Discussion Topics

Startup founders need human resource skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: Can identify talent that matches the company’s strategy.   This includes defining the jobs with roles and responsibilities. Ability to find and recruit the right people for the position. This includes assessing the skills candidates…

Startup founders need some technical skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: 1. Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets – you’ll use this for budgeting, forecasts, and numerous other applications. 2. Data analysis – you should be familiar with Google analytics and other basic analytic tools to…

Startup founders need some accounting skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: Accounting vs. bookkeeping – bookkeeping is entering revenues and expenses into the proper accounts. Accounting is generating the income statements and balance sheets, along with filing tax returns. Accounting methods – know the difference…

Startup founders need some financial skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: 1. For business modeling – ability to calculate the unit economics of your business model including cost of customer acquisition and lifetime value of customer. 2. For fundraising – ability to calculate pre and…

Startup founders need some legal skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: 1. Legal Entity – ability to set up an LLC or C-Corp for your business with proper articles of incorporation. 2. Cap Table – ability to set up the cap table with initial ownership…

Startup founders need recruiting skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: 1. Ability to define the jobs to be done with the requisite skills. 2. Ability to identify qualified candidates in the market that meet the requirements. 3. Can engage the candidates to discuss a position…

Startup founders need marketing skills. Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup: – Ability to analyze and choose a market segment to pursue – Can create a story around your startup that sells – Can define a position in the market and communicate it – Ability to…

Startup founders need sales skills. Here’s a list of sales skills to bring to your startup: 1. Can craft a compelling story about the startup to sell to investors, prospective employees, partners, and others.  2. Knows the competition and the other choices the prospect has. 3. Knows the customer’s language,…

Writing is a key skill every entrepreneur should have. Email, social media, website copy, and more, all rely upon good communication. Here are some key points to remember: It’s not about you, it’s about your reader and what this will do for them. Write the way you talk in a…

In managing deal flow, the key to winning the best deals is responsiveness. Startups submitting their deal are looking everywhere for funding and you’re just one option among many. Here are some key points to consider: Automate the initial response to a deal submission with an email acknowledging the sender….

In running deal flow, here are some best practices to consider: Automate your deal flow process as much as possible by capturing consistent information into one application. Track deal flow sources and analyze on a regular basis.   This shows where the best deals are coming from and where to spend…

Deal flow is the lifeblood of the startup investor. It’s important to assess the deals in short order to prioritize follow-up. One way to help this process is to apply a rating to each deal. Here are some key factors and how to calculate them to use in your rating:…

Startup investing requires deal flow and the best deal flow comes from proprietary sources. Here are some key points to set up your own process: Contact your attorney and accountant as they are good sources of deal flow that aren’t known by everyone else. Launch a content marketing program. Your…

Investors should set up a deal flow process that takes startups through in a timely manner. Here are the deal flow stages: Initial contact — before reviewing a deal there’s often a call or email that describes the deal. It’s best to provide initial feedback and ask key questions about…

Deal flow takes a substantial amount of time for the startup investor. It’s important to organize your deal flow process so it’s efficient. Use these steps to organize your deal flow. Set up a separate email for deal flow and use it to capture deals from websites, social media, and…

Running deal flow is a time-consuming process. There are steps you can take to automate it. Here are some key points to consider: Standardize the information you collect by using forms on the website. Capture referral partners or sources so you can measure the results. Collect the startup submissions to…

Deal flow is key to a startup investor’s success.  Investors seeking startups to fund can follow these steps to attract deal flow: Build a global network of venture partners, scouts, and micro funds. Showcase your network to the startup community to capture more startup interest.  Set up a series of…

Investors seeking more deal flow should look to their own network. Here are some steps to find deals from your contacts: Identify the type of startup you want to fund.  Search for contacts related to that sector and domain.  You’ll find experts with deep knowledge of the technology, as well…

Deal flow is important to the startup investor. After you set up your initial sources, you can expand your deal flow in the following ways: Connect with other startup investors and offer to share your deal flow with them and invite them to return the favor. The best deals come…

Deal flow is the lifeblood of startup investing. It’s important to set up sources to provide quality deal flow on a consistent basis. Here are the steps to set up your deal flow sources: 1. Map out the entrepreneurship and funding groups in your geographic area or sector. 2. Use…

Deal flow is key to successful startup investing. It takes a great deal of time, so it’s important to build a strong process for managing it. It helps to use a software tool to track it. Start with the key steps for running deal flow as follows: Set up a…

Deal flow is critical to successful startup investing. Here are some key points to consider: Deal flow gives you experience with founders, valuations, exits, and many other aspects of the startup process.  It teaches you a great deal about the market, current technology, and the startup ecosystem. Deal flow gives…

So how do you know when not to invest in a startup? Here’s a checklist of show stoppers: – There’s no business plan and no plan for an exit. – There’s no vision for the company. – There’s no growth in the target market. – The business doesn’t provide enough…

The best deals have more investors than they need. So how does an investor gain access to those deals? Startups choose investors who can provide support beyond the fundraise. Here are some examples: 1. Offering specific advice on how to build the business and grow it.  2. Make introductions to…

As a startup investor, you will find there are many deals to consider. In fact, there are too many startups to diligence and pursue. You want to build quality deal flow channels that meet your criteria and screen out the noise. Quality sources often have experienced entrepreneurs working on their…

So how do you know when to pull the trigger and invest in a startup? After applying the investment thesis, check for the following: – There’s a strong team with integrity, industry knowledge, and business experience. – They have product validation and market validation – the product works and people…

While there’s a great number of startups looking for funding, the startup investor needs to set up deal-flow sources. Your personal network is a good place to start. Contact not only investors in your network but also attorneys and accountants who may see deals seeking funding.  You can join the…

In analyzing potential investments, it’s important to understand their business model and how well it meets the venture investors’ requirements.  The business model consists of unit and customer acquisition economics as well as market and business economics. Unit economics is the cost to provide a product that drives gross margin.  …

The elevator pitch can do more for you than just give you a short-form pitch. It boils down your pitch to the bare essence. This helps you focus on your core value proposition. It helps you think through your pitch so you can prioritize the most important points. It gives…

The elevator pitch is one of the most important pitches you can give. Here are some key points to remember in delivering your elevator pitch: Keep it around thirty seconds.  Practice it to get the timing right. Use the rest of your time to engage with your audience in questions…

Today we’ll talk about a rolling close. Closing a fundraising round can be challenging given the schedules of the investors. A rolling close is used in a deal that is open to investors who can sign the documents and send in their money on their own schedule.   This allows the…

In pitching your startup for funding, you’ll find many opportunities to engage investors. Not all opportunities will provide substantial time and attention to investors. Develop an elevator pitch for those times when you have only a few moments to capture the investors’ interest. Here are some key points to consider:…

The elevator pitch is a key tool in your fundraise. Here are some best practices to make your elevator pitch a success: Before delivering your pitch, learn something about your audience. What are their careabouts? What motivates them? Customize your pitch for your audience. Don’t try to tell them everything,…

Elevator pitches can be used in many ways. The pitch states the problem, the solution, and how to learn more about it. In addition to fundraising, it can also be used in sales. Instead of asking for an investment, the ask goes to purchasing the product. Another type of elevator…

The elevator pitch follows a simple format. Start with the people who have this problem so the listener has context. Show the cost in time or dollars to demonstrate the size of the problem. Demonstrate your competitive advantage over the other solutions. Quantify the benefit with numbers. Propose the next…

In crafting an elevator pitch, the intro is the most important part. You must grab their attention and make them want to hear more. Start with a problem and show how big and costly it is. Generate curiosity in the listener by telling them you have a solution to that…

To craft an elevator pitch, start with the end in mind.  Do you want to pitch an investor? Do you want to sell a product?  Start the pitch with the problem you solve and what your company does. There needs to be a hook at the beginning of the pitch…

An elevator pitch is a short version of your fundraise pitch. Use it when you are engaging investors in situations where the slides are not available and the time is short. It’s useful for setting up a more formal presentation by giving the investor a reason to take the meeting….

There are pros and cons to working with Corporate VCs. Here are the pros: They take a long-term point of view giving the startup time to grow and develop. They bring access to partners, customers, and other resources. They bring domain knowledge far beyond what most traditional VCs bring. They…

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In working with corporate VCs, follow these best practices: 1. Consider access to the R&D departments of the corporate VC and how much value that will add to your startup….

Corporate VCs can leverage their position in the industry to sign up good startups with an investment. The corporate VC brings a network of partners, distribution channels, a brand, an existing product line, and more.  An investment can leverage their research dollars and achieve more than if they build it…

Companies setting up a corporate VC arm often make the following mistakes: Treating the corporate VC arm as purely an acquisition pipeline. There are several other ways to gain value from a corporate VC structure than just recruiting target acquisitions. Not taking enough risk in selecting startups to pursue. The…

In setting up a corporate VC fund in your organization, consider the following: Start with the legal structure. You can either create an LLC legal entity for the fund or move the fund inside the corporate structure. Next, establish your investment thesis in alignment with your corporate strategic objectives.   Build…

While traditional venture funds increase their fund size over time, corporate VCs should keep their fund size low. Traditional VCs seek higher compensation and can do so by increasing the size of the fund which increases their management fee. Corporate VCs are often compensated as employees of the company with…

There are several approaches corporate VCs can take in setting up their venture program: For finding innovations for current challenges the corporate VC can use collaborative innovation tools such as coding sprints, hackathons, or Xprize competitions. For generating new business concepts, utilize accelerators by either bringing in an existing program…

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Corporate VC funding continues to grow as companies look for innovation and startups look for funding opportunities. There are several types of corporate VC funds. Here are three: 1. Traditional…

There are several tools for the corporate VC to use in a venturing program. Here’s a list to consider: – Hackathon – invite those in the industry or area to participate in a coding challenge to solve a particular problem. – Shared resources – provide the community with a set…

Founders looking to raise funding from corporate VCs should avoid the following mistakes: 1. Not matching the corporate VC to the needs of the startup – corporate VCs bring not only money but strategic value. 2. Not understanding the corporate VC investment strategy – some corporate VCs invest for a…

Startups looking to take corporate VC funding should be aware of the requirements put on founders. Here’s a list to consider: – Corporate VCs may seek consent rights on contracts the startup enters with competitors. – They may seek higher levels of compliance on the part of the startup. –…

The corporate VC must set up and run a program. Here’s a list of core functions the corporate VC must cover: Planning out the portfolio – this includes estimating the size of each investment as well as the type of company to invest in. There needs to be a target…