Last week students in my Intro to Entrepreneurship course were working through the Startup Marketing lecture. There was a delightful discussion afterwards as the students explored the idea of “positioning.” This is a topic that was very tricky for me until a wise mentor showed me a trick that plays a central role in the [...]
If your angel group doesn’t know about the Power Of Angel Investing seminars, you should. These are structured, well-tested programs that can help the angels in your group, and the group itself, significantly increase their ability, and confidence, to execute deals.
Several of you kindly requested to view the syllabus for the new online course I am teaching this summer: Intro to entrepreneurship for non-business majors (BDIC 397E). The course is a bit different from most. There is no textbook to buy ! Content is provided through short video lectures and links to excellent online resources. [...]
There are many videos & web resources with tips on how to specifically design your pitch, slide-by-slide, to attract investors. Here are some I have found helpful: ). Then there are folks like Presentation Zen who think about the big picture of presentations in general. And for my summer courses I created something in between, [...]
Funders are overwhelmed with applications. So overwhelmed they often allocate only 15-30 seconds to the initial review of each applicant… and based on that brief review they disqualify 50-75% of them! Those of you who have followed my blog and twitter feed see my own examples of this – simple mistakes people make that get [...]
When I attended my first entrepreneurship education event, my question was the same as most of the students I have now… "What is the step-by-step process for raising money?" Of course there is no one exact answer, but I hate it when people cop out like that! So I have found a high-level pattern that [...]
Raising money is all about relationships. Your odds of getting funding are dramatically higher (50-10 times higher) if you have the right relationships. And anyone can learn how to build those relationships. This brief video explains these concepts in detail, with real-life examples I hope you’ll find helpful.
Most of us are under the belief that the way to get money is to fill out lots of applications, send them to lots of places, pitch like crazy, play the numbers game, and eventually win. I could not disagree more. Likewise many of us (myself included when I started) use techniques that make no [...]
What is the difference between a "sustainable" and a "conventional" venture? If one cares about people and the planet, can you be for-profit? If you want to make a profit, can you still care about making the world a better place? How much should you care about securing capital to help you reach your mission? [...]
I am recording videos for my summer courses. One of the most important lectures I give is a set-by-step explanation of the Executive Summary. The lecture also includes Good and Bad examples of how to do most sections (thanks to Bob Hyers for that suggestion years ago!). Lecture: The Executive Summary Part I: Introduction, company, [...]
