02.23.06
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 12:46 am by Peter Kay
I’ve seen so many companies make so many stupid mistakes when dealing with the press that it’s not even funny. You’d think that brilliant management teams that can leap all buildings in a single bound would use that same IQ to apply some common sense when they work with the media, but they don’t. So here’s a few simple, obvious tips to consider when you want/have to deal with the press:
#1 Don’t lie
This is so common sense yet gets blown so many times I gotta lay it out. When you’re talking w/ a reporter, remember that there’s a damn good chance they will fact-check everything you say, and many times they will fact-check it by calling your competitor. So whether you’re bragging to the reporter about the latest coolest thing that you did, or trying to cover up for the latest dumbass decision, know that your arch-enemy will have a chance to tell the real truth, just in case you didn’t.
So how do you handle that? Easy: prepare. Whether you’re going to call a reporter with good news or you think you might get called by a reporter on some bad news, make sure you’ve brainstormed a list of all possible questions you might get asked and have an answer ready for each and every one of them, and please, make sure your answers are drop-dead honest. This doesn’t mean you need to gush out every single thing that’s ever happened, just make sure that whatever you do talk about is so honest that the best your competitor will be able to say is, "Wow, I didn’t know that."
#2 If it’s public, they’ll find it
This may seem overwhelmingly obvious, but you’d be surprised. If you’ve had to make any kind of a public filing, the press already knows about it. So don’t deny the fact that you’ve started a new company, or filed for X, or had a judgement against you, or sold your stock, or whatever. They know. Don’t insult them by breaking rule #1.
#3 WTF is your message?
You’ve spent tons of time refining your elevator pitch, right? Why don’t you spend a fraction of that time getting your media message buttoned down too? What is it that you want everyone to know? If you can’t spew that out in just a few words, what makes you think the reporter can? Be clear on what you want the main message of your conversation to be. I know you want to keep talking about every wonderful thing under the sun and I know it makes you feel really great, but leave out the crap and stay on message. If you can’t decide on what you’re trying to say, the reporter will.
#4 Who should cares and why?
People sometimes think that the press really can’t wait to publish the fact that your company shattered last year’s sales records. The press doesn’t really give a rat’s butt about anything. What they do care about, however, is what their readers care about. So before you pickup the phone and get all excited that your supplier just gave you a shiny trophy for selling the most widgets in your area, think about this: what percentage of this media’s audience will really give a crap? And if it’s < 20%, don’t waste their time and make yourself look stupid by calling them about a story that on one will care about.
#5 Be prepared to answer questions you might not like
If you do have something newsworthy and the media is interested, in addition to preparing for #3, you also want to prepare for the possibility of getting asked about something tangential, like "Can you explain why you fired your VP of Marketing last month?". Just because they didn’t call you last month on some dirty laundry doesn’t mean they won’t ask you about it now. Be ready.
#6 Come to Jesus as early as you can
The best way to not get bad press is to call them before they call you. It’s 10,000 times better than getting an unexpected call that don’t return, or, worse yet, respond with "No comment". When you call them first, you’re in control. You’ve thought through the questions, you’ve got the right answers, and you know what your message is. When you stick your head in the sand and then the phone rings, it’s almost a guarantee that you won’t get out the message that you want. And their’s nothing the media loves more than some juicy bad news.
I’ve got a few more points that I’ll share later. Stay tuned.
[update: Guy Kawasaki's blog has some addition Q&A with Adam Lashinsky of Fortune magazine and there's some interesting overlap. ]
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02.22.06
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 11:47 pm by Peter Kay
Entrepreneurs sometimes look upon VC’s like some kind of supernatural, infallible, ever-wise uberMortal.
And of course nothing could be further from the truth. VC’s are first and foremost people, just like you and I, with strengths and weaknesses. They make mistakes about as often as anyone else does.
The only thing that really gives them the aura is the money and their ability to direct it. But don’t let that fool you. Just ’cause they have a lot of money, doesn’t always mean they know how to invest it.
Want proof? Read “Redpoint Ventures raises $400 million, despite mediocre results” to get a dose of reality:
As of Sept 30 of last year, Redpoint’s $600 million first fund, raised in Oct. 1999, was showing a negative 18.5 percent internal rate of return, according to the University of California endowment, which is an investor.
As of June of last year, Redpoint’s $750 million second fund, which was raised in August 2000 (it was initially $1.25 billion, but Redpoint later returned money to investors, saying it couldn’t invest it all) had an internal rate of return of negative 13.9 percent.
I think it really helps to remember that VC’s put their pants on one leg at a time. When you go asking them for money, just remember that they’re not Gods, just a bunch of people trying to make the right bet on the right company, and most of the time they are wrong.
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01.18.06
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 2:46 am by Peter Kay
Guy Kawasaki has posted some good wisdom on what VC’s like. My favs:
- Build a real business.
- Get an intro.
- Obey the 10/20/30 rule.
- Show traction.
- Clean up your act.
- Disclose everything.
- Acknowledge, or create, an enemy.
- Don’t fall for old trick questions.
- Under promise and over deliver.
A very good read.
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01.16.06
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 1:16 am by Peter Kay
I received an email recently:
I have a patent pending technology in e-commerce that deals with comparison shopping and would like to have a patent search done on it. Would you be able to recommend a company that can help me with this?
Here’s the answer:
Patent searches could and should be done by you first. Go to uspto.gov and do it. Google will actually be an even better patent search mechanism in that you can look around for things that may be prior art but not necessarily patented.
If you really want your patent to be good, you must become an expert in that field. Otherwise you’ll potentially spend a lot of time & money to patent something which is potentially worthless or has already been invented. You need to know about all the other techniques used to do things similar to what you’re doing.
I asked Patent attorney Leighton Chong what he thought about this and he added:
You might also include the importance of “literature” searching as well, i.e., white papers, industry proceedings, conference symposia, press releases, new product literature, etc. These commonly precede patent publications, and are far more diverse, wider ranging, and easier for anyone to publish than patents. Online searching for published literature is also made convenient through search engines like Google which are about as reliable as industry databases. Since published literature is just as usable for prior art as published patents, in my opinion it is far more important to search published literature than patents.
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01.12.06
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 1:46 am by Peter Kay
Scott Maxwell (whose blog and mine use the same graphic skin) has a good post on patents, “Patent Process and Resources- some practical steps to take”
read it.
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Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 1:23 am by Peter Kay
Guy Kawasaki put up another informative post, “The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs” and has done a pretty good job of digging up “red flags” in a given pitch. Here they are:
“Our projections are conservative.”
“(Big name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.”
“(Big name company) is going to sign our purchase order next week.”
“Key employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded.”
“No one is doing what we’re doing.”
“No one can do what we’re doing.”
“Hurry because several other venture capital firms are interested.”
“Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.”
“We have a proven management team.”
“Patents make our product defensible.”
“All we have to do is get 1%% of the market.”
Just about every pitch will use several of these “lies”. (heck, my last company used all but the Oracle lie) That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But what IS a bad thing is when these statements made again and again, in great fanfare, in an effort to close a deal.
That’s a red flag.
My personal opinion is that when you do make one of these claims, first, make sure it’s 100% true. Second, don’t make a big deal about it. Why?
When you make a big deal out of any of these points, you’re making it an important component of your company’s success. If any of these points fail or fall through, you will lose credibility in proportion to the fanfare you made of it.
When you do make a statement like “big company X is talking to us about an acquisition”, it helps to add in something like, “but of course that’s a long shot and right now we’re in very preliminary talks with nothing in writing”. Stuff like this lets you speak the truth, yet also communicate that you’re realistic about it.
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01.11.06
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 1:42 am by Peter Kay
If you’re talking to Angels and debating between things like Equity financing vs. convertible debt, read this nice post “Milk Money” from the simple, straight, and soon-to-be-successful people from Meebo.
Althought I admit other than ad placement I dunno what their revenue model is.
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Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 1:34 am by Peter Kay
Did you just pitch to a VC and you think you heard a Yes? Are you sure?
Just read Guy Kawasaki’s “The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists” and out of that list, three items are lies you hear when a VC is telling you they will not invest:
- “I liked your company, but my partners didn’t.”
- “If you get a lead, we will follow.”
- “Show us some traction, and we’ll invest.”
See his post for complete details.
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Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks at 1:06 am by Peter Kay
Ed Sim wrote a great post, “Tips for the first VC Meeting“. Read his and then read an older post of mine “If you can’t talk about your product, you’ll never sell it” and you’ll (thankfully!) see a lot of similar thinking.
Ed’s (excellent) tips are:
- Be flexible
- Have a well-honed elevator pitch
- 15-20 slides will do
- Listen and ask questions
- Have an alpha version of your product running
- Ask about Next steps
- Research the VC firm in advance
- Don’t be late
- Don’t be arrogant
- Don’t ask for an NDA before you start the pitch
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12.23.05
Posted in Entrepreneur Tips and Tricks, Presentations at 12:32 am by Peter Kay
If you’re going to be making a presentation to Hawaii’s UH Angels, here’s two documents you should review and use to help you prepare:
Presenter Guidelines gives a collection of bullets of topics that you should plan on including with your presentations.
Term Sheet Summary is 3 slides that detail the “deal” e.g. terms of the funds you’re raising. The info on these slides should be included w/ any presentation made to UH Angels too.
In addition, you should check out their “For Presenters” page for additional resources.
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