tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84323321107639927102011-11-27T16:20:38.444-07:00Master pitching your business to angel investors and VCs to finance fast growth and a profitable early exitThe Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-57916148291495030292011-11-06T12:30:00.000-07:002011-11-06T12:30:46.734-07:00

How many times do you remember projects, ventures and adventures turning out faster or easier than expected?  Better than expected returns, financial or otherwise, are not uncommon, but easier or faster, next to never.  Why? Here is Daniel Kahneman's  insight in his words (whole post reported below):   Why the inside view didn’t work   (a book writing project) This embarrassing episode remains

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-57109449265983954142011-09-21T10:06:00.000-07:002011-09-21T10:06:24.459-07:00

Little has been heard in the news and few individuals will be directly affected, but the Patent Office's changeover to "First To File Rule" is likely to have a profound effect on innovation, the process by which inventions find their way to market.For details read Patent Office -- "First to File'' Bill (2011)The rest of the world has been on the First To File (FTF) all along. Only the US has

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-43205765050979643632011-09-20T07:33:00.000-07:002011-09-20T07:33:55.837-07:00

Political expediency and demagoguery always tries to take voters for a ride with simplistic arguments phrased to sound commonsensical and outrageous at the same time. However, careful analysis of the data always exposes the trick for what it really is. We owe it to ourselves to know better when the facts are easily verified. FACT CHECK: Are rich taxed less than secretaries? | The Associated

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Supreme Court Justice Potter famously said of pornography "I know it when when I see it".  After 35 years of serial entrepreneurship I felt "I feel it when I read it" reading Michael Harrigton" Are You A Pirate? -"... That thrill of your first hire, when you’ve convinced some other crazy soul to join you in your almost certainly doomed project. The high from raising venture capital and starting

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-71876148718974457242011-05-24T20:34:00.000-07:002011-05-24T20:34:25.713-07:00

It was my great fortune to have great teachers, coaches and mentors. To all of you I owe a large measure of my professional success and happiness. By your example you also gave me the desire to give back in my turn, however useful that may be. Steve Blank put in words the value of that contribution better than I know how. All I can do is to bow to you (that is why you received the email

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-7884903210651696172011-05-18T07:53:00.055-07:002011-05-19T11:50:46.384-07:00

New entrepreneurs seeking funding from angel investors often appear surprised by the multitude of considerations and requirements they must satisfy to get funded. If they can keep both the big picture and the details in perspective, the puzzle is not so difficult to solve. Working backwards from the investors' requirements and preferences one can create a proposal that will "sell" provided that

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-2930758667337760572011-05-14T11:08:00.005-07:002011-05-14T11:13:53.156-07:00

These two stories made me reflect on the strategic considerations in naming businesses and when taking brands global:  This French Billionaire Is About To Invade America  and  FRENCH INVASION: Flash Sales Juggernaut Vente Privée Announces Plans To Kill Gilt Groupe.  One has to presume that the combined marketing staffs of Vente Prive'e and AMEX must have considered how their brand may be

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-36483627240462862922011-04-28T15:32:00.001-07:002011-04-28T15:35:34.273-07:00

A refreshing an honest reflection on: luck, making one's luck and knowing the difference; discovering what we are psychologically fit for and what not; learning to look for luck where we are fit and able to create it. Great lessons in business and self understanding. LUCKY OR SMART? Secrets To An Entrepreneurial LifeRead the whole series of posts here Marco Messina

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-61048901379000060642011-04-21T10:54:00.003-07:002011-05-18T07:32:01.720-07:00

Ballroom dancing is not an innate skill. Most people have to learn the basic technique that most other dancers are likely to use because it is the shared knowledge that makes possible for two near-strangers to move in step and unison on a dance floor. It often pas to learn it before stepping on the dance floor with a new date, or a new in-law at one's wedding. The same can be said of learning

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-69775881842503776022011-04-18T06:21:00.001-07:002011-05-18T07:34:22.098-07:00

In the public interest: this is the best explanation of the debt crisis that I've seen in non-technical terms. It took ten years to create a financial industry bomb, will it take ten more to fully digest the consequences? The optimist says yes, only ten: plan accordingly.The Crisis of Credit Visualized | BusinessBlogs Hub

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-5045459130588858042011-04-15T10:18:00.001-07:002011-05-18T07:39:29.740-07:00

Is France Plotting to Kill the Free Internet? : Tech News and Analysis «

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-15877938881329731412011-04-03T09:30:00.001-07:002011-05-18T07:38:43.857-07:00

The basics of business-to-business sales success - McKinsey Quarterly - Marketing - Sales & Distribution

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-87031283897403795112011-02-15T18:29:00.000-07:002011-02-15T18:29:55.312-07:00

As a serial entrepreneur I have experienced many times the thrill of following my own path to success, however I  defined it at that time of my life: change the world, make a fortune, make an insight into reality, whatever.  Eventually all ventures evolved into a state of mind best explained by this picture.  The only way to go forward was to "press on" no matter what, believing that the top of

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-62912404725341892332010-11-15T08:35:00.003-07:002011-05-18T07:37:33.561-07:00

Last night I worked very late, so late that I fell asleep at my desk. I found myself walking into a huge building by the sea, a convention center.  Admission was free, inside there were many rooms.  The doors were labeled with subjects of interest: Politics, Business, Poetry, Religion, Internet Services, Sustainability, Global Warming, Venture Capital, Innovation, etc. I entered one that appealed

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-12937609754955668852010-09-20T14:43:00.000-07:002010-09-20T14:43:49.946-07:00

Suddenly more and more of my friends and family of the "not-early-adopter" personality type are signing up for Facebook.  They think I am a digital technology early adopter, so I am flooded with "how to" and "why" questions.  We must have reached the tipping point in social media. In most of he country it is now presumed that you can read and write, watch plenty of TV, own a personal computer and

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-24880846441147356632010-09-15T20:44:00.000-07:002010-09-15T20:44:29.048-07:00

Disclosure In the interest of full disclosure I'll admit to some personal and painful experience with User Interfaces (UI).  They probably colored my perspective to this day. The first UI we learn as humans is language which allows us to interface with mom and other humans. In the US in particular, most people learn the "language UI" only once - English.  As an immigrant from Italy in 1970 (

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-85104918565729791302010-09-10T14:56:00.000-07:002010-09-10T14:56:25.859-07:00

Sales are the only unquestionable proof that anyone on the planet values and wants what you make (or plan to  make).  Therefore it is the only proof that your business has any potential of being a viable,  even a successful venture for you and your investors. Of course your business may still fail for a thousand reasons some related to you (management skills), some beyond you (timing and economic

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-53548044098999986212010-08-29T12:05:00.000-07:002010-08-29T12:05:20.989-07:00

The power of discovery I just came across this interesting news of one more step forward in the discovery of earth-like planets elsewhere in our galaxy. The increasing frequency of news like this supports the idea that we are getting close to proving once more that our plane is not only "not the center" but is also not unique, in which case various "other life" considerations inevitably follow.

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-47187495487350410262010-08-25T08:49:00.001-07:002011-05-18T07:41:47.116-07:00

I frequently run into investors that seem to find a great deal of confidence in the fact that the company the are doing due diligence on has an "issued" patent.  They seem to believe that once the PTO issues it we are in Safe Land.  I wish I could be that optimistic, instead I often find myself "raining on the parade" suggesting that there are still big questions to be addressed: Markets

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-70258971409910961422010-08-05T14:09:00.001-07:002010-08-08T11:28:49.160-07:00

Thoughts from business experience.  For legal opinions, consult your attorney and tax accountant. Do not start as a sole proprietorship This is the only recommendation sure to have no dissenters. All else following is meant as a general guideline to use in questioning your attorney on the best course for your particular circumstance. The LLC - quick, easy, inexpensive Many would agree that on a

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Working with startups I have the good fortune of dealing regularly with highly motivated energetic and imaginative people who feel a drive to change their world. To some the world is the immediate vicinity, to others it is the whole globe, but in all cases they all see themselves destined to make a big difference. Most, not all, hope to be well compensated for their novel contribution and hard

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-5383824752222817262010-06-23T08:07:00.000-07:002010-06-23T08:07:40.456-07:00

Famous entrepreneur and Stanford Technology Ventures Program lecturer,Steve Blank reports that business failure from technology failure (the business' technology encounters operational conditions under which it cannot perform as hoped) is about 10%. Business failure from misunderstood and miscalculated markets, market failure, is about 90%. Why?  I propose that the nature of the "entrepreneurial

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-4908155030461213512010-06-19T17:28:00.002-07:002010-06-19T17:46:14.231-07:00

One of my favourite Dale Carnegie quotes is: "If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive."Just like bees, angels have adverse responses to certain stimuli. Keeping those in mind will make getting to their honey far more likely.  Following are some examples of statements (S) often made by "honey seekers" and the mental responses (R) they are likely to stimulate in the angels.  

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-53460285127450505872010-06-12T16:18:00.000-07:002010-06-12T16:18:36.534-07:00

In a world of people with ever diminishing patience it is not enough to be brief and to the point. You must find a way to engage your audience on more than one dimension at a time. Dr. Andrew Abela summarized it well a few years back. The Five Dimensions of Extreme Presentation A central hypothesis at the heart of this research is that the Extreme Presentation must address five dimensions.

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-62740509836285357632010-06-08T16:38:00.001-07:002010-06-12T17:47:22.293-07:00

The scarcest resource of entrepreneurs is not money, is time.  Money, when you can get it, is just a means to increase available time by hiring outsiders to do for you whatever you are smart enough to delegate and manage.  Conversely, all the money in the world will achieve nothing more than the going rate of interest in a bank account (3%) unless one puts it to work with time and energy. SO,

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-44931296725246134452010-06-04T18:55:00.001-07:002010-06-08T15:25:01.493-07:00

In my continuing search for KISS answers - Keep It Simple & Short, I read Basil Peters' proposal for a One Page Term Sheet. I've been following Basil's blog for years now and I think it's one of the best sources of experienced and clear thinking about angel investing. It will be a wonderful day when this becomes a best practice because it will set owners and investors much closer together at the

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-84165178213268264392010-06-04T13:31:00.002-07:002010-06-04T14:21:45.995-07:00

I considered holding this post off.  Then I realized that my raw response to the circumstance that originated it may be a useful component of the lesson. Background Last week I met a college student intent in starting a new business and looking for help financing and marketing his venture. Admittedly I am a deal junky and cannot resist helping a startup along; here is the result. Anatomy of a

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-43440983537897459732010-06-03T11:14:00.002-07:002010-06-03T11:15:30.162-07:00

Since I routinely recommend maximum brevity in communications with angel investors and with the world in general), I am often asked if this need for brevity is a result of the age of the Internet, of information overload, of shortened attentions spans, etc. It isn't. In what we now regard as the near-stone-age of the 1970's Proctor and Gamble became famous for its "1 Page Memo".  Whatever you

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-91596097356369011012010-05-29T10:11:00.001-07:002010-05-29T10:19:00.100-07:00

I said it many times in these posts, but it is worth repeating. If you want to communicate to Angel Investors, your challenge is to be brief and exciting at the same time.  Angels read dozens of plans and pitches a week, thus develop a short fuse stretched to its limit and a deja vu mindset. Every single word you use should be valued as an opportunity to break that fuse and lose your audience.  

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-79287975020843492202010-05-27T10:44:00.004-07:002010-05-28T18:00:06.378-07:00

How to pitch to today's angels Serial tech entrepreneur and renowned angel investor David S. Rose talks about the growth of angel investing, and offers advice on how to successfully pitch to potential investors

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-53463909773924123482010-05-26T16:29:00.002-07:002010-05-26T16:34:46.369-07:00

In a prior post Talking to Angels  I described the guidelines the Arizona Angels recommend to produce PowerPoint slides for presentations to our screening committee and members.  Since then I've been asked to provide concrete examples.  Unfortunately most presentations are confidential and cannot be published here.  Therefore I prepared a presentation for a fictitious company, albeit a little

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-36123038148611639642010-05-15T10:46:00.000-07:002010-05-15T10:46:42.375-07:00

Innovators are by nature curious people with a strong desire to improve the world around them.  Upon encountering a problem, an inconvenience, or a task too cumbersome, instinctively they seek to find a remedy for it.  That drive has been at the foundation of innovation since the invention of the wheel, the first disruptive technology shaped by man (fire and stone tools were not invented, were "

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-25353225727285119152010-05-13T09:04:00.002-07:002010-05-29T07:51:20.360-07:00

Entrepreneurs must be able to SELL. Selling, of course, involves all the steps leading to closing a deal such as: understanding the customer's need, presenting a solution, explaining features and benefits, articulating a value proposition, etc. Most entrepreneurs become quite skilled at selling their products and services. Raising financing for the business, however, involves selling the idea

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-32513097623763707902010-04-30T19:45:00.003-07:002010-06-23T09:10:13.076-07:00

If you are interested in this subject you probably fit one of the following classes: You are an expert angel investor with IP due diligence experience - your comments would be most welcome. You are a potential or new angel investor (bless you for helping to grow our country). In this case you might be interested in one (mine) practical view of what protection a patent gives you. You are an

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-55688159272792513132010-04-25T21:15:00.006-07:002011-03-28T18:03:46.134-07:00

We all have angels of one kind or another. As a Tech-preneurs you have at least one kind you may wish to talk to ("pitch to" in the parlance of the angel investing community). The good news is that to learn to talk to those angels you do not need to retire to Nepal spinning prayer wheels or to Rome chanting psalms in Latin for years. Angel investors are easy to "pitch" if you understand some

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-55880989835976454962010-04-22T14:54:00.003-07:002010-04-22T15:18:54.369-07:00

For nearly ten yars I have researched uses of "mind mapping" for a variety of communication and collaboration purposes. Part of my research and usability testing was done as Director of Technology Programs at Maricopa Colleges Small Business Development Center in Phoenix, AZ. The opportunity provided by the Maricopa College SBDC to publicly test the results of my research is gratefully

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-73074533074075830642010-04-20T13:21:00.004-07:002010-05-03T16:21:01.480-07:00

This is a partial reprint of Guy Kawasaki's 2005 blog posting by the same title.  I repeat Guy's guideline so regularly to the tech-preneurs I mentor that I decided to direct them here rather than to a Google search page. Guy's experience in this space is matchless, his insight has served me well. The main point here is not to detail how to pitch investors (there is another post for that): it is

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-77509998006995774552010-04-19T14:05:00.001-07:002010-05-03T16:24:54.786-07:00

In the last few weeks I attended several presentations from companies presenting their business plans and experiences as “green businesses”. Two stood out in my mind at the extremes of what’s out there for angel investors to seek. Since in some cases I signed NDAs I’ll keep all companies confidential but it may not be difficult to deduct their names with a little research and detective work.

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-65836933372565502762010-04-12T17:09:00.001-07:002010-05-03T16:19:10.790-07:00

When I was at Maricopa Colleges SBDC I developed an audiovisual introduction to the SBIR grants program sponsored by the SBA. It appears to no longer be on-line despite havng been told that it is a helpful explanation of the program and how it can benefit certain entrepreneurs. I decided to repost it here as a public service. In addition to this summary, I provide consulting services on how to

The Angel Pitch Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432332110763992710.post-53382149348897757962010-04-07T23:17:00.012-07:002010-05-30T12:17:53.477-07:00

Do you know when your young business venture is "fit" to attract angel investor financing? There are many theories and rules of thumb being bandied around about how angels seek their targets. The reality is that angel investors can be roughly divided in two groups, each with dramatically different decision making processes (and ROIs). "Golf Cart Investors" These are the ones who buy into a

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