Making the Most of C100’s 48 Hours in the Valley

Dave Litwiller, Executive in Residence, Communitech

dave [dot] litwiller [at] communitech [dot] ca

December 2012

I am often asked “How should I get ready?” by client CEOs of companies who have been invited to attend C100’s

48 Hours in the Valley mentoring and networking event. There are several situational factors to qualify and

preparations to make to deliver best results at 48hrs:

Have a clear story about how your business can plausibly evolve to a billion dollar valuation, and from a more

local effort to a global entity. Know the indicative roadmap even if the billion dollar tier requires a future leap

to becoming a target industry platform play from a current starting point as a point solution product. Smaller

opportunities don’t fare well when competing for attention and investment in Silicon Valley.

Have compelling proof points in hand showing that your team’s pace of execution and rate of learning is

among the best performing of your competitive landscape’s class. Also have persuasive evidence of early user

engagement.

Be comfortable pitching yourself and your business each in three time formats: 30 seconds, three minutes and

ten minutes. Have supporting PowerPoint on hand, but be able to pitch comfortably without any visual

support. At 48hrs, you will be judged largely by your ability to tell the story about the founder(s) and the

business in a way which inspires people about your future ability to attract employees, customers, investors

and partners to build out the company.

Have a single page, leave-behind piece of collateral providing an overview of your business and the investment

or partnership opportunity. It makes your company easier to remember, and sets your enterprise apart from

many in terms of tangible preparedness. This piece does not need to be a four colour glossy. Something laser

printed on good quality paper will do, and as a .pdf for electronic follow-up.

Reach out two weeks beforehand to arrange meetings with key people who are targeted as sources of advice

and referrals, candidate angels, representatives of domain- and stage-appropriate venture capital firms, and

strategic partners. Don’t leave meetings entirely to chance at the event itself.

Go with a well thought out top-five list of issues and planning scenarios for which you would like input during

the mentoring sessions with seasoned entrepreneurs, investors and peer start-up leaders. Gaining a diversity

of perspectives on a consistent set of the most pressing dilemmas for the business often is the biggest benefit

for attending start-up founders.

48hrs is best as an investment soliciting vehicle for companies seeking angel funding of under $250K, or

institutional venture capital funding rounds toward $5 million and above. Fundraising targets between $500K

and $3 million tend to fall into a no man’s land of being too big for angels, and too small for institutional

venture investors, where the likelihood of capital raising success is much lower – even in Silicon Valley.

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