As a young capitalist growing up, I really wanted to be an investment banker. I watched Traders and pictured myself all decked out in fancy suits, wheeling and dealing and giving Gordon Gekko a run for his money. Fast forward to reality. I do get to wheel and deal, and I do occasionally don a suit. But, I stayed away from the dark side and became a client (or target) of bankers rather than one myself.

Yes, investment bankers, it seems, have a bad rap. They're highly paid and, stereotypically at least, would sell their Moms for the right price. Still, they can and do play a vital role [...] read more »

If you write a business plan for investors, the executive summary is the only part that matters. Why? Because it's all they will read. Even if you don't write a full business plan, many startups will prepare an exec summ that they use in trying to book investor meetings. Needless to say, having a good executive summary is key to raising money.

My approach is not to write an actual document, but instead do a short presentation. Whether you do a document or a powerpoint, remember your goal is not to educate, it's to sell. Your sole mission for the exec summary is to get the investor to agree to a meeting. [...] read more »

 

This quote couldn’t be more accurate - especially in the current economic climate. It got me thinking about the roller coaster nature of building young companies. As M. Perkins says, every startup has issues. If you don’t, you’re [...] read more »

 We're living in uncertain financial and political times these days. The recent bailout of the US and European banking sectors represents intervention of an unprecedented scale. We don't yet know how long it will be before things are back to "normal". Till then, expect it to be tougher than usual to make sales.

In these types of selling environments, you need a hard, quantifiable value proposition for your company and product. Don't be a vitamin, be a painkiller. Be something your customer absolutely needs. Whereever possible, quantify the value that you are providing.

To do this, get your CFO (or [...] read more »

 I often get people asking me about CFO job descriptions. The job of a startup CFO is very different from one at a “big” company. The latter is much more of a hands-off [...] read more »

 If you're in the end user game (i.e. you don't just sell to an IT department and move on, but you actually deal with many end users all the time), it can be comforting to look at averages on your key usage metrics. However, if you really want to understand user behaviour and generate more usage, you have to go deeper.

There is no such thing as an "average" user

Are you average? In the 50s, the average person had 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, a Fedora hat (I can't wait till I'm old enough to pull off a Fedora - but I digress...). You get the picture. Today, there is no average. End users are [...] read more »

tt’s September – still hot as hell, but since Labour day is behind us, our customers are back at work and its time to start selling to them again. So, make sure your sales function is ready for action by giving it a check up. Here’s how:

Recap:

Look through the deals that closed either in the last quarter or year-to- date. What can you learn from them? For examp [...] read more »

 The decision to sell a portion of your business is a big one. Once you bring on outside partners, there’s no turning back. Usually, this is for the best as they bring new and important elements to your business and help it grow. When you bring venture capital into your business you are changing everything about how your run the business in order to maximize the changes of a big return.

What is venture capital?

Venture capital incorporates the following elements:

- Focused primarily on high growth industries (Information technology, communications, biotech, etc.)

- 5 - 7 year timeframe from initial [...] read more »

 Originally posted on http://startupcfo.ca

With the Beijing Olympics currently taking place, what better time to explore the role that China can play for today's growth companies. If you saw the opening ceremonies - with its 15,000 perfectly choreographed performers - then you have seen just one small demonstration of what this nation of 1.5B people is capable of.

When we think of target markets, especially for new technologies, we always think of the U.S. first. Given that the U.S. is home to Silicon Valley, NASDAQ, most of the Fortune 500 and holds more VCs than any other country this makes sense. But, [...] read more »