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How NOT to get the Venture Capital Door SLAMMED in your face

Diana Benedikt, Principal

+ our partners at

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Why Learn From Me?

• VIA: Entrepreneurial Advisory Firm• Worked with 125+ startups across:– Enterprise SW/Saas/Cloud– Wireless Communications– Digital Media– Clean Tech– Consumer Goods

• Former COO venture funded startup• Advance Ventures, Artemis Ventures

Success? Failure? I’ve seen it all.

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I’ve Seen 1000’s of Companies And 100’s of Investors

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DON’T Create Financial NightmaresA situation where

financial forecasts were just too aggressive.

Other situations occurred where model

wasn’t detailed enough.

Know your “Financial Levers”. Explain clearly & simply, what drives your business. Bonus: support assumptions with actual metrics.

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DON’T Rely on the Live DemoA situation where the demo fails during the pitch meeting. Result:

Absolute Failure.

Load a video on your hard drive, play the demo if needed. Or use screen

shots. Or printouts.

Source: Chrisparillo.com

Have multiple contingency plans if your demo fails. Be able to simply sit and tell a story if your laptop blows up that morning.

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DON’T Miss the Boat

A situation where, by the time we finally started pitching…

…the market space was already over funded.

Launch early, launch often. Use agile development & get your product out the door. Use social media & build customer metrics.

DON’T Play Games with VC’s: You LoseA situation where an entrepreneur thought he could play one VC

against another…

…in search of an optimal term sheet, but in the end, no

deal.

The “best” deal may not be the one with the highest valuation. Remember there are many other terms in a term sheet… 7

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And So Much More…

Turn off your cell phone before a meeting

Be prepared for the obvious question:

Competition

Avoid presenting to investors who don’t

understand your space

Manage the level of detail in your preso: 50

slides doesn’t work

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Takeaway?

Learn from others’ mistakes &

you won’t get the door slammed on you!

Thanks!

Diana Benediktdi@veninsight.com@dianabenedikt