Tips for that first VC Meeting

Ed Sim offers these tips for the first VC meeting:

“1. Be flexible…
2. Have a well-honed elevator pitch…
3. The Slide Deck: make it short and sweet, 15-20 slides will do…
4. Listen and ask questions: try to get feedback about your business and the opportunity…
4. The Demo…I like them live, but…there are 20 things that can happen in a demo, 19 of which can go wrong. So be prepared and have a cached version of your service to walk through.
5. Next steps: In any meeting, never forget to ask about the next steps…

A couple of other points to add:
Pre-meeting: Research the VC…

A couple of don’ts: don’t be late, don’t be arrogant, and don’t ask for an NDA before you start the pitch.”

BlawgWorld 2006 free eBook Published

According to various studies, approximately 80,000 new blogs launch every day, including dozens of legally-oriented “blawgs.” No one knows how many blawgs exist, but whatever the number, monitoring them would amount to a full-time job. For this reason, the folks at The TechnoLawyer Community have published BlawgWorld 2006, an eBook designed to take you on a journey through 51 of the most influential blawgs.

To receive your free copy of BlawgWorld 2006 visit http://www.blawgworld.com and register at no charge.

Business Help for Veterans

There are 25 million living Americans veterans – all having proudly served our country. When their tour of duty ends many dream of becoming business owners. And the US Small Business Administration can help.

In the November edition of SBA Solutions, discover what resources and finance options are available to vets. Plus, tips for anyone starting a business. Also visit the SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development that formulates, executes, and promotes policies and programs to assist veteran entrepreneurs for more about the resources and lending programs designed especially for veterans.

Hollywood Slanguage

“Dealing with Hollywood? Variety’s Slanguage Dictionary can demystify the industry lingo and make it possible to translate its articles into English.” Please access this IPTAblog article for a link to the Slanguage Dictionary.

How to Conduct an Employee Exit Interview

Good article from Post Money Value on the proper way for a technology company to conduct an employee exit interview. Hightlights include:

1. Do the interview yourself until you hit 100 people…
2. Say Thank You.
First words spoken at an exit interview. Thank you for working here and contributing, all of us appreciate it. And mean it. Say thank you.
3. If a re-hire, then give them a priority ?come on back? pass…
4. Free software/services/equipment for over X number of years…
5. Keep a connection…
6. Respect…
Respect will get you armies of people you aren?t paying for, perspective you probably need, and help you won?t have to ask for…Good people move on for lots of reasons and assuming bad stuff wasn?t the prime reason, it makes good sense to retain some value in that relationship.”

Free Materials, Articles and Ideas from Businessballs

Businessballsis a free online self-help, and training and development resource for people and organizations, run by Alan Chapman, in Leicester, England. The site features “free materials, articles, and ideas for ethical personal and organizational development, compassionate leadership, self-help and self-fulfillment…for learning, self-help and for helping others, and for bringing more compassion and humanity to organizations and beyond.”

Are Entrepreneurs Just Born That Way?

“Passion. Vision. Focus. Courage. Will. These are just a few signature traits of successful entrepreneurs. But where do these traits come from? Are they hard-wired into our DNA or acquired over time, like wrenches in a toolbox?

Thomas Harrison, a former cell biologist turned marketing guru…concurs that there are indeed born entrepreneurs, he concedes that others may have latent traits, which can be teased out and developed by using the eight techniques described in his book.

Are you in the lucky gene club? Find out by taking this entrepreneurial personality quiz [from Forbes.com] , adapted from Harrison’s book. The 30 questions are geared toward measuring five broad aspects of personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Just choose an answer for each question, and check the results when you’re done.”

Seven Deadly Founders’ Sins

David Beisel compiled this list of the Seven Founding Sins ? common mistakes which often divert entrepreneurs off the path towards success.

“Inauthenticity…A founding team should not only have the relevant experience, but also immediate and authentic understanding of the end-users?/customers? need…

Sloth…founding a company is not a full-time job. It?s a full-time life…

Extravagance…employees treat resources with the same respect that those in power do.

Taciturnity…Founders need to ensure that all of the constituents who are involved in making the company a success…are regularly updated….

Greed….

Arrogance…Founders must realize the limits of their abilities and seek help/input when others on the team are more informed or in a better position to make decisions…

Indecisiveness…In the end, tough choices are indeed tough, founding entrepreneurs need to make them…”

Read more in this Genuine VC post.

A Thanksgiving Prayer

gratitude
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

“O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen.”

by Samuel Pugh

Forecast Early and Often

“Forecasting is a pain, so we adopted the model of as 12-month rolling forecast with quarterly reforecasts (and correspondingly quarterly incentive comp structures) out of necessity. For early stage companies in emerging industries, there are simply too many moving parts in the business to provide enough visibility to produce an accurate 12-month budget. There are really four factors at work here:

– Investment…
– Competition…
– M&A…
– Recurring revenue: for any business that has a recurring revenue model, missing your numbers in a given month or quarter makes it nearly impossible to get back on track for the rest of the year since next quarter’s number depend on making this quarter’s numbers….”

So forecasting early and often is a great solution to this problem, and it’s a particularly effective tool to keep the team motivated. Read more in this Matt Blumberg post.