The Top 10 Investor Pitch FAILS! in 5-minutes
Yep. That’s right. The Top 10 Investor Pitch FAILS! in 5-minutes – as presented by me, on behalf of VentureSpur at the 2013 SpringBeta conference in Oklahoma City:
Category Archives: Startup Philosophy
The Entrepreneurial Journey as Hero Quest – from Bryan Hassin
Ultra-cool friend, former fantastic business partner and all-around Green Energy dude, Bryan Hassin, (@guido23) gave a TEDx talk on entrepreneurship as seen through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey. No kidding. This is must-watch TV:
What is a “Lifestyle Business” and why should you or your VC care?
Sometimes, when I’m evaluating a startup for a potential investment with a group of other investors, we’ll hear an investor say afterwards, “Well, that looks great as a lifestyle business, but how is it going to scale?” What the heck are they talking about and
An older post, but very good: The Manager’s Schedule versus The Maker’s Schedule
Check out this post from Paul Graham at YCombinator about the difference between a schedule this is optimal for bosses versus optimal for people who make stuff: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html I struggle with this sometimes, because I’m required to be the boss, but I like to make
Fascinating article on Public-Private venture capital that actually works
Check out this article: http://texasceomagazine.com/features/funding-startups-or-scale-ups/ Very interesting debate about funding start-ups versus funding scale-ups, what the differences are, what the outcomes tend to be, and where the money comes from for public-private partnerships. The article rambles a bit, but there’s a lot to learn
8 Major Trends Enabling Lean Startups
Consider this a draft, but I wanted to get these ideas out there, because I find myself talking to both startups and investors about them, a lot, as I go about my VentureSpur business. It won’t come as much of a surprise to my typical
Doing a startup – Should you bootstrap it or VC it?
So, you want to “do a startup”? First big, huge, life-changing question: Should you bootstrap it, or VC it? And I’m about to say something entirely heretical. In a world where that question typically gets what I call a “religious” response – on par with
Why do we NOT focus on the competition?
I was very interested to read about this recent interview with Larry Page from Google: http://www.ceo.com/news_and_insights/larry-page-why-companies-fail/ Highlighted especially is the fact that Google doesn’t really focus on or try to compete with anyone, for good reason. They’re trying to be a unique solution for their
VentureSpur Entrepreneurial Interview – Renzi Stone
Here’s the latest entrepreneurial interview from a VentureSpur mentor, Renzi Stone. Renzi is the CEO of Saxum Strategic Communications in Oklahoma City. Saxum is the leading integrated full-service communications firm in the region, and Renzi has interesting things to say. Mentor Renzi Stone, Chairman and
VentureSpur Entrepreneurial Interview – David Matthews
David Matthews, co-founder of VentureSpur and Managing Partner of Trailblazer Capital, has recently completed a brief interview with VentureSpur as part of their mentor interview series. Recently we interviewed David Matthews, VentureSpur Co-Founder, Mentor and Managing Partner at Trailblazer Capital. Read on for David’s take on mentorship and