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From EMC

notes on financial projections (svase event)

More notes on another Silicon Valley event:

- VCs want to see if you understand the business you are in. You need to establish your credibility and your pitch must be interesting and reasonable.

-On the first meeting, VCs will want to know if that’s the kind of product that can really grow. Be superficial, too much detail distracts. Talk more about the operations plan and prove you know the business.

- Do you know the primary drivers of customer acquisition and the costs behind that?

- Justify monthly sales. Who are the clients that are going to come each month, seasonality…

- Practice your pitch and ask yourself if someone listening is going to buy.

- Do not have an exit strategy slide. It’s VC job to worry about that. They want you to care about the business. But be ready to answer that question.

- Be realistic, “we are going to be partners in that business“. Know and admit weaknesses: “That’s where I want to go and that’s how, but I’m not sure if I can get there alone. I need a CEO/CFO…“. Also, there are ratchets where if you miss your objectives, VCs own more of your company.

- Important –> Revenues. That’s what they are investing in, in an early stage.

- Any $$ you raise has to be linked to a milestone. Milestones = external validation of the company.

- Do not do a deal without a lawyer or someone that understands what matters and what doesn’t in the negotiation.

anza event in plug and play

The event was designed for Australian entrepreneurs that were pitching their ideas and living a Silicon Valley experience for 3 days. The third day was open to the public so I could skip in and it was extremely interesting. This is a summary of my main takeaways:

From Ryan Junee “Success Story” (He cofounded Omnisio and in 9 months sold it to YouTube):

- Silicon Valley is all about who you know. The real value that VCs or incubators bring to the company is not money but contacts.

- It’s easy to get a lawyer “for free” in the Valley that accepts to be paid when the company raises funds

- If you think you are the only one with that idea you should talk to more people

- Ideas are great but in the end it’s all about execution

From the Marketing Business Forum with Brian Solis:

- Do you need to be in Blogs, facebook, Twitter (…) if your community is not there? No, don’t waste your time. You should first look and find out who is there.  What happens is that when you look, the community is often there.

- While doing a corporate blog, become the people you want to reach. Don’t promote your product, engage the client in subjects that might be of their interest. Share expertise, connect and grow the community. Participate in other blogs, recognize other blogs and talk about them. Be authentic and listen. Invest time in sharing your ideas. You are not blogging to share your product, you are blogging to share your expertise.

- Blog recommendation Peter Kim. He talks about social media and in this post describes what different companies are currently doing in that area

From the CEOs panel with Susan Haley, Steve Larsen, Larry Mrshall and Jennifer Zanich:

- As a CEO you do everything until you find someone better than you

- A CEO takes responsibility for everything that goes wrong and gives credit to the team for every success

- The CEO is the one with the vision and a great communicator of that vision. The vision is the basic tool to convince investors, team and everyone around the startup.

- Being a CEO is a lonely role. Surround yourself with great mentors and forget about your ego. No one will tell you that you’ve done something great.

- Statistically, first time CEOs are more successful than serial CEOs. They think they are going to be kicked out by the VC so they try harder, they are hungry and they listen, they want to be mentored and they don’t have ego.

- Though times are great, that’s when opportunities present themselves

- The CEO is the DNA of the company

- VCs are not making you a favor. Your approach should be: “I have this great concept. I’m selling a piece of my company and I would like to partner with you” Bring them in; convince them that they really need to be part of your team as a VC.