Crowdfunding Review – Violet – A ‘smart home’ dashboard for all your devices
It’s another Crowdcube Pitch Review! The point of this is to give BOTH founders and crowd investors some perspective on what ‘professional’ investors think when evaluating projects to invest in. For founders, the intention is to give some advice and framework on what to include and what not to include when crafting a crowdfunding pitch. […]
COLD READ – Personal Fav – Sexual Health Products
Ah here we are! Time for another dish of brutal honesty on someone’s #pitch deck. My friends, it’s a Cold Read. This time we have the US-based ‘Personal Fav Co.’ – a range of sex-related products aiming at making good-ole love-making’ a safe, pleasurable, and adventurous thing. Now, subject matter aside, let’s discuss the #pitchdeck. […]
Cold Read – Musiervsal – Some kind of decentralised music studio concept
This pitch deck is a goldmine of examples on how to get an investor to spend a lot of time on your pitch deck, but also how to really piss an investor off with over-hyping to-a-fault the problem/solution alongside proposing a rather naive fundraise strategy For those who don’t know, a ‘cold read’ is where […]
Startup Fundraising Bootcamp – How to have a conversation with a potential investor
That’s right, founderlings! There’s too much advice out there telling you how to ‘pitch’ – but nowhere near enough telling you how to ‘talk’. I’ve attempted to condense my 13 years of startup fundraising experience into a short and snappy ‘bootcamp’ – covering things I wish someone told me on day one. There’s of course […]
Cold Read – Rockids – a reading-trainer application for young children with dyslexia
Now this is an *excellent* example of an early-stage/pre-seed pitch deck. Like… really… wowsers! It’s often too easy to show/share things that people do badly – but if it’s not counter-balanced with sharing what people do right, then what’s the point, eh?! Here we have Rockids – a reading-trainer application for young children with dyslexia. […]
WTF is Startup Fundraising? The importance of understanding ‘Owner Motivation’
Hello chums. When a founder ‘raises money’ through investment, they’re essentially inviting another individual or company to become another *owner* of their startup. Obviously, for the privilege (and I really do mean that word – privilege), they pay a price to become an owner. But – why? What are they motivated by when it comes […]
WTF is Startup Fundraising? Understanding the importance of your Founder Character type
Hello fellow founderlings. Startup fundraising is a tricky thing at the best of times. But a common error from my observation is that founders attempt to speak a language that isn’t their own. They often believe it’s important to ‘speak biznuss’. To come across like a seasoned CEO. They tie themselves in knots and fall […]
Cold Read – MeliorAI – a set of AI models used to help organise high-volume documents
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. #founders!!! NEVER EVER DO THIS! I felt compelled to create a cold read based on an unsolicited email from one of those ‘fundraise broker companies’. Now, a good broker company – if the founders are just starting out – can be a helpful thing. I’m not anti […]
WTF is Startup Fundraising anyway?! Part 2: Know who you’re talking to…
Raising investment is hard. But I believe it’s hard because people follow too much advice on *how* to raise money, instead of asking for advice on *why* people invest in startups in the first place. it’s a big topic – obviously – and this is only a few minutes. In these few minutes, I speak […]
WTF is Startup Fundraising? Part 1 – think of it like changing momentum
Ah. Fundraising. A commonly misunderstood topic. In today’s small little nugget, I make the comparison that fundraising is like using money to change your project’s momentum. Momentum is made up of ‘stuff’, ‘speed’ and a ‘direction’. When you fundraise, you kinda take a punt on how much of those things might change as a result […]