The next SVASE VC Breakfast Club meeting is on Thursday, June 1st in Menlo Park – the VC Mecca, Sand Hill Road. As usual, it’s an informal round-table where up to 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.
Thursday’s featured VC is Raman Khanna, Founding Managing Director, Diamondhead Ventures. The Zvents post has all the info and a map, and if you plan to attend, hurry to register – at the time I’m writing this there are 3 seats left of the 10 maximum.
These sessions are an incredible opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:
- It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation, but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
- Bring an Executive Summary, some VC’s like it, others don’t.
- Follow a structure, don’t just talk freely about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
- Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
- It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
- Write down and practice your pitch, and prepare to deliver a compelling story in 3 minutes. You will have about 5, but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story. The second half of your time-slot is Q&A with the VC.
- Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I even have to bring this up.
See you on Thursday! 
Update (5/30): Here’s a participating Entrepreneur’s feedback about a previous event.
Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE, TiE, zoliblog
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