The financials slide in our pitch deck takes our own financial projections and consolidates them into our most key metrics that potential investors care about.
Most pitch deck financial projections wind up being incredibly hard for potential investors to understand, so we're going to provide you with a killer financial projections slide template that's easy to use and will impress investors.
We always build our financial projections slides in our pitch deck backward from what questions investors have.
That way, the financials slide is only covering exactly what a potential investor wants to see — and no more!
Our "pro formas" are really just a ...
When it comes to building a website for your business, it's important to choose the right type of website that will meet your needs and goals. There are several different types of websites to choose from, each with its own set of features and benefits. And choosing which website is best might be a litter overwhelming.
Some websites are more useful than others, depending on your business's industry. Some are easier to maintain while others are just plain confusing. That's where we come in. We've put together a quick guide that will help you figure out what type of website is best for your business.
Read on for tips on choosing the perfect website for your business model with insight from our community members to help you along the way.
Earlier this week we had one of our partners publicly share some news that we’re equally excited about: We’ve raised a round of venture financing that includes Slack and their investment vehicle, The Slack Fund.
And as they so thoughtfully put it, it’s a “two way street” as they are betting on us and we are definitely betting on them. You can read their full announcement here as well as a companion Forbes piece sharing the news as well.
Although this is exciting news all the way around we have been somewhat coy about going public with any venture financing news. Part of this has to do with the fact that many people wrongly believe that raising a round of venture is, in an of itself, a “big deal” — it’s just not true.
Or rather, people mist...
Continuing in Phase Three of a four-part Funding Series:
Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise
Phase Two - Investor Selection
Phase Three - The Pitch
Part 1 - Anatomy of a Pitch
Part 2 - Market Size
Part 3 - Revenue Model
Part 4 - Operating Model ( ←YOU ARE HERE 😀)
Part 5 - Customer Definition
Part 6 - Customer Acquisition
Part 7 - Funding
Part 8 - Key Pitch Assets
Part 9 - Traction
Phase Four - Investor Outreach
Let’s dive in!
If the Revenue Model is all about the clever ways you’re going to make money, the Operating Model is all about the clever ways you’re going to manage costs and efficiencies to earn it.
Often the Operating Model gets the least amount of love. That’s because ...
There is one category of consumer tech that’s being built largely outside Silicon Valley: E-commerce. Fab, NastyGal, ShoeDazzle, Birchbox, Bonobos, Honest, Dollar Shave Club, JustFab, Warby Parker and so many other once-hyped (and in a few cases, still-hyped) “e-commerce 2.0” companies were centered in fashion and celebrity hubs of LA and New York.
This interview with Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal shows that the geographic distinction isn’t just about the weather. It’s about how the company is built. I’ve never before spoken with a Web founder who put more thought into his PR hire than his…. developers.
Warby may wind up out surviving other ecommerce roadkill because they got what they were early: A fashion and lifestyle brand, no...
In June 2013, I met the CEO of a data analytics startup here in the Bay Area. They had raised many millions already and I was on a mission to pitch them our services. However, as I stepped into their foyer, I was already filled with questions.
This was a handsome office for a company that had just raised a Series A round. Rather outsized, like a gangly teenager wearing his father’s jacket. Looked nice, but why does a small startup need a 5X office in one of the priciest real estate areas?
His answer caught me off guard. “I don’t ever want to feel cramped again!” he said, squishing his shoulders together.
Not far from this office, not so long ago, Steve Jobs had made a speech about “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, and here was a company that go...
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Let’s face it. Bootstrapping sucks. In theory, it should be liberating to be self-funded and self-sufficient at the early stages of running a business. But reality is much less glamorous. For one, we’re small peanuts surrounded by unicorns: our presence in the media, as a result, is almost zero. We’re competing with 10-figure marketing budgets and grinding our teeth to get there. We spend more time scratching our heads than making actual decisions.
Then, we see success stories like Basecamp, a company that could have been a unicorn but chose not to—growing to 50 employees and a customer base of hundreds of thousands along the way.
Holy shit, maybe it is all worth it.
While founders in the VC world are chasing their burn rates, Basec...
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to have a first-hand look at several marketing plans, budgets and strategies — quite a few, of which, that have been weak and sub-optimal.
I’ve noticed an alarming trend within small businesses and startups across all industries: After experiencing a small degree of success from their current efforts, they get complacent. Teams that were once innovative and curious go on autopilot — pre-allocating funds to the same channels they’ve always used to connect with their audience.
In the beginning many startups experiment with a myriad of marketing channels, ad placements and creative direction to figure out what works for their target market. But, after a few short years, they stop exploring. Wha...
If the depictions of startups in popular culture are to be believed, working for a startup is basically like hanging out in a clean version of a frat house basement. There are pool tables; ping pong tables; kegs that you can drink whenever you want! There are communal workspaces, free food and nap spaces. We have Nerf gun fights spontaneously every day!
And while some of that is true, sometimes — go check out Airbnb’s office in San Francisco for an amazing example of what can be done with startup unicorn money — the reality of working at a startup is a bit more… complicated.
“I’ve worked for a few startups now (Zirtual Inc. [pre-acquisition] for three years, WeWork for six months, and TrendKite presently for over a year),” Kristopher Louie...
Brian Chesky’s dad wasn’t thrilled he had decided to go to art school. Chesky promised him he would not move back home to live in their basement, and that when he was done, he’d get a real job with health care benefits.
And he did. But at age 22 he was overcome by a “weird feeling of mortality.” A sense of “this is my life”: Commuting in LA traffic alone to a job in a design company. It was a let down after he’d started to believe the high-minded rhetoric from Rhode Island School of Design that designers could “design the world around them.”
He quit that job, rolled up a foam bed into his crappy Honda Civic and moved in with his old design pal Joe Gebbia in San Francisco. In a bid to pay rent, they opened up their home to attendees of a des...