Archives For venture capitalist

The Wall Street Journal Launches The Accelerators; Online Mentorship From Startup Gurus

November 14, 2012 — 3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal launches a new “online forum” to provide mentorship and advice to startups and entrepreneurs. The online forum is called “The Accelerators“. The Accelerators will feature 20 individuals ranging from “successful entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, and technology and business thinkers”. Among the list of thinkers, investors include, Kevin Colleran, Bill Gurley, Steve Blank, Alexa Hirschfeld, Brad Feld, Charles Hudson, Michael Lazerow, Naval Ravikant, and myself.

I have been selected to be one of the 20 contributors of The Accelerators and looking forward to sharing my experiences from working in the technology/startup space over the last 12 plus years. “Look Ma” I even have my own Wall Street Journal dot drawing.

Screen-Shot-2012-11-13-at-8.54.10-AM

The question for this week on the Wall Street Journal Accelerators was “What are the three things you need to ask yourself to make sure you have what it takes to attempt a startup?”
 Part of my answer was that before you attempt a startup you need to ask yourself, “Can you give 100%?”. You can read my full response here on the ask yourself why post.

I’m excited about the opportunity to be one of the Wall Street Journal “Startup Gurus” and looking forward to sharing my feedback each week.

Also Read:
The Wall Street Journal launches The Accelerators and Startup Journal to cover entrepreneurship

In Entrepreneurship, Featured, News, Press Releases, Startups , , , , , , , ,
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Let the SXSW Voting Begin! You Should Start Here! #SXSW #SXSWi #SXSW2013

August 13, 2012

SXSW 2013 Panel Picker

It’s that time of the year to vote on your favorite 2013 South by Southwest (sxsw) Interactive Festival Panel Topics.. This year SXSW reports there were over 3200 speaking proposals submitted. For newbies the voting process works this way:

  • Public voting only accounts for 30% of the decision-making process on your proposal.
  • SXSW Advisory Board (40%)
  • The input of the SXSW staff (30%).

Voting on SXSW panels ends Friday, August 31 (11:59 PM CST) and on October 15, the first batch of topics will be announced.

SXSW is one of those must attend events that I recommend anyone in the technology, programming, startup, entrepreneurship, social media, innovation space or just a geek to attend. If you’re looking to meet awesome people and have a good time, it’s good for that too. I’ve been lucky enough to speak at SXSW since 2009 and participate on three panels, one solo talk and one time as a moderator.

  • 2012 – SXSW 2012 Panel – CNN’s Black in America / Silicon Valley: Aftermath
  • 2011 – Moderator – SXSW 2011 – Future15 Online Video
  • 2010 – Becoming a Real-Time Video Blogger in 2010 [ slides]
  • 2010 – Paypal Community Innovation Summit
  • 2009 – Panel: Digital Urbanites: How to Become Part of the New Social Capital

For past and upcoming speaking events visit: http://socialwayne.com/speaking/

For 2013 I wanted to submit a topic based off a lot of the conversations I’ve been having over the past two years while working with upcoming entrepreneurs. That topic is around pitching to venture capitalist. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert but I’ve worked with more than enough founders and investors to deliver a unique approach to entrepreneurs that I believe will be valuable at SXSW.

This year SXSW asked everyone to submit a video or presentation along with their submission. You can see my What Founders Need To Know When Pitching to A VC SXSW topic slides below.

Now you know what comes next. Visit the SXSW Panel Picker, create an account and please upvote my topic.

During the voting process I’ll post more about the topic and other panels I think you should keep an eye on.

Good luck to all and thanks!

In Featured, Speaking, sxsw , , , , , , , , , ,
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Angel Investors and Venture Capitalist Are People Too

August 9, 2012 — 1 Comment

{14} fear of rejection
flickr photo by: KatLevPhoto

Since moving to San Francisco, CA in February I’ve interacted with tons of Angel Investors and Venture Capitalist (VC). More so on the Venture Capital side than angel investor side. Part of my interactions have been connecting prepared entrepreneurs for demo days, pitch meetings, or giving VCs referrals. Other interactions have been for customer development on a new product I’m working on.

There are a few basic VC rules when it comes to meeting with investors for entrepreneurs such as:

  • Never be late to an investor meeting
  • Always be prepared
  • Always be honest
  • Even when you’re not pitching you’re always pitching
  • Do your investor research to know what type of companies they fund and any recent company
    accomplishments
  • Be prepared for rejection
  • Always follow-up

Those are a few basic rules not only for venture capital meetings but for general business meetings and negations.

During, before and after meeting with an Angel Investors and Venture Capitalist as an entrepreneur a lot of times you’re in the position of need and the investor has all the answers to your problems, money. So it seems. In fact money is far from the complete solution to your problem and investors know that. But for many first time entrepreneurs they see investors as banks for loans and not as partnerships. This is a huge mistake.

Angel Investors and Venture Capitalist are people too and believe it or not the key data point that could decide if they’re going to invest into your company or not may not be your idea, your team, your profits or the size of the market for your startup but it could be does an investor like or trust you. Think about that the next time you visit the bank or your favorite restaurant. How do you treat your waiter, what would the teller at a bank say to a potential investor about how well you treat them.

One common paraphrase to describe the relationship between investors and startups is could you see yourself in the relationship with one another. In other words, as an entrepreneur could you marry an investor and the same for an investor, could they marry or live with the entrepreneur and their team. Yes, the relationship can and should be that serious.

Entrepreneurs at the end of the day, regardless of how an investor may act or treat you, people do business with who they like, know and trust and as the saying goes, treat people like you want to be treated.

In Entrepreneurship, Featured, Startups , , ,
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