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Ilya Strebulaev | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I’ve learned that there are two kinds of mistakes in venture capital. There’s the mistake of commission, in which you invest in or go work for a company that fails. And then there’s the mistake of omission, in which you don’t invest in Google or don’t go to work at Facebook in 2005.

The longer you’re in this industry, the more you learn that the mistakes … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marc Andreessen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

New data highlights five things incumbent businesses could learn from venture capitalists and unicorns.

Content: Article | Authors: Jerome Königsfeld, Kai Vollhardt, Leo Leypoldt, Markus Berger-de León | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

Early-stage investors get excited about hearing your story, and how you’re going to change the world and why, as opposed to your saying, “Tactically, here are the next six steps we’re going to do, and this gets us to launch.” That tactical conversation—you need to have a keen grasp of it, but it’s not what sells the dream. It’s important to build your 12- or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Philip Krim | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Pitch Deck Database frees you from the time-consuming process of searching for investor decks by aggregating data on over 700+ pitch deck examples from top tech companies of the world in one place, complete with their funding info and industries.

Content: Online Resource | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Can an algorithm outperform the average angel investor? And if it can, does that also mean it will make less biased investments? Researchers put these questions to the test: They built an investing algorithm and put it head to head with 255 angel investors in a simulation, asking it to select the most promising investment opportunities among 623 deals from one of the largest European … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Charlotta Siren, Dietmar Grichnik, Ivo Blohm, Joakim Wincent, Malin Malmstrom, Torben Antretter | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Finance, Venture Capital

Two years ago, our team at First Round, led by Partner Bill Trenchard and VP Platform Brett Berson, began to quietly build out a program to help our founders navigate the choppy waters of follow-on fundraising. Long had we observed founders caught off guard by what was needed to raise their Series A after having a relatively easy time at the seed stage.

Realizing how … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Trenchard, Brett Berson | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

When a founder says in a plainspoken manner, “When we close, we’re going to be…” you know that they already see the money in the bank. There’s no extra emphasis as they make the statement, but it’s clear it’s not in question. When talking about the future of your company orient around “when” and not “if.”

Content: Quotation | Author: Brett Berson | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I’ve seen hundreds of startup pitch decks and have found total addressable market (TAM) slides to be among the most frequently mis-executed. I get the sense they are often included as a formality in an attempt to get VCs to check a mental box and continue on hearing about other important things: the product, the team, the progress, the go-to-market, etc.
 
In this piece, I’m going … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jared Sleeper | Source: For Entrepreneurs | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

After graduating from college in June, I had the chance to spend three months at Union Square Ventures, helping with a project that created anonymous aggregate insights for USV portfolio companies by analyzing data across stages, customers, and industries. In order to not put a lot of extra reporting effort on our companies, we approached this project by drawing from data in existing board decks. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Max Heald | Source: Union Square Ventures | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Jenny Lefcourt is general partner at Freestyle Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in seed and early-stage investments. She knows what it takes to be an entrepreneur because she’s been there. Lefcourt co-founded two companies — WeddingChannel.com and Bella Pictures — after dropping out of Stanford Business School. Meetings with investors to pitch the business and raise capital left her with a deeper understanding … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jenny Lefcourt | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Founders will often ask me, “Do you want to go through our deck?”
 
It’s not about the slide deck. We have made the decision to invest in entrepreneurs without slides, whose ambition, passion, depth of understanding of an opportunity and compelling vision come through crystal-clear in conversation.
 
But…that’s a high bar for communication. Most of the time, putting a business plan on paper helps you structure a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sarah Guo | Source: LinkedIn | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

In my short career as a VC, I’ve reviewed thousands of pitch decks and helped hundreds of founders refine their pitches. Additionally, I’m often approached by founder friends to provide feedback on their slides before they go to market. Given pitch decks are frequently discussed and they’re essential in the fundraising process, I thought it would be useful to create a simple guide to building … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Steve Schlafman | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

VCs turn down 99% of the companies they’re introduced to. Most of those don’t make it to a face to face meeting. If you’ve made it to an in-person meeting, here are the numbers you need to know to get a VC excited.

Content: Article | Author: Ash Rust | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Cooley, one of the top startup law firms, has open sourced the legal documents required to do a Series Seed or Convertible Note financing.

Content: Online Resource | Source: Cooley Godward | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Free Stuff / Tools, Legal, Venture Capital

Startup guru Guy Kawasaki explains why asking investors for money is like online dating.

Content: Article | Authors: Guy Kawasaki, Ian Chipman | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Your round isn’t anywhere near closed unless you have enough investors who are very serious about investing. However, it can often be difficult to figure out if an investor is actually serious about investing or just being positive about your business. So how can you tell who is actually serious and who isn’t?

Content: Article | Author: Elizabeth Yin | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

A new study asked hundreds of VCs to rank the factors that drive their investment decisions.

Content: Article | Author: Martin J. Smith | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Specific staffing choices and high investment levels can prolong the lifespan of corporate venture capital units.

Content: Article | Author: Vibha Gaba | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

Andy Sparks and Joshua Levy have assembled a list of reference pitch decks for founders to view when building their own. Some notable inclusions: YouTube, LinkedIn, Mint, BuzzFeed, AirBnB, Tinder, Foursquare, Moz, and Buffer.

Content: Online Resource | Authors: Andy Sparks, Joshua Levy | Source: Medium | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital