What should I send investors? Part 1: The Elevator Pitch.

Sur le même thème que "What should I send investors? Part 1: The Elevator Pitch."

Oslo Elevator Pitch

Oslo Elevator Pitch One of the big challenges for me has always been coming up with a short and sweet elevator pitch for our offering, but recently Don Box and Doug Purdy have done just that on their respective blogs. http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/dbox/archive/2008/09/06/oslo.aspx http://douglaspurdy.com/2008/09/06/what-is-oslo/ Life is getting exciting around here as we prepare to show the world what we've been working on for the very first time at PDC. Dev, test and PM have been working hard on the bits and the management team has been pouring over the presentations and marketing plan to make sure present the best possible picture of our product. Soon everyone will get a chance to peak behind the door! Posted: Monday, September 08, 2008 5:15 PM by benmartens Filed under. [lien] [EN]

Is it safe to send my deck to investors?

“I know plenty of VCs that behave the way I do and plenty that don’t.” — Brad Feld, on keeping decks to himself Summary: A deck can help you get a meeting but it can also get in the hands of the competition. Whether you send a deck depends on who wants the meeting most. If you want the meeting more than they do, provide what they want. If they want the meeting more than you do, provide what you want. Finally, keep your secrets secret. In What should I send investors?, we suggested sending investors a deck that describes your business plan. A reader subsequently emailed us and asked: “Do I really want my business plan floating out there in venture land? What if it gets to my competitors? Is it safe to send my deck to investors?” First. [lien] [EN]

What should I send investors? Part 3: Business Plans, NDAs, and Traction.

Summary: Don’t send long business plans to investors. Don’t ask for NDAs. Don’t share information that must remain confidential. Understand that investors care about traction over everything else. In Parts 1 and 2 of ‘What should I send investors?’, we covered the elevator pitch and deck. In this article, we present a few dos and don’ts of sending collateral to investors. Don’t send a business plan. “Nothing slows down a VC as much as a comprehensive business plan.” — David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners Don’t send a 50-page business plan to investors. Nobody reads them and nobody executes them. Investors who want a long plan look bad—so do companies that generate them. The milestones slide of your deck summarizes the company’s plan for the next 1. [lien] [EN]

What should I send investors? Part 2: Deck.

“PowerPoint plans greatly increase your chance of getting a term sheet, or at least the dignity of a quick no.” — David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners Summary: An introduction and elevator pitch are critical to getting a meeting. You can also provide a “ten-slide” deck that tells a compelling story about your team, product, traction, and plans. A PowerPoint plan (“deck”) is less important than an elevator pitch, and an elevator pitch is less important than an introduction. Read What should I send investors? Part 1: Elevator Pitch for tips on crafting an elevator pitch. Many investors will just skim a deck and take a meeting if the introduction and elevator pitch are good. [lien] [EN]

Looking to raise capital? Send an executive summary.

Rick Segal’s (a VC in Canada) recent post made me smile with recognition: It’s around 2a in Toronto, midnight here in Edmonton. 260 summaries, plans, ideas, and virtual napkins are staring at me with an evil grin. It can feel like it is hard to get a VC’s attention. I’d like to think that it isn’t because we’re bad people, and it isn’t because we’re lazy people. But we do get pitched a lot, and the ambient noise level is high. The quote above goes some way to explaining why a VC can’t give an hour to every entrepreneur who wants to meet. So what is the best way to break through the noise? I agree with Venture Hacks’ advice on what to send an investor when they say: Summary: An introduction captures an investor's attention, but a great elevator pitch [executive summary] gets a meeting. [lien] [EN]

TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld to unleash world's worst startup pitches on the rest of us [Bad Ideas]

When we worked together at Business 2.0, I always thought my then-colleague Erick Schonfeld was a bit of an evil genius. Now an editor at TechCrunch, Schonfeld hasn't proven me wrong. He's taking all of the boring startup spiels — "elevator pitches" — he gets from wantrepreneurs trooping through his office and turning them into content. All he has to do is sit back and hit "Record"; he doesn't actually have to do the critical thinking required to evaluate whether the ideas hold any promise, or even make sense. How boring is this idea? Look at David Carr from the New York Times, sitting two seats over from Schonfeld, who's fallen asleep just from listening to the idea. But I have no doubt this is the crowdsourced, video-enabled future of innovation journalism, folks. [lien] [EN]

Will Brown-Forman's Tequila Woes Send Investors to the Bar?

FP Trading Desk submits: When the makers of Jack Daniels whiskey bought Casa Herradura for $875-million two years ago, the company got a 136-year-old brand and one of Mexico’s finest tequila makers at a time when prices were soaring as an agave plant shortage threatened supply. But Brown-Forman Corp. (BF.A) is learning that farming is not as easy as distilling and shareholders of the Louisville, Kentucky alcohol may want a stiff drink. The stock declined more than 5% after the company’s first quarter earnings fell short of expectations on Thursday. It took a $22-million pre-tax charge linked to an abnormal number of dead or dying agave plants used for its tequila.Complete Story » [lien] [EN]

A Pitch for Investors to Look at Iraq

Looking for a secure place to invest in these times of economic turmoil? Try Iraq. That was the message delivered today by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who made his pitch at the United States Chamber of Commerce, where he appeared with James L. Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser. “Iraq is a promising market and has a lot to offer for those who are looking for opportunities for the reconstruction and building,” Mr. Maliki said at a press conference at the United States Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Maliki asserted that Iraq has “achieved security” and is able to protect investments, investors and companies. According to the prime minister, the average income in Iraq has risen to $0 annually from $, and unemployment is down from over 0 percent to around 5 percent. [lien] [EN]

The three moneybags to pitch at Demo [Acquisitions]

Another Demo is coming up this January 28-30. Smart startup founders will save their best pitches not for the bored audience -- trust us, they'll all be ignoring you and sending BlackBerry emails.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] [lien] [EN]

Chris Webber and Don Nelson Reunion? Tiger Dominates Buick; Roger Clemens Goes Damage Control; LeBron James Sends Kobe and the Lakers On A Slide

Chris Webber and Don Nelson Reunion? Tiger Dominates Buick; Roger Clemens Goes Damage Control; LeBron James Sends Kobe and the Lakers On ASlide Calm yourself Michelle. Be EZ. Coming out of Michigan in ‘93 it seemed Chris was headed for the same success he’d had in college. The second sophomore drafted first overall (Magic), was in a position early to contend for a championship with the passionate Warriors. Remember how Spreewell was dunking on everyone? GS was amassing multiple 50 win seasons with the likes of Spreewell, Chris Mullin, multi-talented Billy Owens and current Mavs coach Avery Johnson. They were a dynamic bunch who stuffed the stat sheet with all around contributions from almost the entire roster. Webber put up 17 and 9 on his way to winning Rookie of the Year, but he often clashed with Nelson over defining his game. [lien] [EN]

Scribd holds anniversary at investor's $22 million mansion [Party Report]

I've never quite understood the point of Scribd. Some describe the startup as a "Flickr for documents," except just about any blog platform lets you post documents. At last I'm clear: Scribd is an elaborate excuse for its investors to hold lavish parties. Ed Kinsey, the former CFO of Ariba best known for buying a $22 million house in Atherton before the bubble burst. Kinsey, an angel investor in Scribd, threw a one-year anniversary party Saturday night. On the menu: Caviar on potato chips, vodka shots, lamb chops, a full in-house sushi station, cocktails chilled on a martini-shaped ice sculpture. (These details are courtesy of Joey Wan's Flickr set.) Reports another attendee: You guys should cover Scribd's posh anniversary party from Saturday night. Location: Ariba billionaire Ed Kinsey's "modest" $22 million dollar home. [lien] [EN]

Pitch counts and stranded runners

There’s been some discussion, and for the life of me I can’t find it, about Wainwright’s workload so far this year. I know that on at least 1 occasion, I’ve expressed some concern about the number of pitches that Tony’s having the kid throw. He’s thrown 5 starts and has thrown more than 100 pitches in the 3 of the 5 – not , in and of itself, horrendous. However, against Milwaukee 10 days ago he threw 115 pitches and yesterday against the Astros he threw 126. Just for reference, those 126 pitches were more than any other pitcher in the majors has thrown in a game so far this year. It’s also Wainwright’s career high in pitches. In my view, we’re starting to see a pattern w/ LaRussa. Wainwright has emerged as the de facto ace of the staff and Tony’s going to ride his horse as much as possible. [lien] [EN]

Where Felix Pitches

Jeff mentioned originally doing a Felix PITCH f/x and then got sidetracked by rationalizing our continued interest in failure. Well, far be it from me to deny all of you some pretty pictures to look at and Jeff seems like he needs some cheering up and PITCH f/x is like baseball nerd porn. Let's begin with how Felix starts batters off. Here are plots of Felix's first pitch in each at bat, separated by batter handedness and nothing else. These are heat plots so the brighter the color the more often Felix hits that spot. RHB first, LHB next to it. The color of the spot is determined by the percentage of pitches landing in that area and since there's significantly less first pitches to RHB (107) compared to against LHB (161), that is why there's nothing as cold as green in the RHB plot. [lien] [EN]

Brandon Morrow From Pitch F/X

It's early. It's really early. Then again, there's not much else to talk about so let's talk about Brandon Morrow's incredible improvement so far in 2008. Subjectively we've seen a much more effective breaking pitch so far this season along with, especially recently, improved velocity. But we here at Lookout Landing LLC. do not care much for subjectivity. We like warm nurturing numbers to surround us in their soothing glow so let us get some of them. First off, that improved velocity. Is it real? Yes. In 2007, 61 of Morrow's 1,185 pitches exceeded 98 miles per hour according to pF/X. So far in 2008, 27 of 282 have done the same, an increase of 86%. Morrow's average fastball velocity has also risen a tick to 96.1 mph, up from 95.9 last year. Staying with the fastball, let's take a look at his location first. [lien] [EN]