Ultimately audiences and judges will vote for you if you Connect with them emotionally Answer all their questions – spoken and otherwise Save and respect their time and intelligence by only making credible claims Backstopping and supporting your claims by solid believable evidence The first presentation on my slideshare deck (please see sidebar) is about the SMB Fatimah Jinnah School …Read the Rest
Pitching Investors and Customers
Startup Mode: How to win a business plan competition
April 4, 2010
Here are my notes on how to win a business plan competition. a) For a winning presentation the first prize always goes to the group that can answer the questions judges need to answer. Take a look at the scoring sheet for the competition and then ask if you have answered all the questions in a way that would allow …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: Kill your ego…
April 2, 2010
When I first met Don Sexton, Mark Broadie, Ralph Biggadike and John Whitney at Columbia, a few things stood out at once. All four were very successful, well established and well respected professionals. They had touched professional peaks I couldn’t even dream about and had nothing left to prove. All four changed my life. 8 years later when I look …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: Strategy and tactics or Winning for itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, little mom and pop tech shops.
April 2, 2010
Here are my hard earned qualifications that allow me to speak on strategy. I have never been rich or famous (infamy is separate classification) or successful. Of the last four of my ventures, three were dismal failures. I have been teaching since a crazy afternoon in 1995, when I was asked to substitute for a peer at FAST ICS who …Read the Rest
Startup Mode: On Hamlet, Horatios and Shakespearean mythology…Or you are not alone
April 2, 2010
Did Hamlet have a death wish? “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” Remember these lines as Horatio puts Hamlet’s head to rest and his eyes to close. I don’t know about you but I don’t like sad endings. I remember them… “Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the …Read the Rest
Startup Capital: Funding for dummies…four
April 2, 2010
And finally no financing deal ever goes through without relationships and credibility. Relationships open the door and get you time; credibility gets you to the term sheet. The sooner you build up your stock of these two elements the faster you can get to capital – debt or equity.
