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The Art of Leading

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are already working for a big company. Like external entrepreneurs, they dream of creating innovative products. They, too, must prototype, position, pitch, bootstrap, recruit, fund, partner, sell, and support. The purpose of this minichapter is to explain how to do all this when you’re employed by a large business. [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:09:07-07:00March 23rd, 2015|Categories: Books, Entrepreneurship|Tags: , , |2 Comments

The Art of the Pitch

Forget “I think, therefore I am.” For entrepreneurs, the operative phrase is, “I pitch, therefore I am.” Pitching isn’t only for raising money—it’s for reaching agreement, and agreement can yield many good outcomes including sales, partnerships, and new hires. Here are the key elements of a great pitch. […]

The Only 10 Slides You Need in Your Pitch

I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a pitch should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. This rule is applicable for any presentation to reach an agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming [...]

By |2021-10-12T09:52:30-07:00March 5th, 2015|Categories: Books, Entrepreneurship, Pitching and Presenting, Venture Capital|Tags: |46 Comments

The Art of Simple Questions: How Simple Questions Lead to Great Innovations

There is a myth that successful companies begin with grandiose ambitions. The implication is that entrepreneurs should start with megalomaniac goals in order to succeed. To the contrary, my observation is that great companies began by wondering about simple things, and this leads to asking simple questions that beget companies: […]

By |2016-10-24T14:09:17-07:00March 3rd, 2015|Categories: Books, Entrepreneurship, Innovation|Tags: , , |7 Comments

The Art of Evangelism

A long time ago I was a revolutionary at Apple. My job title was “software evangelist.” My responsibility was to evangelize Macintosh to software developers. Later my title was “chief evangelist,” and my responsibility was to evangelize Macintosh to anyone who wanted to increase productivity and creativity. […]

By |2016-11-11T07:15:59-08:00April 29th, 2014|Categories: Books|Tags: , , , , |7 Comments

Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK

Over the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Excel spreadsheets, and Word business plans. They are all available for you to download here. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:09:40-07:00January 20th, 2012|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: , , |0 Comments

How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK

This is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:09:42-07:00January 17th, 2012|Categories: Entrepreneurship|Tags: , |0 Comments

How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK

Here is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:09:44-07:00January 12th, 2012|Categories: Entrepreneurship|Tags: |4 Comments

How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK

Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:09:46-07:00January 9th, 2012|Categories: Entrepreneurship|Tags: , , , |2 Comments

Santa’s Perfect Pitch

Over at the American Express OPEN blog, I posted "Santa's Perfect Pitch." This is the kind of deal that venture capitalists are looking for these days. :-) Merry Christmas to you!

By |2016-10-24T14:12:45-07:00December 24th, 2008|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |0 Comments

MediaOnTwitter

Came across a very useful wiki called MediaOnTwitter. This wiki contains the a list of the reporters, journalists, and bloggers on Twitter. You can use this wiki in two ways: Finding people worth following. Getting in touch with reporters, journalists, and bloggers to pitch. Two other useful sources of information about Twitter are: Twitter.alltop.com--aggregation of [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:12:48-07:00December 20th, 2008|Categories: Twitter|Tags: |0 Comments

Reality Check Checklist + the Best Foreword in the History of Man

My new book, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition is now available. The cover price is $29.95. It is approximately 500 pages long--twice the length of The Art of the Start. This book is the "superset" of all my books, articles, and blogs. I wrote it to provide answers [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:13:11-07:00October 30th, 2008|Categories: Books, Entrepreneurship|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

The Chris Pirillo Interview: “We’re Not Worthy”

Free video chat by Ustream Chris Pirillo is on the cutting edge of live stream media. The 35-year-old web whiz knows how to generate online community by hosting videos on UStream and other websites such as CNN.com. In this interview, he discusses how he drew an audience of five million people in 2007, what you [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:13:24-07:00October 6th, 2008|Categories: Entrepreneurship, Events|Tags: , |0 Comments

Is Face-to-Face Communication Always the Way to Go?

A common assumption is that communicating face-to-face is more persuasive than email. That's not always true, according to a 2002 study. Researchers found that men are often more responsive to email because it downplays their competitive tendencies. On the other hand, women react better to in-person encounters because they are more relationship-oriented. These same researchers [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:13:32-07:00September 25th, 2008|Categories: Marketing and Sales, Pitching and Presenting|Tags: |0 Comments

The Soul of Wit

According to a series of psychological studies discussed on Psychology Today, research participants are able to successfully communicate sarcasm and humor in a mere 56 percent of emails—and most of the senders had no idea their attemps were so ineffective. How do you avoid this? The article gives some tips: Read your emails aloud and [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:13:39-07:00September 19th, 2008|Categories: Pitching and Presenting|Tags: |0 Comments

The Art of Raising Venture Capital

These videos are my recent attempt to explain the art of raising venture capital. They are part of the Montgomery & Hansen online learning site and conference. For example, to learn about financing agreements and the term-sheet process, click here. http://www.youtube.com/v/1etQC2-Vg_s http://www.youtube.com/v/uFDnT_xgqJ0 http://www.youtube.com/v/UwMNlJJBVZk Click on these links for up-to-date information about venture capital, startups, and [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:13:54-07:00September 4th, 2008|Categories: Events, Venture Capital|Tags: |0 Comments

How to Frame a Brain

Is your mantra, mission, and/or elevator pitch failing? Startups often have the problem that nobody can understand them. If this is you, George Lakoff may be your fix. Lakoff is a cognitive linguist who focuses on "the last smile" between message and recognition in brain. The Chronicle has a brief history of Lakoff's career (thanks [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:14:15-07:00August 13th, 2008|Categories: Pitching and Presenting, Venture Capital|Tags: |0 Comments
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