Saturday, December 30, 2006

Making the pitch Great post from Guy Kawasaki. It's relevant for not only entrepreneurs pitching to VCs, but to all of us who pitch ideas to management, colleagues, associates, customers. It's a long post, I'll just excerpt a little to whet your appetite. The Entrepreneur's New Year's Resolution: "I Will Fix My Pitch". Here[base ']s a New Year[base ']s resolution for entrepreneurs: [per thou]I will fix my pitch.[base "] And here[base ']s a suggestion on how to do this written by Bill Reichert, my colleague at Garage Technology Ventures. Endless articles, books, and blogs have been written on the topic of business plan presentations and pitching to investors. In spite of this wealth of advice, almost every entrepreneur gets it wrong. Why? Because most guides to pitching your company miss the central point: The purpose of your pitch is to sell, not to teach. Your job is to excite, not to educate. Pitching is about understanding what your customer (the investor) is most interested in, and developing a dialog that enables you to connect with the head, the heart, and the gut of the investor. So, the pitch has to accomplish three things: Provide a good, clear, easy-to-repeat story[~]the story of an exciting new startup. Fit with other investments the individual venture capitalist has made and the investments the firm is chartered to make. Beat out the other investments the firm is currently considering. How do you turn a pitch from a monolog to a sale? Make sure every point you make connects with your audience. Keep your text very, very short. Really. Please. Use charts and pictures if you can. And engage your prospect. Ask questions. [base "]Do you think this market opportunity is interesting?[per thou] [base "]Have you seen anyone else addressing this problem?[per thou] [base "]Do you think CIOs would be interested in a solution like this?[per thou] You may get some tough responses, but you will know a lot more about what is going on in the investor[base ']s mind, and you will be engaging them in your story[~]instead of letting them play with their Blackberries under the table. A good pitch is rare because it is so hard to execute on everything else that has to be done to build a successful company. But the ability to pitch is a key indicator for investors[~]if the entrepreneur doesn[base ']t know how to sell, how can he or she build a great company? [How to Change the World] 9:18:04 PM    comment []

Leadership and new technology Amit of Mobilize is focused on plant-to-enterprise connectivity (or M2M) and was thinking about leadership in this "new" era. I'm not sure that the technology has anything to do with leadership--something that's more of a personal thing. But he has some good thoughts on leadership. The entire post is here: Leadership qualities in the Machine Era. Here's an excerpt (edited): 1) Leaders must have and infuse sense of urgency in their teams, This applies to whether you are discussing crisis, major opportunities, new ideas etc. 2) They must have empathy for their people, many leaders forget the real power lies in making their people empowered vs. thinking power lies in them. 3) It doesnt cost you anything to truly appreciate people when they deserve it. I often see leaders who love to take credit for themselves. This leads you know where. 4) Remember you are a leader because you are a problem solver. Devils like stress/crisis will always encircle you. Face them boldly with your teams vs. get emotionally caught up and sweat. 5) Earn earn earn respect vs. demand respect. 6) Let your teams play devils advocate to your vision. It will only help you refine it vs. get show down... 7) Have every idea with a solid execution plan, if you dont execute flawlessly you are doomed and your teams will never take you seriously..Talk is cheap. 8) Ensure all your moves result in Cash flow 1st. Revenues are great, but if you cant pay the monthly bills it wont matter..its easy to run an unprofitable business. 9) If you dont think you are adding value everyday to yourself, then quit because chances are you will be fired eventually. Here are some additional thoughts: 1) Understanding of technologies in M2M space. 2) Understand the true business value or What problem your technologies really will solve in the M2M space. 3) Dont always apply your old approaches which worked for you in the past when you were CEO of X company to current M2M company you may be leader of. Be open to new approaches. 4) Kill Kill politics, i have seen some phenomenal products in this space, with worst teams which is a sure recipe for disaster. 5) Be prepared to face new uncertain territories. 6)Chances are if you were a leader in the past, you know this. Lead under pressure is obvious..If you havent lead under pressure, then be prepared for it..it will happen in this space. 7) Form a network of like minded people, learn more them, talk to them...dont stay in isolation that you know everything...The beauty of this space is no one knows everything and everyone is learning from each other so why not be open to it. 8) Do the right things, dont take strategic actions to please your shareholders only. Anyone have other thoughts on the topic? 9:00:50 PM    comment []

Take the superhero quiz Do you like superhero comics? Which one would you like to be? Which one are you like? I just read about this quiz on TechCrunch. I'm a little surprised to be Spiderman, but that 41% Wonder Woman kind of has me wondering ;-) Here's my test results. Try it yourself. Your results: You are Spider-Man Spider-Man 70% Superman 65% The Flash 65% Green Lantern 60% Supergirl 56% Iron Man 55% Robin 50% Hulk 50% Wonder Woman 41% Batman 40% Catwoman 30% You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility. Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz... 6:10:21 PM    comment []