Sagacious Think

I recently attended a panel on start-up funding, and while this information is mostly common sense, its always good to be reminded.  So here’s a quick summary of my notes along with my own commentary thrown in.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
Be ready for the pitch, and remember you are making a sale, but at the end of [...]

KISS plays an important role (Keep It Simple Stupid)
You do not need many slides and they should be to the point.  These slides will probably not fall into place but result from a lot of sweat and tears to get them down to their core message.  This may be challenging as everyone is excited about [...]

When preparing for outside financing, its important to understand that investors are investing as much in the team as the product.  So it behoves the team to understand where they stand in that dynamic.  Too often the focus is on the product.
I prepared this model, that I use with the companies I work with as [...]

The Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement are the trifecta of a company’s financial reports and should be reviewed frequently with key employees who impact the results.  Everyone should be familiar with these reports and should not rely on the CFO to interpret.  I know it seems like yet more reports to pile [...]

In the Valley, Silicon Valley that is, finance for start-ups is often assumed to begin and end with VCs (Venture Capitalists).  That is certainly not always the case, and in fact in these financially challenging times, searching out alternative funding is a necessity.  One alternative available, depending on the type of start-up is to look [...]

A news article recently spoke of the number of public companies have been on the decline in recent years, and certainly before the current financial situation.  One obvious reason might be Sarbanes-Oxley.  How does this impact VC business in the Valley?  Opinions are mixed, but since a lot of VCs invest for that “pop” at [...]