Category Archives: Fundraising

11/16/20

Interviewing Venture Capitalists

The other day I had a conversation with a CEO who was strapping on his kneepads and polishing up his tin cup to hit the fundraising circuit.

He is not a complete novitiate, but neither could he write the book on the subject. He was a good student, smarter than a Shih Tzu — which is pretty damn smart.

I made bold to say to him, “Remember you are interviewing the venture capitalist just as much as they are assessing you.”

The most important element of fundraising is to ensure you enter into a transaction with a “good” venture capitalist which requires you to interview them.

Here is Dante’s view of the venture capital world.

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04/26/18

Pitch Dynamics

What does a pitch feel like? How should it feel? Pitch dynamics.

Big Red Car here on a spectacular Texas spring day, y’all. It doesn’t get better than this. It was 53F this morning and it will be 83F this afternoon. On Earth as it is in Austin By God Texas!

So, I’m talking to two founder CEOs and we get on the subject of the dynamics of pitching. [Huh, Big Red Car, the “dynamics?”]

By dynamics, I mean the sense of the encounter, the style with which you pitch, the personalization of the pitch, what the pitchee (the funder) is thinking and looking for. So, we discussed it for an hour and some fajitas.

Here is what we settled on.

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04/23/18

Building a Fundraising Database

Building a fundraising database, a perfect subject for an incredibly lovely Monday morning in the ATX. Cool, crisp, sunny — ahhh, on Earth as it is is Texas!

So, you are ready to begin fundraising. You need a target list, a database of potential investors. This is true whether you are in the family & friends, angels, syndicated angels, seed funders, or venture capitalists arena. You need to identify the funders.

So, how do you do it?

In our example, I will build on ten such campaigns I have assisted entrepreneurs in the last year.

Remember, you are dealing with people whose job is to invest money. If they don’t invest money, they don’t keep their job. You, dear entrepreneur, are helping them keep their job.

 

It is hard work, but it is not a difficult task.

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04/14/18

Pitch Perfect Call to Action

Big Red Car here on a lovely, sunny Texas Saturday – windy, but lovely.

In the last two weeks, I have spoken to four CEOs who had the same problem – they did not have a reasonable expectation of the “call to action” which they expect from presenting their pitch.

Let’s review, shall we.

A great pitch presents the problem to be solved, the solution, the revenue to be generated from the solution, and the cost to create that solution. No more than ten slides and the slides are the chapter headings for the discussion.

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09/14/17

Juicero — Judgment

Juicero, Big Red Car?

Big Red Car here in the lovely, sunny, cool ATX enjoying a fresh squeezed carrot juice with some ginger and some sugar beets. Do not tell the guys at Jiffy Lube about this. All they serve is that senior citizen synthetic crap.

So, have you heard about the failure of Juicero? No? Allow the Big Red Car to explain it to you. Comes now, Juicero! Juicero! Juicero!

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03/14/17

Point of View — Entrepreneurs v Funders

Big Red Car here on a sunny SXSW Tuesday in the ATX. On Earth as it is in Texas. No sign of snow, but it’s early.

So, the world is divided into three basic camps:

 1. Entrepreneurs and founders — consumers of capital

 2. Funders of all kinds — angel investors, venture capitalists, friends & family

 3. Ballerinas & poets — folks who are not in the startup world and are gloriously happier in their ignorance of it

Each understandably has a unique point of view depending which role they undertake. Forget about the ballerinas & poets for this discussion.

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