BusinessWeek Podcast and more posted
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | January 2, 2009
Just a quick "Happy New Year" post!
I have just uploaded several interviews I have done with BusinessWeek and also one with the "struggling entrepreneur" that I hope you will find useful and worth a listen.
Take a look here:
During 2009 I will be adding lots of new resources on top of the worksheets for the book, such as videos and more podcasts.
I am also being featured in a TV show being aired on Comcast and the web later this year that I hope will be of interest to you all!
So keep it tuned here and watch out over the coming months for more useful content.
Jon
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Check your business plan measures up to "business school" standard before you send it out to investors
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | December 16, 2008
As you may know I work extensively with 3 of the World’s Top 10 business schools and I regularly have to help MBA’s work on their business plans. In working with them I help them shape their plans and eventually I often have to rate and mark them as part of their course grade!
In order to help them ensure that their plans can withstand the "beating" it will get under examination from investors, and mainly VC’s, I came up with a simple and informal way to check out a plan.
Here it is, compare your plan to these tests and see how you think it measures up…
Hopefully by testing rigorously you will expose any weaknesses before you send it out and can make your plan as strong as it can be. This is critical as you will get only one chance to impress a VC and get through the incredibly tough business plan review process - don’t waste any hard earned opportunity with a plan that’s not as good as you can make it!
Feedback Scale for a business plan
Readability – Does the idea come across clearly and easily? Is the language and communication method used effective? Is there a logical flow and does the plan have me “nodding” in agreement and understanding as I read through. Are the spelling and grammar right? Are all the required topics included in the plan in sufficient detail and the right places? Is there a “story” I get excited about or that holds the reader throughout the plan?
Lucidity – Is the idea and the business compelling and obvious. Do it get “it” in the first few minutes of reading and do I want to read more to understand the full details. Can I feel the pain, see the business solution and get that it’s an “Advil” solution that is required by the target market now. Has the idea been illustrated clearly in terms that allow me to “feel” it and experience it in a way that’s meaningful to me? I am thinking yes I can see how that would work in my own experience.
Believability – Are the plan, the numbers, the people and the idea credible. Does everything stack up or am I questioning assumptions, issues and the concept. Are there any obvious “dumb” issues that turn me off right away or obvious holes in the plan that should have been highlighted and covered off? Are there the classic faux pas and lazy assumptions/statements or is everything nicely backed up with fact based arguments.
Fundability – Is the idea and the market big enough to attract the investors I am seeking. If this is VC is the IRR correct and is the idea big enough for my fund. Ideally the TAM is $1Bn range and the revenue expected at year 5-7 $100M+ minimum. Is there scope in the plan for changing the business in order to succeed? Are their multiple revenue opportunities or extensions to the core market? Is this team the team that can pull off this idea?
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Public speaking…the key things to know
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | December 10, 2008
If you are making any form of presentation you will benefit from these quick tips.
Get the content and flow right:
First, make the presentation flow correctly - as most presentations are trying to convince someone of something, I tend to use the old A-I-D-A (a 1950s acronym for Attention/Interest/Desire/Action) system to build to a conclusion.
Kick off with an attention getting statement to show the audience they should listen.
A = Get attention right from the start of the presentation - do it with enthusiasm and excitement!
I = Build on this great start with why you and your topic are worth hearing about.
D = Build in some exciting data points that build on that foundation BUT only tease them, don’t tell all yet…use that to get some action.
A = Ask for some action, in other words close the pitch with…for e.g. in an investor pitch you could say…”to learn more how we can make money together come and speak to me after this pitch…”. You are trying to make them want to do something that moves towards you outcome.
If you are doing a factual presentation that needs agreement in the room then close all the data with a strong argument to go with your idea or along with your outcome.
Things you should remember for any presentation are:
B = Breathe, yes, breathe. Calm your nerves by breathing slowly and forcing the rate down. Take a few deep breaths before getting up to pitch.
S = Stance. Again, its important to stand correctly. Most people, including me when I started, try leaning on things or folding their arms or moving from leg to leg. Don’t do it. Practise keeping you lower body face on to the audience and static, using your upper body to gesticulate
E = Eyes. Once you are standing in front of everyone, take a cool, slow scan of the room and try to look at the audience ‘row by row’. This shows confidence and it gives you a second to relax and get ready.
SM = Now smile at the audience and try to empathize with them. Again this helps you relax and smiling will actually improve your state.
H = Hug. Or better group hug, this means open your arms and greet the audience. You don’t fold them shut like a hug but just hold them open as if presenting to 1000 people for a second.
E = Energy, now launch into your pitch with your welcome statement with energy, enthusiasm and excitement. Your passion must come across right away to help engage the audience and get their ATTENTION!
Things to also make the presentation go smoother:
If you are in front an audience, take a glass of water up with you, always. This is a great way to think about answers to questions or to give you a ‘breather’ between slides as well as soothe that dry mouth syndrome.
Try some facial exercises to beat the ‘lock jaw’ that afflicts many of us - the simplest is the say AEIOU while stretching the facial muscles as much as possible.
So what about the content?
Well it’s simple really, you are SELLING in most cases, even if its talking to peers, you are trying to get some action or convey useful data in most cases…
So remember this - this presentation is about selling YOU, you are the stand up comedian for a few minutes - you need to entertain, excite and persuade.
Think about this for a minute - most of the books you have read or the way you may have been taught to present is around style and content not performance art!
BUT this is the key skill - you have just a few minutes to get people from BORED to I MUST speak to this person to learn more - without any help from PowerPoint.
It’s all about you and them.
Your slides should be simple and NOT tell the audience everything they need to know, they are a “prop” for the main subject…YOU! Use them to get across very core facts with the minimum of data or bullets. Use images and ideas as the basis for the “words” you will speak, the slides should not do the work for you, that’s up to you.
More about slides here:
Getting yourself in peak state:
So 50% of your preparation needs to be about mentally preparing yourself to relax, breathe, speak clearly, look people in the eyes, use your hands and face with passion (like an Italian) to communicate effectively.
Also, you can use techniques to get you ‘charged up’ (or in state) before you go up on stage. You can do this in your head with positive affirmations (I AM a great presenter and I have a fantastic opportunity for my audience - if you believe it then it will come across when you speak) or combine it with moving your body. I like to find a quiet place and rev myself up with a ‘yes, yes, I am a presentation monster’ while punching the air a bit but this may not be your style! Anything that gets your body moving as well as your mind will help.
Put yourself in their shoes, what would get you to sit up in your chair, hanging on every word?
The other 50% is getting the key data to them in a fast but effective fashion.
I hope I don’t need to remind you to practise and time the pitch to match the needs of your event/venue.
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As you grow your start-up watch the corporate culture…
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | December 9, 2008
Saw a fantastic post at http://www.infochachkie.com/corevalues/ - right on the money as usual!
As the CEO of an early stage high-tech venture and having started a few I have to say that as you grow the “culture problem” can be a real challenge to the business.
In uncle Sam’s post be states that his quoted CEO believes this list of Core Values is one of the key reasons that his adVenture has maintained below-industry employee turnover rates for well over a decade. As such, he does not want to alert his competitors to what he believes is a real competitive advantage.
The Core Values
1. Always Invest, Never Spend
Be frugal but not cheap
2. Proactive Mentality
Follow up, anticipate, prevent
3. Seek “Quad” Wins
Ideally, the Client, Company, Team, and Individual should all benefit
4. It’s Everybody’s Problem
Take ownership, be accountable, offer assistance
5. Mistakes Are Opportunities
Learn from new mistakes, avoid repeating old ones
6. Never Give Up But Be Reasonable
See a commitment, resolution, project, or idea to its completion
7. What SHOULD I do? vs. What CAN I do?
Never take advantage of a situation, just because you can
8. Enhance Everything
Make continuous improvements to Client, Company, Team, Individual
9. Team Above Self
The Team’s objectives supersede those of the Individual
10. No Solution, No Whining
Whining allowed only if followed by a thoughtful solution
The values have become part of the organization’s fabric. There is no need to plaster the walls, coffee mugs or paperweights with your Core Values when they reside inside the hearts and minds of your employees.
My own take on this, although less comprehensive than the excellent post is:
F..un
S..ervice
P..rofit
Don’t do it unless you can have fun doing so - in other words do what you love and make sure the rest of the team feel the same way. Misaligned, miserable, grouches need not apply.
Give 150% to yourself, your team and your customers (and suppliers) - demand the same in return. Be totally committed and passionate about your role and be prepared to “contribute” to and support others within and without the venture. Let the team be involved with new hires so that they can help filter and apply the “culture” before recruitment and during the settling-in process.
Profit will come if you can pull all the rest together…but that’s the end result not the focus of the venture.
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Get some free Tony Robbins training…
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | December 5, 2008
I really like Tony Robbins and have met him at one of his seminars, he’s a larger than life character for sure but his charisma and speaking abilities are what I like most.
Also, he has an amazing sense of “contribution” and this website shows another of those efforts. He is showing a few great video clips that make good sense are well worth watching and subscribing too IMHO.
Check it out…http://tonyrobbinstraining.com/
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My wife reminded me: "The darkest hour is–in fact–right before the dawn…"
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | December 2, 2008
Everywhere I look and everything I read is depressing, as a UK native living in CA, USA I am appalled by what the current government has done to "great" Britain and what it’s about to do will make the UK the poor man of Europe once again - just like the 70’s. The British Pound has been decimated and gloom abounds…
The only "dawn" moment likely to happen for the UK is a new administration that can get back to basics, remove the horrible socialist agenda and hopefully stop the ridiculous spending and waste…Even though I no longer wish to live in the UK I do want it to come out of the gloom hopefully with David Cameron as Primeminister and heading towards a better future.
He will have the same very daunting task that Obama has here in the USA but with a few less resources and a big task to rescue British Business that has been hamstrung and damaged by the ridiculous red tape and labour laws.
However, I recently blogged that it’s not all doom and gloom if you are an entrepreneur as we have to face daily challenges of a larger order than governments petty law making and taxation rules, we have to face life and death many times over going from startup to mature business and we will always find a way through, over or around these obstacles towards our goals.
There will be benefits for the strong and brave of this recession and financial meltdown - were there is disaster there is also opportunity.
I personally belive that those entrepreneurs that double their efforts and keep going through these hard tmes will emerge the big winners, in my book "So you want to be an entrepreneur" I put forward the No.1 trait of the successful entrepreneurs I know is Persistence and we need that more than ever now…
The one thing you must not do right now is panic, Jason Calacanis puts it well
Great entrepreneurs build value and market-share in down markets. They go to work seven days a week and the breakout when other folks check out.
He also suggests a list of useful to-do’s in his post below (this post is way longer and has other useful stuff in it so go look at that too if you have time):
10 Specific things you can do
——————————————
Since the outside market is out of your control, the best you can do
is focus your energy inward. Here are some things you can do after
you’ve assessed where you company is at.
1. Execute better: This is fairly simple, as I describe above. Rank
yourself and your performance and improve it.
2. Grow the talent you have: When the market is down, it’s a great
time to get your team educated and to the next level. Invest in
training and education of your top people, because they are the ones
who will lead your company through this mess.
3. Firing the average people: Again, it’s totally politically
incorrect, but I highly recommend firing anyone who is good or
average. Startups are an Olympic sport and every slot on your team is
critical. You wouldn’t put a “good” swimmer in a relay, would you?
Don’t have one in your startup. Fire the good and replace them with
the great.
4. Cut spending every where you can: Recurring costs like
connectivity, phones, rent and insurance are things that you can
easily cut. Go to each of your providers and ask for 20% relief
immediately or you’re leaving. Most, not all, will give it to you.
5. Find a revenue stream and ride it: If you don’t have a revenue
stream right now, you’d better find one on Monday. Seriously, by the
end of the day. Once you find this revenue stream, ride it. Put at
least 25% of your effort into bringing in revenue.
6. Focus on your profitable clients: If you have revenue, start
focusing on which clients are most profitable. Take them to lunch and
figure out how you can over-service them and sell them another product
(or more of your current product). You’re gonna want to protect these
accounts because the folks reading Point Five are going to be calling
them!
7. Make your top ten 10% better: Look at the top ten aspects of your
business and come up with a plan to make each 10% better in the next
30 days. Ask everyone in your company to make suggestions for the 10%
better program and execute on the ones that will provide the most bang
for the buck. Sometimes, there are things you can do today that will
make something 10% better for free–you just haven’t brainstormed
enough.
8. Hold an optional off-site breakfast meeting on a Sunday and see who
shows up: If folks don’t show up for you to grow/save the company on a
Sunday for a two hour breakfast, they probably aren’t going to step up
when the sh#$%t really hits the fan. You need to know who the real
killers on your team are and you need to get close with them now.
Again, it’s fine to have 9-5ers on your team–if you’re the Post
Office. You can’t have them at a startup company. Note: if you reading
this and saying I’m anti-family, save it. Folks don’t have to work at
startups and some of the hardest working folks I’ve met have families
and figure out how to balance things.
9. Build marketshare: One of the best things to do in the down market
is build marketshare. Look for competitors that are going out of
business and buy them or just “steal” their clients and talent (i.e.
pick them up).
10. Raise money: I know I said above most folks won’t be able to raise
money in the down market, but that’s not because the money isn’t out
there–clearly it is. The issue is that the big money out there
doesn’t want to fund small ideas that are in the death spiral. Build a
plan based on revenue and taking market share and folks will consider
funding you.
http://calacanis.com/2008/09/29/the-startup-depression/
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Finding the right VC investor…now is more important than ever!
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | November 29, 2008
Below is the presentation given during by Adeo Ressi at Web 2.0 in New York. The talk focuses on helping companies find the “right” investor, versus just any interested party.
It’s a very useful deck and from a very thoughtful guy that has been around this game a few times.
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Attracting Venture Capital in a Down Market
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | November 25, 2008
While exits in the form of IPOs have been non-existent in recent months, and the number of startup acquisitions has slowed considerably, the effects of the current economic climate are only now beginning to impact the market for seed & early stage venture capital.
Basically, at least in the short term, the cost of capital is going up. Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, recently remarked that “In market downturns, frugality is not only a virtue, it could also make the difference between survival and failure”. Aspiring and veteran entrepreneurs alike need to understand what this means to them, in an environment where “differentiation will likely be defined not by aggressive, (capital driven growth), but rather by adaptability”.
WHEN: Thursday, December 4, 2008
6:00 - 7:00 pm: Networking and hors d’oeuvres
7:00 - 8:15 pm: Panel discussion and Q/A
8:15 - 8:30 pm: Additional networking
LOCATION: Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR Campus), 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
For more information and to register click here!
To help understand what this means to you, come meet with and hear leading venture investors in a lively exchange, when they explore trends and provide insights on the following critical questions:
· How can already funded startups not only survive but thrive, in this market?
· What do new startups need to look like to attract venture funding?
· What does this mean for valuations?
· What does this mean for exit options?
· What does this mean to the already shifting venture capital community?
· What does this mean for Silicon Valley - will it still be the world center of entrepreneurship & venture capital in the next decade?
The Panel:
· Bill Gurley, General Partner, Benchmark Capital
· Warren Packard, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
· John Steuart, Managing Director, Claremont Creek Ventures
Moderator: Phil Wickham, President & CEO, Kauffman Fellows Program
See Website for Speaker Bios.
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The VC Taskforce Elevator Pitch Roundtable
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | November 24, 2008
The VC Taskforce Elevator Pitch Roundtable is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to network with investors and other CXOs, present their companies and ideas, and hear first-hand what it takes to raise early-stage capital in 2009. These events consistently draw an excellent entrepreneur-to-investor ratio.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Pillsbury’s Silicon Valley office
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304
6:00 - 6:30 pm: Networking
(casual dinner will be served)
6:30 - 8:30 pm: Program
Register now! Space is limited. To register online click here.
$35 VC Taskforce members
$65 Non-members
(If space is available, on-site registration is an additional $10)
Moderator
Ash Dhar, Venture Partner,
Horizon Ventures
Panelists
Tom Thomas, Partner,
Pillsbury
Eric Copeland, General Partner,
Venrock
Jeff Allen, Rocket Ventures
Lars Leckie, Principal,
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
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Tech startup guides…in summary
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | November 17, 2008
Writing about “how-to” startup could take 1000s page or just a few. In the last 20+ years of doing this I have learned a lot, mostly through my own dumb mistakes and I would say that again if you had to choose the best advice for a startup success (non-task related) it would be persistence/determination.
In my book I rate these No.1 in the successful entrepreneurs armory…
So how to “compress” the learnings, well one way is to stick them on a few slides…so here goes. But these examples are just a quick overview not the be all and end all…and they are done by others as you have plenty of my advice in my book!
It’s rare to find a quick summary that resonates but the the very successful guys at Venture Hacks have a nice quick slide show for that makes great reading for tech startups, see what you think:
Another one I really like (not just because of the title):
Again this is for tech startups again, esp. VC backed:
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