What Works

Getting the deal--what works?

This VC Has Heard 10,000 Pitches: Here's What Works - Business Insider: " . . . The first step is make sure you get the meeting. The entrepreneur has to do a lot of homework of targeting investors. You need to figure that out using Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and Google. Who are the guys investing at your stage and the industry you're part of? . . .  figure out who's in your network. Who can introduce you to the desired investor? Say you want to pitch me in consumer Internet or mobile. Say I'm one of your targets. Figure out who you know who knows me. Reach out to me by email. Then, you the entrepreneur should craft an email, so it's easier for the person who is sending the introduction email. . . . of the 114 deals I've closed, exactly zero reached out to me in a cold email. There are thousands of companies being founded. There's a sea of opportunity. [It's my way of] putting on filters on to focus on more interesting opportunities. . . . Now you are in front of us, you are already part of the top 15 to 20 percent of the opportunities. We'd rather meet face-to-face. I often start my meetings, if I don't know the entrepreneur, by asking about their story and what they've done in the past. Why are they so passionate about that idea that they will spend 5 to 10 years of their lives trying to build a company? Some people will walk through walls. Some people come to us with an idea because they want to be an entrepreneur. Absolute persistent determination is something we want to try to feel. . . . You'll be here for an hour. This is what we expect to see in the slides. Look at the demo of the application of the service. Because it's so cheap to start a company, we expect people to build the initial prototype and have initial users. It could be like 20 or 50 users. You can validate quite a few things by doing simple advertising, using Facebook ads for small budgets for $500 to $1,000. . . Something that is radical is something that will rank highly for us. We are in the business of taking risk. So we are looking [for something] that's bold and different. . . . The goal of the first meeting is to get to the second meeting. . . . . "

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/prolific-vc-jeff-clavier-tells-us-the-secret-to-getting-funded-2012-1#ixzz2OrdcTlbW