Angels vs. VCs on Business Pitches

By Tim Berry

Over the weekend I caught Business Insider’s Five VCs Explain What They REALLY Think About Your Pitches. It’s a great post, gathering points together from discussions with several high-end VCs. If you’re looking at venture capital, read it. Part of what they said reminded me that angel investors and VCs have a lot in common.... Read More »

True Story: Why We Bought Out Our VC Investors

By Tim Berry

It started in 1999. We had already grown Palo Alto Software from zero to more than $5 million in annual sales in five years, without investment. But valuations had gone crazy, and our bplans.com site was already getting millions of visits every month. So we decided to look for venture capital to grow the company... Read More »

Are You Planning to Sell Boxes or Hours?

By Tim Berry

All of these are just “in general” points. There will always be exceptions. But still, it’s good to understand the huge difference between service businesses and product business. Selling hours has advantages, but selling boxes does too. And there are huge differences, things I think you need to understand. My wife and I spent several... Read More »

Not the Customer’s Job to Know What They Want

By Tim Berry

There was a nice short video on TechCrunch the other day, quoting Mark Zuckerberg, John Doerr, and two other industry leaders on how much the iPad has changed “everything.” I picked it up because of what John Doerr says near the end. The video snippet I’ve embedded here skips directly to my favorite part, at... Read More »

Why Market Numbers Are Like Patents: Good, But Not To Be Believed

By Tim Berry

I was enjoying Chris Dixon’s Size markets using narratives, not numbers when I realized his point is a lot like a point I like to make about patents: good to have, but not to believe in On sizing new markets, with startups looking for investors, Chris says: The only way to understand and predict large... Read More »

True Story: Dollars vs. Eyeballs in Business Valuation

By Tim Berry

It was a warm late-spring day in 1999. I sat in my office with a venture capitalist, my lawyer, and my son. The sun beamed in the patio outside my office. We talked about Palo Alto Software and its web subsidiary bplans.com. At one point the VC said: You wouldn’t be an attractive investment for... Read More »

Top 10 Business Plan Mistakes #8: Making Financing the Goal

By Tim Berry

(Note: this is the third of a 10-part series listing my revised top 10 business planning mistakes. The list goes from 10, the least important, to 1, the most important.) It’s just too damn bad that so many entrepreneurs assume to start a business you do a plan, get financed, and then you start. As... Read More »

Big Mistake: Huge Unbelievable Sales Numbers

By Tim Berry

Jeffrey Moskovitz added an important comment to my big mistake post from last week: I read an blog yesterday, written by someone I respect, who asserted that investors know and even EXPECT that projected sales and profits will be overstated. Aware of this expectation, the entrepreneur plays the game by inflating the numbers, fully aware... Read More »