Forge Ahead

Who values your Value Proposition? A value proposition tells people why they would buy your product, yet a lot of startups have value propositions that are met with little, if any, enthusiasm.  This post should help you look critically at your value prop and see if it...

When you work with a variety of founders, a number of patterns emerge.  In my work coaching early stage founders, one of the most common issues I see is Founder Bias or Founder Blindness. They are variations on a theme, but both, if not addressed, can be fatal for a...

I recently gave a presentation at GSVLabs on Effective Storytelling for Startups (a recording of the workshop is here). GSV Labs is an accelerator with offices in Silicon Valley and Boston and works with early stage founders to help them improve their odds of success....

The Go to Market strategy is one of the most critical elements in a startup’s arsenal.  You can have an awesome product or service, but without a good Go to Market (GTM) strategy, you might not get that product out into the world before someone else steals your...

When pitching to investors, it’s OK to tell them what you are doing This morning I had the chance to review 7 pitch decks from companies that were looking for seed financing.  Of the seven decks, most of them failed to get the thumbs up from the angel group I work...

If you have made any efforts at all to put together an investor pitch deck, then no doubt you’ve heard that one of the critical slides to include is the infamous “Traction” slide.  Traction, when you have some, is an amazingly powerful component in your presentation....

Do you have the traits that make investors want to give you money and support you? If you’ve been around the startup ecosystem for even a minute, you’ve no doubt heard the saying the investors don’t invest in ideas, they invest in people.  In most cases this is...

All advisor relationships are not created equal If you’re like most of the startups I’ve worked with for the past 20 years, you have an advisor or two helping you out. You recruited someone who you thought could help, or someone who you thought had a pedigree that...

A good funding pitch does a lot of things. It showcases a founder’s knowledge of their industry.  It shows their strategic thinking. It hints at their ability to execute on a plan. It also engages the emotions and motivations of the people watching the...

One of the frequent errors that I see first time founders make is putting wayyy too many words on a slide.  If that isn’t bad enough, some founders then proceed to read every word on the slide as though it’s a script.  I saw a blog post by marketing guru and...