Showing posts with label venture capital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label venture capital. Show all posts

2/13/2008

What Investors Want

From Educators Corner come new podcasts well worth a listen:

Podcast: Angel Investing Revealed Ron Conway, Angel Investors LP Mike Maples Jr., Maples Investments 60 min. 13 sec. Experienced angel investors, Ron Conway, Founder of Angel Investors LP, and Mike Maples, Founder of Maples Investments, provide a rare look into the ins and outs of angel investing. Conway and Maples discuss how angel investors assess opportunities, provide assistance to entrepreneurs and transition start-ups to larger venture investments or exit. In addition, Conway and Maples provide advice to entrepreneurs about finding one's passion and developing that passion into new ventures, including insight into how much money to raise and how to manage that money after it is in the bank.

Podcast: How to Build a Successful Company Mitch Kapor, Foxmarks 55 min. 24 sec. Serial entrepreneur Mitch Kapor speaks about the fundamental principles of building successful companies by drawing on his experience as creator of Lotus 1-2-3, Chairman of Second Life, Founder of Foxmarks and a wealth of technical and social entrepreneurship knowledge. Kapor emphasizes the elements of company building that technology has changed, such as faster feedback cycles and lower barriers to entry, as well as the elements that remain the same, such as how to establish culture and trust. Kapor illuminates his observations with contemporary and historical examples that create a context-rich primer on building vibrant companies.

3/21/2007

The Realistic Entrepreneur

"Optimism is a key to success, but it doesn't necessarily work so well when it comes to VC...it's very easy...to spend a year or more adjusting your business to what each VC asks for ("bring me the broomstick of the wicked witch!") while you could have been out there building a real organization..."

Here are a few conditions from an excellent list of fifteen in this Seth Godin post "that you ought to take seriously before you invest the time and the energy to track down outside money for your great idea...

3. Investors want to invest in a project that's tested...

5. Investors... want you to build an asset (a patent, an audience, channel relationships) that's actually worth something...

15.The companies that VCs most want to invest in are the companies that don't need their investment to survive."

12/14/2006

The Defining Dozen Business Plan Questions

"To write a good business plan, you have to know the answers to the “Defining Dozen” questions...

1. What’s your business idea?
2. How does your idea address a need?
3. What model suits you best?
4. What’s so different about what you offer?
5. How big is the market and how big will you grow?
6. What’s your role going to be?
7. Who's on your team?
8. How will customers buy from you, and how much will they pay?
9. How much money do you need, and how much will you make?
10. Where's the startup money coming from?
11. How will you measure success?
12. What are your key milestones?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you should be prepared to write the actual business plan document."

Read more in this article from StartupNation.