Posts Tagged ‘Investors’
13 Red Flags to Avoid in Your Investor Funding Pitch
After listening to hundreds of startup pitches, and reading even more business plans, most new venture investors develop their own favorite list of “red flags” that signal the beginning of the end of their interest. Others, like Guy Kawasaki, have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent…
Read MoreFundraising 101: 3 Typical Startup Funding Paths
In my previous post, “Should Your Startup Actually Be a Small Business?” I addressed what may be the most important differentiator between a startup and a small business: growth. While I hope it was useful, especially from a theoretical standpoint, I want this one to go directly where the rubber meets the road: How does a startup…
Read MoreFinding Dumb Investors is a Dumb Idea
Are you looking for dumb investors? “How can I find investors who don’t take much equity?” “How can I find investors who don’t interfere with my running the business? I first posted my objections to this kind of thinking nine years ago in Dumb Investors Dumb Idea, one of the earliest posts on this blog. That…
Read MoreDon’t Get Fooled by These Legitimate Investor Tricks
A few weeks ago Rus Yusupov, founder of Vine, found out that after a $30 million dollar sale in 2012, Twitter was shutting down Vine. The Tweet that followed sums up many startup founders egregious feelings towards investors. When you hear a founder saying something like this after a company sale, it’s a big red…
Read MoreHow to Make Money on Your Brilliant Business Idea
So you have a brilliant business idea that will be very successful. My congratulations to you. Now read all ideas are brilliant and nobody is going to pay you for your ideas. Are you still sure? All right then, let’s continue. And—this is important—do not even think about getting investors yet. Do a lean business plan. 1. Gather a team Can…
Read MoreAfter 20 Years: Updating the Berkus Method of Valuation
Well, it had to happen. Originally created in the mid 1990’s to help with the imprecise problem of how to value early stage companies, especially those in technology, I developed what soon became known as “The Berkus Method” when published in the popular book, “Winning Angels” by Harvard’s Amis and Stevenson with my permission in 2001. But…
Read More7 Startup Scenarios That May Be Judged Non-Fundable
If you aren’t willing to take some risk as an entrepreneur, then don’t expect any gain. Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. If you need investors, it’s important that you understand their filters, and even if you…
Read MoreWhat NOT to Do When Pitching Investors: Lessons from Shark Tank
Are you an entrepreneur looking for investors? If you are, good luck. We don’t mean to sound cynical, but finding investors is a tough job. There are only so many new ideas in the world, and no guarantee that your idea is even viable. Investors know this, they see it every day. In 2013 less…
Read More5 Steps to Maximizing Your Startup Cash Flow Runway
Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. Desperate entrepreneurs…
Read More10 Myths vs. Reality on Business Plans and Startup Investment
I gather from a stream of emails I’ve received that there are a lot of misconceptions on the relationship between a business plan and getting seed money and/or angel investment. So here’s a list of reality checks to apply to all those lists. Business plans are necessary but not sufficient. Even a great business plan…
Read More