Name: 【TED】David S. Rose: 10 things to know before you pitch a VC for
Uploaded: 2013-06-16T15:31:51.000Z
Duration: 14 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Past simple

I am a serial entrepreneur turned serial investor.

Gerund

And by the use of pitching PowerPoints to VCs,

I have personally raised tens of millions of dollars

And then, turning round to the other side of the equation,

I have personally supervised the investment

of tens of millions of dollars into companies

who have been pitching me with PowerPoint presentations.

So I think it's safe to say I know a little bit

So, the very first question that you've all got to figure out

is: what is the single most important thing

that a VC is looking for when you come to them

And there are obviously all kinds of things.

There are business models, and there are financials,

and there is that. Overall, of all the things that you have to do,

what is the single most important thing the VC

David S. Rose: People? You! That's it -- you are the person.

And so therefore, the entire purpose of a VC pitch

is to convince them that you are the entrepreneur

in whom they are going to invest their money

You can't just walk up and say, you know,

"Hi, I'm a really good guy, and a good girl,

and you should really invest in me." Right?

So, in the course of your VC pitch, you have a very few minutes,

most VC pitches should be less than half an hour.

People's attention span after 18 minutes begins to drop off,

So in that 18 minutes, or 10 minutes, or five minutes,

you have to convey a whole bunch of different characteristics.

You actually have to convey about 10 different characteristics

What's the single most important thing you've got to convey?

DSR: Boy, oh boy, oh boy! And that's a straight line we got

right over there. And I didn't even prompt him.

You're right, integrity. Because that's the key thing.

I would much rather invest in somebody -- you know,

take a chance on somebody -- who I know is straight

than somebody where there's any possible question

of, you know, who are they looking out for,

So the most important thing is integrity.

And what's the second most important thing after integrity?

who are leaving something else, starting a new world over here,

creating and putting their lifeblood into this kind of thing.

If you're not passionate about your own company,

why on Earth should anyone else be passionate?

Why should they put more money into your company,

So, integrity and passion: the single most important things out there.

Then there are a whole panoply of other things

that you've got to do, to wrap up in this package

You've got to be able to say, "Hey, you know, I've done this before."

And "done this before" is starting an enterprise and creating value,

and taking something from beginning to end.

So that's why VCs love to fund serial entrepreneurs.

Because even if you didn't do it right the first time,

you've learned the lessons, which are going to

stand you in very good stead the next time.

And now along with that, along with the experience

of starting an enterprise, or running something --

But they want experience in creating an organization.

the great developer of the map of the human genome,

you'd better know what a human genome is.

I mean, I want you to have domain expertise.

"Hey, I've got a great idea in a business I know nothing about.

And then you have to have the skills that it takes

And those skills include everything from technical skills,

if it's a technology business, to marketing, and sales,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TED】David S. Rose: 10 things to know before you pitch a VC for

business

money

upside

tell