Startup mistakes by Mark Suster

This is a guest post @ TechCrunch by Mark Suster (@msuster), a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners. Read more about Suster at his Startup Blog, BothSidesoftheTable.

This is one of important point at your road to succes startup. Read what mean Mark suster in his post.

1. Successful Implementations

2. System Integrations

3. Channel Partners Not Yet Formed

4. Your Best Eyes & Ears

5. It’s Profitable Revenue Covering Your Fixed Costs

More on: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/19/bigmistakeenterprisestartupsmake/

The Perfect Pitch @ JASON BALL’S TECHBYTES

Last week I posted on how you can meet VCs- this week it’s how to get the most out of that meeting.

What format should you use for the first presentation? This is the template that I developed over several years, and recommend whenever an entrepreneur asks what format to use. It’s a time tested format I’ve used for multiple pitch events that I’ve run- it works. The most important part of this pitch is your demo. Make sure that it’s flawless.

The objective of your first meeting is to get to a second meeting. You will start to drill down on one or two points of the company for that meeting. Then you will move on to other points for later meetings. But, for the first meeting, you want to give a fly-over, and leave plenty of time for discussion. Focus on the Product – your demo. It will be the shining point everything else is built on…

So, here’s the Presentation Outline. Stray from this sequence at your own peril.

1. Problem
2. Solution
3. PRODUCT DEMO OR SCREEN SHOTS OF PRODUCT
4. Business Model
5. Underlying magic/ technology
6. Market
7. Competition
8. Milestones/Timeline
9. Financials/Forecasts
10. Summary slide

Good luck!

Source: jasonball.com

Germany’s ‘angel VC’ firm, Point Nine Capital raises a new $54m early-stage fund

Berlin-based Point Nine Capital has today announced that it has closed its second fund, amounting to €40 million ($54 million).

The VC firm, a spin-off from the Team Europe incubator, has invested in the likes of Brainly, ePetWorld, Kreditech, Positionly, Shiftplanning and Vend, while fund managers Pawel Chudzinski and Christoph Janz previously made their names putting money into the likes of Delivery Hero, Madvertise, and Zendesk.

The new Point Nine Capital II fund has been raised from institutional investors including Horsley Bridge Partners, RTA Ventures and SAP Ventures, plus the likes of Arend Lars Iven and Ron Hillman from Berlin Venture Partners; eKomi founders Michael Ambros and Gunther Schmidt, the teams behind Cube Investments from Spain and Xevin Investments from Poland, partners from Team Europe plus Point Nine Capital’s management.

Point Nine’s ethos is to take an angel investment approach to venture capital, combining a “founder-friendly, no-nonsense” approach with the more robust funding that a VC can offer. Point Nine will continue to be managed by Chudzinski and Janz. However, coinciding with the announcement of the new fund, Lukasz Gadowski and Kolja Hebenstreit of Team Europe are both leaving the investment committee, although they will continue to act as advisers.

The news of Point Nine’s new round follows the announcement earlier in the week of a new $100 million fund from Israel’s Magma Venture Partners.

Point Nine’s Talent Hunt

                         

If there’s one thing that all founders can agree on it’s probably the fact that the single most important success factor in startup life is to find the right people. And while our awesome portfolio companies are amazingly successful in building dream teams, outstanding talent is one of those things you can never have too much of (other things include hours in the day, extra batteries for your iPhone, hard disk space and socks).

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