Are you thinking of raising your next round? You may already be too late!
Money makes the startup world go ‘round. But money tends to run out fast. One of the common problems startups face is just that: running out of money. In the back of every founder’s mind, there is a countdown to running out of money. In investor speak, this is called “the runway”, that is, the […]
The Angel Investor Manifesto: why and how to invest in pre-product startups
Up until around 2010, many startups would raise pre-product seed rounds using only an investor deck, idea, and the spark in their eyes. Those times are long gone. Today investors know that the cost of reaching a viable product (in many sectors) is low enough that serious founders will create their product, and initial traction, […]
Digital securities are revolutionizing investing – and it’s going to be amazing!
Are you aware of how digital securitize are going to change the investment world in the coming years? As an investor, you should read this now.
So, you wanted to ICO?
This story was originally written when ICOs were at their APEX and every second entrepreneur I would talk to wanted my help in ICOing. Since then, things have gone south for the ICO industry. So many scammers and bad projects have sullied the waters of what might have been an amazing new industry. But, no […]
What is the difference between a business plan and a White Paper for an ICO?
Everybody’s talking about Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) lately. If you’ve been sleeping in the past few months, ICOs are a way for a company to offer crypto-assets to the public in order to raise funding, and many startups have been doing just that to raise initial capital, often instead of raising angel or VC rounds […]
Why Israelis Suck at Lean Canvas
TL;DR Lean Canvas is popular. It’s used to create a good strategy by breaking the business down into topics and challenging assumptions. The more time and effort one puts in it, the more value is created, and the main derived benefit is expertise in your business. Israelis are results-oriented, not process-oriented, therefore it is no […]
Lessons from 10 years of writing business plans (part 2)
It’s been ten years and 300+ business plans since I started writing business plans and looking back I have gained some insights about the process (and art?) of creating these ubiquitous document, no matter their form: executive summary, one-pager, investor presentation or strategic plan. Specifically, I have come to believe that a successful business plan […]
Lessons from 10 years of writing business plans (part 1)
I’ve recently looked back on my career (so far) and was somewhat surprised to discover that I have been in the business of writing business plans for almost a decade now (even more if you take into account business plans I wrote for myself for businesses I started 15 years ago). This seemed like a […]
Want to get funding? Learn to pitch like a doctor
My partner, Aaron Rothenberg, recently wrote a piece about the communications gap between startups and investors. Basically, he states that startups fail to convey their message and offering to investors. In no place is this truer than in the amorphous “startup pitch”. Why amorphous? Simply because this pitch may take many forms – an elevator […]
The Two Worst Business Plan Mistakes and How to Fix Them
The common thinking today (so I am told) is that startups don’t need a business plan. That is misleading. While the formats (and attention spans) may have changed from long to short, chances are the first interaction with any investor will involve emailing some variation of your business plan. Weeding out bad business plans is […]
