Working Wider

Startups

The Irksome Confusions of Pitching Investors

Entrepreneurs live on a super-sized serving of passion, commitment and courage.  They commit their lives while investors offer dollars and perhaps some time.  Those same qualities can silently lead an entrepreneur astray when pitching investors. For example, what seem like a series of strategic pivots to an entrepreneur, an investor could view as an endless [...]

Are You Pivoting…or Rotating?

If you’ve been anywhere near a startup in the last three years, you’ve heard about pivoting. A pivot is just as it sounds: a deliberate change in business model and/or product direction hoping to hit the market sweet spot.  Popularized by Eric Ries’ book The Lean Startup, the underlying assumption is that finding that sweet [...]

A Band of Angels Innovation:
The Special Interest Group

Angel investing starts with an initial contact, followed by screening that leads to a pitch and perhaps a deal.  There’s an underlying tension in the process.  Entrepreneurs want the angels’ money and to get back to growing their business as quickly as possible. Angels want the entrepreneur’s time to understand the business and investment potential. Most [...]