founders, VC's, mentors and startup experts.
We all enjoy a good story, whether it's a novel, a movie or simply something one of our friends is explaining to us that they've experienced. But why do we feel so much more engaged when we hear a narrative about events? ...
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Via: Buffer Blog
Co-founder of @bufferapp, a smarter way to share Tweets, Fac |
Every meeting is either won or lost. There are no "good" meetings. You've lost the meeting when you leave with a compliment or a stalling tactic. The parody version is "Let's talk again after Christmas... Don't call me, I'll call you[1]." ...
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Via: The Startup Toolkit
Founder at http://dex.io (get more speaking gigs). I talk & |
Have you ever wanted something and not gotten it? I know I have. I've noticed a HUGE PROBLEM of entitlement with our generation and younger. ...
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hi* |
Today I'm going to share the 2 things you should NEVER say in an email to someone you don't know. (Especially if you want that person to promote your blog and business to their readers) And then I'll walk you through a word-for-word script that I personally used to get influential people I didn't know. ...
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Via: Social Triggers
I'm 99% useless, but that 1% when I'm not, I'm dangerous. Fi |
Read any copywriting manual or article and you will learn that the headline is the most important thing in your sales copy. And it's true. The sad thing is that the advice that follows is often severely outdated and originates. ...
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Via: ConversionXL
I make websites sell. Conversion optimization pro. Founder o |
I strongly believe that a founder should be able to explain what they do in one paragraph. Here's an email exchange that I had in the past 24 hours with an entrepreneur. ...
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Via: Feld Thoughts
I'm a managing director at Foundry Group. I live in Boulder, |
We've been talking a lot about story lately, both on this blog and around the office. What makes for a compelling story? Are we even telling the right kind of story? These are some of the questions we ask each day. Building a compelling story is essential and, as Forrest highlighted recently, can help you survive a design change. And we all know the consequences if you get it wrong. Look at Fa ...
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Via: ZURB Blog
Editor @ZURB, Writer, Educator, and occasional Starship Com |
Today's audiences aren't automatically sold by celebrity endorsements anymore. Instead, they're tribal to major online influencers who not only know their industry well but are the ones disrupting it and propelling it forward. ...
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Via: Venture Beat
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We see a lot of business plans that describe themselves as the [insert name of recently hot tech company] for [new vertical or market sub-segment]. Recently we have seen a lot of Pinterest for YY and Etsy for ZZ. Sometimes we get 'my company is a cross between [massive company x] and [massive company ...
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Via: The Equity Kicker
I'm a VC in London |
Everyone knows of the mythical elevator pitch. I'm here to tell you that the elevator is real. The potent entrepreneur's life is full of inflection moments: brief opportunities to shift the destiny of your company. And a proper pitch is essential to take advantage of them. ...
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Via: Dan Shapiro
Google acquired @sparkbuy, so I now work on www.google.com/a |
I had an epiphany recently about the congruence between Peter Cohan's Great Demo! methodology and a lean approach to sales and presentation practices. The simplest definition of the Great Demo! is "Do the Last thing First" ...
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Via: Sean Murphy
New Technology Product Introduction Focused on Early Custome |
You'd think that given the sheer volume of material written about how to pitch your company to investors that we'd be in the midst of some sort of golden age for the startup pitch. Clear concise value propositions, crisp tales of product market fit (or failed attempts at discovery), direct asks for how much is being raised and what's hoped to be validated. ...
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Via: Bryce DOT VC
VC, Dad |
Start-up competitions are the new black. While I have nothing against trends, it's hard to miss that when something hits the Trendville, quality just gets thrown out of the window. Day in and day out we are seeing what seems to have become a required ingredient for any tech conference that wants to make a splash. ...
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Via: THE KERNEL
Alex is the founder of @42press (A matchmaking platform for |
Your child never asks at bedtime to tell them about a press release. They do ask you to tell them a story. How would you make your story compelling to a 9 year old? ...
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Via: Christopher Penn
Director of Inbound Marketing, ninja, PodCamp cofounder, Mar |
The decision to give an entrepreneur cold hard cash is all about trust. I trust you to take my $1 and make it $5 or $10. One important datapoint in forming my trust thesis as an investor is how organized you and your company are. No matter what your company size, your key documents should be organized and readily available. And you should know what's in them. ...
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Via: Mark MacLeod
Seed investor for SaaS, e-commerce and other awesome startup |
Rather than rehash anecdotes of terrible pitches, I've collected a series of best practices, extracted from the best demos. Keep it short - Beyond wanting to fit in multiple demos, there's a good reason we keep demos to just a few minutes. With attention spans dwindling, you're racing against the clock before they lose interest and start flipping around on twitter. You may think the audience needs ...
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Via: Zvi Band
hacker/founder/community builder. CEO of @contactually (back |
Since launching my personal blog I have been bombarded with guest post requests, with very few of them being worthy of reading, nevermind responding to. Thus, it was literally one in 267 emails that inspired this article about what makes an email that webmasters and bloggers will respond to. ...
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Via: SEOmoz
Longtime and forever student of the web. All-American fantas |
I wanted to offer some thoughts on pitching versus product planning. In an effort to impress investors, we've all steered our products towards what we think is sexy or investable, versus what is most likely to work for consumers. I've come to believe that this is a kind of Silicon Valley disease, and we should try hard to avoid it. ...
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Via: Andrew Chen Blog
Bay Area entrepreneur, blogger, formerly in online ads and v |
What we should have said to PG... "So it's like a wiki?" he says, moving his fingers in circles against his temples. His eyes are closed. He's concentrating. He has 10 minutes to understand me. ...
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Via: Rocketr
Founder @Rocketr / EIR @JetCooper. I'm here to make bets and |
It's becoming more clear that design is being used as a credibility and professionalism booster, so I'm beginning to put my own preferences aside and join the crowd. That's why in this article I'd like to show you a few examples of how people are mixing the power of long-form salesletters with the professionalism many of today's consumers are coming to expect. ...
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Expert Direct Response Copywriter & Split-Testing Specialis |
Paul Graham is, among other things, really good at boiling companies down to their essence. When practicing for Demo Day, you'd see founders start to pitch their company and Paul would say "Wait, don't say that. Why do you say you are doing ____" which summed up the company in a more beautiful and compelling way than anything the founder had previous pitched. ...
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Co-founder of @Ridejoy, a community marketplace for rideshar |
Business plans come in several flavors and you will need each of them to successfully raise money. I’ll briefly describe the forms of your business plan, but more importantly, explain how to avoid common mistakes in using your plans. ...
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Via: Gust Blog
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If you're out raising money, or thinking about it, there's a lot you can learn from a YC pitch. I've been to a bunch of Demo Days, but it's a real eye opener seeing a team evolve from way before YC, through YC, to Demo Day. Here are some key takeaways ...
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Via: vcdave
Investor, operator, and entrepreneur |
I attended the Launch conference in San Francisco yesterday and saw quite a few pitches. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs are still making the same mistakes... Because many of the presenters were first timers and early stage companies... Here are a few tips for pitching ...
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Via: Venture Beat
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I feel like recently, as the Lean Startup movement gains more and more traction (I love the Lean Startup principles) and there are more incubators, accelerators, innovation centers, etc. helping startups get off the ground, that I'm hearing more and more this idea: "you don't need a business plan, you need a great pitch" ...
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Via: Forbes
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Most startups don't have an agency helping them get coverage in blogs and publications. Here are some tips based on my experience. Related posts: Infographics: 5 Tips for Product Marketers Politics in Startups vs. Big Companies Startups: 10 Reasons Customers Won’t Switch to Your Product ...
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Via: Rocket Watcher
Co-founder of RocketScope http://rocketscope.com a marketing |
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