I’ve spoken with 5 different early stage companies in the last week that all seemed to be making the same mistake IMHO: Trying to raise a serious seed or Series A round from VC’s, no customers / users, no revenue,...
Topics: Finance, Sales, Venture Capital, Web 2.0

{"title":"Chasing the Money: Stop Trying to Raise. Start Trying to Sell!","post_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/2009\/05\/chasing-the-money-stop-trying-to-raise-start-trying-to-sell.html","feed_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/rss.xml","author":"sbarsh","date":"2009-05-06 14:20:51","summary":"I\u2019ve spoken with 5 different early stage companies in the last week that all seemed to be making the same mistake IMHO: Trying to raise a serious seed or Series A round from VC\u2019s, no customers \/ users, no revenue,..."}

I spent time last week speaking with a number of the new DreamIt 2009 companies. In several emails and conversations, I was giving the same advice that applied to very different situations: meeting with a VC, getting press coverage, delivering...
Topics: Checklists, Venture Capital

{"title":"Accelerate Your Growth by Learning Quickly from Your Wins and Losses","post_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/2009\/04\/accelerate-your-growth-by-learning-quickly-from-your-wins-and-losses.html","feed_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/rss.xml","author":"sbarsh","date":"2009-04-27 07:12:56","summary":"I spent time last week speaking with a number of the new DreamIt 2009 companies. In several emails and conversations, I was giving the same advice that applied to very different situations: meeting with a VC, getting press coverage, delivering..."}

Over the weekend I watched 11 different companies demo or discuss their products at DreamIt Ventures' Kickoff Event. These are brand new companies many of whom have never demoed or pitched their concept in front of a large audience. Without...
Topics: Checklists, Marketing, Positioning, Sales

{"title":"5 Do or Die Tips For Demoing Your Product To Deliver Awesome Results","post_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/2009\/04\/5-do-or-die-tips-for-demoing-your-product-to-deliver-awesome-results.html","feed_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/rss.xml","author":"sbarsh","date":"2009-04-21 08:43:58","summary":"Over the weekend I watched 11 different companies demo or discuss their products at DreamIt Ventures' Kickoff Event. These are brand new companies many of whom have never demoed or pitched their concept in front of a large audience. Without..."}

Lately, as part of the DreamIt Ventures team, I've been listening to and screening tons of applicants and applications looking for funding. I'm always surprised when I ask an entrepreneur about their "key assumptions" and as they...
Topics: Finance, Marketing, Positioning, Venture Capital

{"title":"Want A Better Valuation? Decrease Your Assumptions.","post_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/2009\/03\/want-a-better-valuation-decrease-your-assumptions.html","feed_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/rss.xml","author":"sbarsh","date":"2009-03-04 07:44:04","summary":"Lately, as part of the DreamIt Ventures team, I've been listening to and screening tons of applicants and applications looking for funding. I'm always surprised when I ask an entrepreneur about their \"key assumptions\" and as they..."}

Why don't more companies have well defined success criteria when trying to close new sales using pilot projects? Maybe the problem is companies don't know the questions they should be asking.Here are the 10 key questions I like to see...
Topics: Checklists, Marketing, Sales, Venture Capital, Web 2.0

{"title":"10 Do or Die Questions to Ask Before Selling With a Pilot Project","post_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/2009\/01\/10-do-or-die-questions-to-ask-before-selling-with-a-pilot-project.html","feed_url":"http:\/\/blog.stevebarsh.com\/barsh_bits\/rss.xml","author":"sbarsh","date":"2009-01-21 13:32:50","summary":"Why don't more companies have well defined success criteria when trying to close new sales using pilot projects? Maybe the problem is companies don't know the questions they should be asking.Here are the 10 key questions I like to see..."}