Comments on: How Not to Pitch to a Startup

By: tony

tony — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:26:47 +0000

beautiful

By: tony

tony — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:24:05 +0000

By: pzg

pzg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:51:02 +0000

It so cool

By: 1

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:08:40 +0000

Everyone needs a hug.

By: vishal

vishal — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:50:51 +0000

Everyone needs a hug. Seems like i need to visit wufoo.

By: Rob Holmes

Rob Holmes — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:59:08 +0000

Superb post. Just started looking at wufoo and the closer I look, the more I like. It’s as much about those who run the place having their head screwed on right as the application itself in my experience. Don’t worry, I’m a customer, not a VC.

By: Timm

Timm — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:38:48 +0000

Everyone needs a hug.

By: Lian Pheng

Lian Pheng — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:53:22 +0000

Thanks for the perspective. If you are perceiving the VC to be an elixir of life, entrepreneurs might be disappointed. Research by E&Y showed that • Late-stage venture capitalist, also termed private equity houses, recognise the importance of identifying and solving problems with portfolio companies but acknowledge that their reaction to issues is often too little too late. Intervention tends not to involve a heavy commitment on the part of the Private Equity house and predominantly involves the replacement of under performing management teams. • Private Equity houses don’t have the people with the right skills or resources to regularly respond more proactively. • The ability to supplement deal skills with appropriate management expertise will allow proactive assistance to be given to portfolio companies to add or protect value. This is likely to be a key differentiator in a challenging market place over the next decade and will give private equity houses the best opportunity to attract both capital and deal flow.

Lian Pheng, Managing Partner, Gingko Capital (lianpheng@gingkovc.com) has widely published on top-tier journals and publications on insider secrets to fund-raising from venture capitalists, entrepreneurial finance and startup valuations. See 99 Insider Secrets to Startup Financing (www.gingkocapital.com)

By: SPC

SPC — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:45:38 +0000

Solid comments. In our company, we have been surprised by the (poor) quality of the investment analyses we have been exposed to, although from what we hear, that may be because VCs are as frozen by the conditions in the market as private equity generally has been. Moreover, their general sense is that they can get better products for lower valuations than they could have in previous years, because the need for cash is greater than ever. That only compounds their anxiety about making a poor investment, and as all start-up people know, it’s tough to be creative and helpful when you are so anxious. Another comments is that VC’s essential value-add is superior negotiating skills, not relationships - after all, they have not been thinking 24/7 about your space or business - and since the general rule is that only one investment in ten generates the returns they seek, they use that to justify the intense negotiating efforts they engage in with companies seeking their capital. Finally, VCs, like everyone else, have their own agendas, and while I admire your diligence in researching them when there is an opportunity to interact, the real question that might save you even more time is: why are they doing this? It is almost always more complicated than simply ‘looking for great companies to invest in’. Thanks for the perspective

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:26:13 +0000

The monetization window for innovation is short on the web… how long can Wufoo make money as more free form building sites come online? Google forms, etc…