Bait Your Hook; Catch a Winner from the Shark Tank
Three…that’s how many categories into which investors segment business ideas and the pitches by entrepreneurs. The first is that of “Market Maker”: think Bill Gates and Microsoft with the vision of putting “a computer on [...]
Words Have Power: Concise Pitch Decks Pack More Punch
Every. Word. Counts. So does every second during your funding pitch to potential investors. On average, you’ve got less than three minutes to make your case before your audience gives a mental thumbs-up or thumbs-down [...]
Be Unique, Get Funded
Attracting investors to get your business funded is all about being unique, even if the product you’re presenting isn’t a new invention or innovation. Earlier this year, I highlighted 7 Factors for Startup Success based on the [...]
Get Your Business Funded in 2021: A Look at Super Angels
The year (2020) that will be forever defined as the year of the Covid pandemic brought about significant upheaval and change in many areas of private and professional life across the globe. It also sparked [...]
Mark Cuban’s Beatitudes: 7 Factors for Startup Success
Shark Tank star Mark Cuban has been a startup investor and serial entrepreneur since his teenage years selling garbage bags, creating chain letters, offering dance lessons, and even running newspapers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh during [...]
2021: The Year to Get Funded
RIP Tony Hsieh. This article is dedicated to you and the inspiration you provided to me and so many entrepreneurs, helping us to put our passion and focus into the vision and values that led [...]
How Far Will You Go to Get Funded?
Entrepreneurs are going to extremes to make themselves memorable to investors. Earlier this spring, at the beginning of the pandemic in the US, I published articles on creating and delivering a digital investor pitch (“Now’s [...]
5 Keys to Convince Investors Your Product Can Make Money
Even if you’re too young (or too old?) to know where the line “show me the money!” comes from, everyone knows the phrase “follow the money”. When it comes to attracting investors and getting them [...]
Value Proposition and Covid: Is Your Premise Still Valid?
Five hundred and sixty (560). That is how many commercial Chapter 11 filings occurred in April 2020, a 26% increase from the same time the year prior. That is 560 data points proving that creating [...]
Company Culture Sustainable in Any Market
Herodotus, the ancient Greek intellectual who became known as “The Father of History” coined the phrase “Culture is King”. Companies rise and fall based on their culture, and challenging situations like we’ve faced here in [...]