...thought i would just casually redirect domain and email accounts. Has not gone well at all, and getting a live person on the phone to get it straightened out has proven to be difficult.
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
End of the year
Every year at this time i realize that nothing happens in between Christmas and New Years Day and wish i had just taken the family to Colorado.
Next year i am just going to spend the whole time in Breckenridge...putting it in my calendar now.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Next year i am just going to spend the whole time in Breckenridge...putting it in my calendar now.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
deflationary mindset
the deflationary mindset is now firmly entrenched. it's official.
nobody wants to believe that their houses, cars, companies, are all worth less.
as we hold on to the idea that the values should be higher all we do is slow down the process of recalibration.
in the venture world, even at my lowly level, it is taking longer to get a start-up to break-even.
as purchasing decisions are slowed, "...I'll just wait a little while and see what happens..." that causes the burn phase of a new venture to expand.
this can, of course, be counteracted by an aggressive marketing push, but this isn't happening either because no one knows if that "push" will be effective...before the cash runs out...cash that may be needed to pay the rent on the building, or the note on the big machine, or the owner's salary....
nobody wants to believe that their houses, cars, companies, are all worth less.
as we hold on to the idea that the values should be higher all we do is slow down the process of recalibration.
in the venture world, even at my lowly level, it is taking longer to get a start-up to break-even.
as purchasing decisions are slowed, "...I'll just wait a little while and see what happens..." that causes the burn phase of a new venture to expand.
this can, of course, be counteracted by an aggressive marketing push, but this isn't happening either because no one knows if that "push" will be effective...before the cash runs out...cash that may be needed to pay the rent on the building, or the note on the big machine, or the owner's salary....
Friday, April 10, 2009
Avoiding a Bad Pitch - WSJ
How To Avoid Making A Bad Pitch
Posted By Scott Austin On April 9, 2009 @ 2:55 pm In Uncategorized | 1 Comment
By [1] Ty McMahan
All venture capitalists have probably experienced a bad pitch from an entrepreneur. But a couple years ago, the team at [2] Canaan Partners heard a real sleeper.
No, we mean, a real sleeper.
The chief executive and vice president of sales for a start-up company visited Canaan’s Menlo Park, Calif., office. Just as the CEO was hitting his stride, really driving home the reason Canaan should invest in his company, a deep, nasally sound vibrated across the conference table.
The VP of sales was taking a snooze.
“The CEO kept blazing through his pitch, acting like it wasn’t happening,” Canaan’s director of marketing, Gina Vakili, said. “If there’s an elephant in the room, we should all acknowledge it.”
It probably goes without saying, the company failed to attract funding from Canaan. Falling asleep in the middle of a pitch is a rare and extreme example of what not do when speaking to venture capitalists, but there are plenty of common mistakes that can be avoided.
To help entrepreneurs be prepared when they present to the firm, Canaan created the Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook, essentially a “Dummies” guide to pitching venture capitalists. (See below for a shorter, slideshow version of this guide.)...
here's the link: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/04/09/how-to-avoid-making-a-bad-pitch/?mod=rss_WSJBlog
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