{"id":72,"date":"2009-02-25T08:27:53","date_gmt":"2009-02-25T15:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/?p=72"},"modified":"2023-03-02T21:29:10","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T03:29:10","slug":"how-to-impress-a-venture-capitalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/how-to-impress-a-venture-capitalist\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Impress a Venture Capitalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Point<\/strong>: Get to the Point Fast\"Jason<\/p>\n

Story<\/strong>: Jason Mendelson, Managing Director of the Foundry Group, gave the following advice last night to entrepreneurs seeking funding:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Send an executive summary, not a business plan – VCs are short on time. Grab their attention quickly. They don’t want to wade through a 90-page business plan at the get-go.<\/li>\n
  2. Know your business better than anyone.<\/li>\n
  3. Don’t ask for an NDA – that’s a rookie mistake. VCs look at so many business plans a year that if they signed an NDA, they’d almost certainly get sued.<\/li>\n
  4. Have a 3-sentence elevator pitch about your business ready if you meet the VC informally.<\/li>\n
  5. Be smart, but don’t be arrogant. Saying your product “has no competitors” is not believable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Action<\/strong>: Do your homework before you approach the VC. VCs like Jason enjoy talking with entrepreneurs informally, such as at Boulder Open Coffees<\/a>, but don’t have the fundraising conversation before you’re ready. When you are<\/em> ready, be crisp and concise in your communication.<\/p>\n

    For more about Jason Mendelson, read his blog: http:\/\/www.jasonmendelson.com\/wp\/<\/a>
    \nLearn more about the Foundry Group:     http:\/\/www.foundrygroup.com\/<\/a>
    \nJoin the Discussion at Ask the VC<\/em>:     http:\/\/www.askthevc.com\/blog\/about.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    How to Impress a Venture Capitalist: Get to the Point Fast, says Jason Mendelson, Managing Director of the Foundry Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,6,3],"tags":[364,22],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capital","category-entrepreneurs","category-opportunity","tag-opportunity","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2305,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/2305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}