"Getting to Wow!" is the entrepreneur's practical guide to crafting a clear, compelling, credible pitch. Written by two Silicon Valley experts with many years of experience as entrepreneurs and investors, the big idea behind the book is that every time entrepreneurs talk or write about their startups they are pitching. Pitching is not limited to the formal slide deck presentation that most entrepreneurs concentrate on. The authors also point out that much of the advice entrepreneurs get about pitching is just plain wrong. (For example, contrary to the common wisdom, a pitch is not a presentation.) Throughout the book, they correct the "common wisdom" and offer the clear, unvarnished truth. The book's foreword, "Life's a Pitch!" is by Guy Kawasaki, former Apple Evangelist, co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures, and now Chief Evangelist at Canva. Guy makes the point that all of us are pitching, one way or another, every day. While the primary focus of the book is on developing your investor pitch, many of the principles of "Getting to Wow" apply to your sales pitch and to all of your marketing communications. Please note: The paperback version of the book is printed in black and white. If you want the full color experience, with the ability to zoom in on the nearly 100 slide examples that are provided, you might want to also download the ebook (Kindle version), which you can read using the Kindle app on your computer, your tablet, your phone, or your Kindle Fire. The book starts with an overview of "The Mind of the Investor," covers techniques for distilling your story into a very short, compelling "Wow statement," discusses the crafting of your slide deck in detail, offers advice on "Pitching with Impact," and ends with a detailed discussion of "The Inquisition," the question and answer part of your investor meeting. Finally, the appendix provides a treasure chest full of additional resources for entrepreneurs eager to accelerate their success. The book covers all the dimensions of pitching and is useful for everyone who is trying to promote their company.

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller! What are venture capitalists saying about your startup behind closed doors? And what can you do to influence that conversation? If Silicon Valley is the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world, Sand Hill Road is its humming engine. That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner. Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for instance: • Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category. • Why the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story. • How to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in the previous round. • What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business. • Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell. Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.

24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/

Author Paul Getty has seen thousands of brilliant founding CEOs present to angel investors, venture capitalists, and institutional investors. And he has seen thousands of them fail in their quest for the money they sincerely believed would lead to entrepreneurial success and riches for all. Again and again, he watched would-be tech titans fail to create a good first impression, deliver poor presentations, tell lengthy stories that put investors to sleep, and fail to address the critical issues sophisticated investors are most eager to hear about. If only they'd read The Twelve Magic Slides: Insider Secrets for Raising Growth Capital. Getty's slide topics—developed while coaching hundreds of company founders to fundraising success—cover each of the twelve key themes investors want to know about in depth before they part with their hard-earned money: the problem you see, your solution to it, the resulting business opportunity, the amount of money you need to grow the firm, and the potential returns for investors, among others. Getty, managing director of Satwik Capital Advisors in San Jose, California, shows that properly developing each slide—and the thinking behind it—can get you the investment capital required to vault your company to the next level. But The Twelve Magic Slides is more than a book about how raise money from professional investors. It presents a whole new way of how to think about and develop a successful startup. Regardless, it will show you better ways to accomplish your goals and increase the chances you’ll get the green light from investors. Whether you are seeking startup funding from the angel down the street, or trying to convince investment bankers to help take you public, The Twelve Magic Slides provides a clear step-by-step process that will enable you to: Identify the key elements of the business that must be developed to attract external capital Understand the critical dos and don’ts CEOs must know to sell their story to investors in a quick and efficient manner Create twelve perfect slides and a presentation that secures investor interest from the start and gives them plenty of reasons to write you a check You need to find money to fund your company’s growth. Investors need to find entrepreneurs and ideas they can believe in. The Twelve Magic Slides presents a proven method for attracting funds from angel investors, venture capital firms, private equity firms, and institutional investors. It will give you the knowledge and confidence you need to ask for—and receive—the capital you need to launch or grow a business.

What can you learn from a Silicon Valley legend and a pantheon of iconic leaders? The key to scaling a successful business isn’t talent, network, or strategy. It’s an entrepreneurial mindset—and that mindset can be cultivated. “If you’re scaling a company—or if you just love a well-told story—this is a book to savor.”—Robert Iger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ride of a Lifetime Behind the scenes in Silicon Valley, Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn, investor at Greylock) is a sought-after adviser to heads of companies and heads of state. On each episode of his podcast, Masters of Scale, he sits down with a guest from an all-star list of visionary founders and leaders, digging into the surprising strategies that power their company’s growth. In this book, he draws on their most riveting, revealing stories—as well as his own experience as a founder and investor—to distill the secrets behind the most extraordinary success stories of our times. Here, Hoffman teams up with Masters of Scale’s executive producers to offer a rare window into the entrepreneurial mind, sharing hard-won wisdom from leaders of iconic companies (including Apple, Nike, Netflix, Spotify, Starbucks, Google, Instagram, and Microsoft) as well as the bold, disruptive startups (such as 23andMe, TaskRabbit, Black List, and Walker & Co.) that are solving the problems of the twenty-first century. Through vivid storytelling and incisive analysis, Masters of Scale distills their collective insights into a set of counterintuitive principles that anyone can use. How do you find a winning idea and turn it into a scalable venture? What can you learn from a “squirmy no”? When should you stop listening to your customers? Which fires should you put out right away, and which should you let burn? And can you really make money while making the world a better place? (Answer: Yes. But you have to keep your profits and values aligned.) Based on more than a hundred interviews and including a wealth of new material never aired on the podcast, this unique insider’s guide will inspire you to reimagine how you do business today.

This updated edition includes several new features, including: · The Startup Valuation Explorer · Expanded coverage of Valuation Methods · Responding to investor questions about your valuation · Understanding option pool impact on your valuation For many early-stage entrepreneurs assigning a pre-money valuation to your startup is one of the more daunting tasks encountered during the fundraising quest. This guide provides a quick reference to all of the key topics around early-stage startup valuation and provides step-by-step examples for several valuation methods. This Founder’s Pocket Guide helps startup founders learn: • What a startup valuation is and when you need to start worrying about it. • Key terms and definitions associated with valuation, such as pre-money, post-money, and dilution. • How investors view the valuation task, and what their expectations are for early-stage companies. • How the valuation fits with your target raise amount and resulting founder equity ownership. • How to do the simple math for calculating valuation percentages. • How to estimate your company valuation using several accepted methods. • What accounting valuation methods are and why they are not well suited for early-stage startups.

What's Your Story?" Using stories to ignite performance and be more successful is a leaders book. This book is written for people who want to make a difference; people who want to build, create, learn, share, and inspire; people who want to give themselves and others the powerful gift of story. "What's Your Story?" helps leaders enhance their performance by looking at their everyday communications differently. By learning how to use the right stories at the right time - success and failure stories - Craig will show you how to create strong connections with people and with the organization's strategy to enhance your performance.