He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. Tell me a bit about your background. Like many product managers, my background is fairly eclectic. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. From there, I became the first non-founder employee at an e-commerce startup called BITSource, which was the first electronic software distributor delivering electronic volume software licenses to corporations. Visible networking is turning into a really great opportunity to get to know people better, get to meet new people, and have some interesting conversations.

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice . People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. Many of these businesses were what First Round Capital called FNACs (features, not companies – this acronym has always stuck with me). I remember going to an Under the Radar conference in 2006 in the heat of the Web 2.0

Time to start thinking about how to make it more productive.  Tags: Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capita This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice .  Many startup companies hire advisory boards.  It’s very tempting. 

Traction can simply mean showing that you’re making progress with customers, product development, channel partners, initial revenue as a proof point, attracting well-known angel investors, winning industry awards / recognition.  Tell them about what you’re up to in your business, show them your product or prototype, tell them your strategy, talk about the deals you’re working on and seek feedback. This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC” – the outline is here . You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. 

If these numbers work out, then often scaling is more a question of capital. His picture provides a much richer understanding of what will be going on, but still in an understandable and measurable way. I'm not quite sure I believe the way he exactly models the value from each of these points as is shown in the following graphic, but a similar kind of model can certainly be developed. The other thing that I think he's really done well is his look at value of different marketing channels. A couple other great things – wow – I'm going to have a lot to come back to

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital . Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?” Let me assume for this discussion it’s a garden variety 2010 IT or Internet business (as opposed to something requiring capital equipment or a life sciences project).  Any 8221; It’s a tricky question with no clear answer.  There

The promised to follow up with: calls, using your product, talking to customers or “noodle on things.” Don’t be surprised if your logs don’t show that the partner has been using your product.  If They just had some time and found your product interesting). This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC .” 8221;  Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough.  Some

Some readers have commented that in today’s world you shouldn’t even need a PowerPoint presentation – in this era you should always just demo your product.  They’re In addition to getting quickly through your slides you also need to be prepared for the VC who wants you to get straight to a product demo.  I I find this is more often an ex operator VC and often somebody photo courtesy of Atlanta Braves This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC .”

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Every 1:1 meeting you’ve had to date has been collegiate and productive.  Understand how knowledgeable the room will be around your industry and your product and importantly – agree a plan with your sponsor Congratulations.  You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. 

Our call recovered and we spent the rest of the time talking about the development of their management team and their product.  Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice startup technology v Handling PR with VCs This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally.