Business Pitch, Elevator Pitch, and the LivePlan Pitch: What’s the Difference?
What’s a business pitch? Clearly that depends on who you ask and what they’re thinking about when you ask. It might be a slide deck, or a 20-minute presentation livened by a slide deck, or a short talk, or even a strategy summary. Either way, it’s confusing and I’d like to help clear it up. Here’s...
Webinar Recap: 14 Tips on How to Pitch and Get Funded
Last week, Bplans members had the opportunity to attend our free webinar, “14 Tips on How to Pitch and Get Funded.” Our featured speaker was Caroline Cummings, the VP of Business Development at Palo Alto Software. As the former co-founder and CEO of two technology companies, Caroline has experienced both start-up failures and successes, and...
14 Tips on How to Pitch and Get Funded [Webinar]
You made the leap. You’ve taken the steps to start your own business, and it’s more than just an idea. There’s only one problem: you don’t have the capital you need to get it off the ground or take it to the next level. You need investors. When it comes to pitching your business, you...
How to Raise Startup Funding from Unlikely Angel Investors
I’m not your average angel. I’m a mom, a full-time sales manager, and recruiter. I’m not active in an angel group. I don’t have an MBA and I don’t live in Silicon Valley. I live in a small town surrounded by farms and I made my first angel investment at 29 because my dad said...
5 Sure-fire Ways to Bomb Your Investor Pitch
Having delivered hundreds of pitches myself (and bombed a few), as well as coaching dozens of entrepreneurs on how to pitch, I’ve definitely seen some doozy pitches. I sometimes wish I’d had a video camera with me to create a funny compilation of all the bloopers—something I might have shared with entrepreneurs on how not...
12 Ways to Get Your New Product into a Major Retail Chain
What is one tip you have for getting a brand-new product into major retail chains? Getting a new, untried product into the market is tough. Major retail chains may not want to gamble on something brand new. To learn how other entrepreneurs managed to get their shiny new products into major chains around the country,...
Do You Know How to Pitch Your Startup in Social Situations?
You’ve struck stones together and you’ve finally seen a spark. You’ve worked hard to develop your ideas and build something worthy of faith and investment. But finding natural ways to pitch your startup may still seem like the most daunting task you’ve faced yet. Your elevator pitch, for all that it can be perfected, can come...
Got “Founder Fit”? If You Want Venture Capital, You Need It
A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. I’d reached out...
