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Business, Technology

How to Ace a 3 Minute Pitch

December 29, 2021 tremendousblog 2 Comments

Last week, I was talking with a young founder who is just starting to pitch investors. She wished she could find a good example of a 3 minute pitch.

So I figured if she was having this problem, others probably were too!

This morning, I made a little video of what I would consider an ideal 3 minute pitch. I used the example of my favorite startup, Uber.

A 3 minute pitch is a key thing to master because startup demo days are often in this format.

It’s also useful if you have brief, individual meetings with VC’s or angel investors like me. You want to pitch in a concise way and leave lots of times for questions.

Why Is This Such a Strong Pitch

It’s short.
There are just 16 slides with only a little text on each one. It takes under 3 minutes.
I look at around 25-30 startups a week, so I can only spend so much time on each one.
It clearly frames a huge problem and proposes a good solution.
Mobility is a big issue, and long before Uber, everyone knew taking a taxi stank. This presentation clearly shows how Uber is better.
It shows a clear growth trend.
Nothing gets investors salivating like rapid growth!
Show revenue or user growth in a chart and calculate the compounded growth rate. Make that explosive growth obvious!
It shows the product.
The same slide deck could describe 100 startups. Showing the product makes it clearer what you’re working on.
It also shows you actually have something built!
There is a clear request.
I don’t just say “thank you for your time.” I ask the investors for something specific: $3 million.
And I make it clear what it can achieve: us dominating the taxi industry.

A little tip for making sure you hit the 3 minute mark is to have your phone with a stopwatch running right next to you, so you can glance over occasionally.

I also suggest using this template from Sequoia, as I did. It gives a great framework for hitting the key points in your pitch.

What did I miss? What questions do you have? Leave a comment at the bottom and let me know!

Disclaimer: I am not Travis Kalanick 🙂

More on tech:

The High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People

Why I Just Invested in Kippo, Where Gamers Find Love

How Startup Founders Turn Investors Off

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Business

AMC, GameStop Volumes Plummet as Investors Move to Computershare

December 28, 2021 tremendousblog 1 Comment

Today, the hottest name among meme stock investors may not be AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. or GameStop Corp., but an obscure Australian stock transfer company.

Investors in meme stocks have been moving their shares to Computershare in massive numbers since summer. The Australian company allows investors to hold shares directly, rather than through a broker.

A Seismic Shift

As investors began to hold their shares directly for the long term, volumes in AMC and GameStop have plummeted:

AMC traded nearly 800 million shares a day in early June and is down to under 50 million now. GameStop was trading over 20 million a day in June, but now fewer than a million shares trade hands in a typical day.

Why Computershare?

Many investors are concerned that their shares are being loaned out to hedge funds to sell short. This can drive down the price of the stock.

Brokerages insist they only lend out shares that were bought on margin. But many investors are skeptical.

Even if brokerages are telling the truth, there’s another compelling reason to use Computershare: Robinhood’s January trading curbs.

In January, Robinhood made it impossible to buy shares of GameStop, AMC, and other meme stocks. This cratered demand for the shares and they fell substantially.

With Computershare, investors can buy shares directly. However, unlike many brokerages, there are fees for buying and selling with Computershare.

Whether you want to go to the extra trouble to hold shares directly will depend on the person. But direct ownership is a valuable tool in the investor’s kit, and I’m glad it’s becoming better known!

Do you own shares directly or via a broker, and why? Let me know in the comments below.

More on markets:

GameStop Now Accepting Dozens of Cryptocurrencies

How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

Citadel Holding Nearly $500 Million in AMC Options

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This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

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Books, Business, Technology

The High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People

December 27, 2021 tremendousblog 2 Comments

Elad Gil is a Silicon Valley legend. After selling his startup to Twitter, he helped the company scale from 90 to 1500 people in under 3 years.

He’s also had enormous success as an angel investor, investing in startups like Airbnb, Coinbase, Square and Stripe.

So I was very excited to dig into his book, The High Growth Handbook. In it, Gil lays out his best tips for scaling a company at warp speed, along with interviews with a who’s who of tech.

Here are some of the best pieces of advice I found:

How to Hire

“Hire only after there’s a burning need for that person.”
Naval Ravikant

Gil’s approach to hiring is carefully structured. He suggests writing a job description for every position and asking each interviewee the same questions.

But even better than questions are actual tasks. The best way to assess someone’s skills is to have them complete a task similar to what they’ll do on the job.

He also counsels interviewers to write down their opinion of the candidate before speaking with other interviewers, to avoid groupthink. This is the same process used at Amazon.

And when you do find the right person, move fast!

How to Lead

So you’ve got your ideal employees. Now what?

In an interview with Sam Altman, Altman says that setting the company’s direction is just 5% of a CEO’s job. The other 95% is making sure it happens.

“Delegation is not abdication.”

Gil also recommends holding skip level meetings with junior employees that don’t report to you. They tend to have their finger on the pulse of the market and are closer to the customers.

How to Rest

Gil used to work every weekend and even on “vacations.” But now, he tries to fully unplug.

This is something I struggle with! I was meeting with a company founder at nearly midnight on my vacation in Barcelona while my wife waited patiently upstairs.

We have to remember that if someone as successful as Gil can unplug for a few days, we can too!

In all, I found this book a very practical guide to building startups. My only criticism is that with the mix of interviews and Gil’s writing, and the jumping between topics, the book feels disjointed.

I think it would be more effective if it followed a company from birth to IPO, examining the challenges it faces on the way.

Nonetheless, if you’re interested in startups, Gil’s advice will help you. Check it out!

GameStop Now Accepting Dozens of Cryptocurrencies

December 23, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

GameStop Corp. is now accepting dozens of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Dogecoin, per a report from Investor Place yesterday.

These cryptocurrencies can be used at any one of GameStop’s locations or online. GameStop is using the Flexa network, which supports a wide variety of cryptocurrencies.

This comes shortly after AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. began accepting crypto payments, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Meme stocks trying to draw in the adjacent crypto community is a wise move. All marketing costs money, but accepting crypto provides a bunch of press attention for the minimal cost of joining the Flexa network.

Flexa appears quite robust, with tens of thousands of retail locations on its platform. It reminds me of a Square for crypto; easy payment acceptance for merchants.

If GameStop ever delivers streaming games on its own platform, crypto payments could be particularly useful. Unlike with credit cards, customers from all over the world could purchase access with no foreign exchange fees.

Will accepting crypto payments make or break GameStop or AMC’s business? Of course not.

But for businesses that rely on foot traffic, anything that builds buzz at low cost is a huge win!

What do you think of GameStop and AMC accepting crypto payments? And who do you think will be next?

Let me know in the comments below.

This is the last blog for this week. I’ll see you again on Monday.

Merry Christmas!

More on markets:

Hedge Fund Paid Researcher to Write Misleading Reports on Seeking Alpha

Parody Site Sues Citadel to Stop Shutdown

How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

Photo: Photo: “Retail GameStop” by ccPixs.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order.

Business, Technology

What I Look For in Startups

December 22, 2021 tremendousblog 1 Comment

You’ve been meeting with investors day after day. You get a lot of “very interestings” but no actual checks.

What are these people looking for?

Today, I thought I’d explain what I look for in a startup.

As an angel investor, I invest in about 1-2% of the companies I see. Here’s how I choose:

1) Are you solving a big problem? Take Uber: it gets you from anywhere to anywhere, anytime, easily.

Mobility is a huge problem. Any technology that can make it easy to get places has a giant potential market.

What is an example of a company that isn’t solving a big problem? Imagine a better way to search tweets.

That’s a feature, not a product. It’ll probably get copied by Twitter or Twitter will buy it for a small sum.

2) Are you growing revenue 20% month over month? I want to see clear signs that your vision is shared by customers.

Dollars in the door are the best sign there is. I find about 2-3% of seed stage startups are growing this fast.

If the company is pre-revenue, I would also find a similar growth rate in users quite persuasive. But revenue is best.

The greatest companies of today, like YouTube, had incredible growth early on. That’s what I’m looking for.

3) Is the product awesome? If there’s any way for me to use the product, I always do so before investing.

Maybe you have great early growth, but if the product isn’t solid, it may be hard to sustain that pace.

If I can’t use the product (most B2B SaaS, for example), I ask for a detailed demo. I also read every review of the product I can find.

3) Is there good founder/market fit? If you used to work on M&A at Goldman Sachs and you started a company to help people find sustainable clothing, I’m going to have a few questions.

Why would you start a business that is so far removed from your background? Perhaps you have solid reasoning, like a long-term commitment to environmentalism via volunteer work.

Or maybe you’re just in it for the buck. I have nothing against making money, but starting a company is so hard that if the motivations are only pecuniary, you will likely give up.

4) Are you raising at least $1 million? Most companies I invest in are raising $1-3 million seed rounds.

Why does this matter? Companies that raise a seed round of at least $1 million are far more likely to be successful, per a Crunchbase analysis.

A big round means you can hire lots of developers and sales people. That lets you get ahead of your competitors, fast.

When I see companies raising a round of $250-$500k, I often think this isn’t enough to move the needle.

I hope this helps clarify how investors pick startups. Other investors may have different processes, but I think you’ll find a lot of similarities.

Best of luck and happy fundraising!

AMC: An Innovator Since Vaudeville

December 21, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

Today, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is known as one of the hottest stocks in the market, beloved by meme traders. But the company’s origins are decidedly more humble.

AMC was founded by Edward Durwood, a vaudeville performer. After his group disbanded, he bought a theater in Kansas City.

The year was 1920. Durwood was determined to enter the nascent movie business.

The tiny company grew, and in the postwar era, AMC created the first multiplexes. It was even first to offer reclining seats with cup holders, now de rigueur at theaters everywhere.

I was fascinated to learn of this history while digging into the Wall Street Journal’s weekend feature on AMC.

What struck me most was the company’s history of innovation. And AMC continues to innovate today, despite the headwinds it faces from high rents and substantial debt.

Much like Durwood entering the movie business at its beginning, AMC is taking advantage of new trends like cryptocurrencies and the popularity of the UFC. It is the only theater to accept crypto payments or screen the sought-after fights.

I think AMC’s best chance for a strong future lies in embracing and doubling down on that history of innovation. Here are some moves for them to consider:

1) Sell non-fungible tokens (NFT’s), rather than just giving them away as promotional items.

AMC has a powerful meme trader following. That group has substantial overlap with the crypto community.

AMC could also split the proceeds with the owner of the IP (such as Disney), a win-win proposition.

2) Screen Netflix content. Many Netflix subscribers would probably like to see their favorite movies and shows on the big screen.

But aside from a few very limited releases, customers are generally out of luck. This could be a huge source of exciting new content for AMC.

Meanwhile, Netflix gets to partner with a company that has more screens than any other.

3) Offer more extensive food and even alcohol.

Many upscale theaters offer restaurant-style meals, providing a major source of new revenue. Why stop with popcorn?

Alcohol could also be a massive new revenue stream with very high margins and less equipment needed than a restaurant. Licensing will be an issue, but other theaters have done this successfully.

Here’s hoping AMC will continue to innovate for another 100 years!

P.S. My one bone to pick with the WSJ article is its contention that there is no evidence of naked short selling. Persistent, large fails to deliver fly in the face of that claim, although they have moderated recently.

More on markets:

Hedge Fund Paid Researcher to Write Misleading Reports on Seeking Alpha

Ken Griffin to Spend $300 Million to Defeat Governor

How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

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This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order.

Business, Technology

How Startup Founders Turn Investors Off

December 20, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

You’ve worked really hard on your pitch to investors. But what if some of the things you’re saying are actually turning them off?

Here are several things that can be a negative signal to investors:

1) No clear growth trend. If you don’t share information about month over month revenue or user growth, it’s almost impossible for me to say whether I want to invest or not.

How do I know if the business is succeeding without seeing a trend? Be sure to include those numbers and compute a month over month growth rate using a tool like this.

2) Showing irrelevant metrics. Some founders show incredible growth…in numbers that don’t matter.

Whether it’s social media mentions, letters of intent, or some other creative metric, showing numbers like these make me think there is nothing more substantive.

What’s substantive? Customers and product.

Nothing else matters.

3) A focus on patents. Some startup founders talk for 10 minutes about patents and 2 minutes about customers.

To most investors, this will show that the founder doesn’t understand what drives success in software startups. IP is rarely a key driving force in a software company.

You will have to deal with IP assignments and patents eventually. But unless you’re a biotech company, don’t make it the core of your pitch.

4) Mentioning irrelevant awards. If you won a startup pitch contest or Forbes 30 under 30, congrats!

But leave it out of your presentation. Much like presenting irrelevant numbers, mentioning irrelevant awards just makes investors think you don’t have anything more concrete to show.

5) An unrealistic valuation. I am not a stickler on valuation if it’s a good, high growth company.

But more and more, I see seed stage companies asking for valuations of $75 or even $100 million. Sometimes, they haven’t even launched a product!

This just shows me the founder doesn’t understand the market. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures has clearly shown that venture firms cannot possibly make money on $100,000,000 seed rounds.

Your goal should be a collaborative relationship with the investment community. You want to make money, and you want them to make money too!

So keep it reasonable! When seed stage companies go much beyond $20-30 million, they’re getting ahead of themselves.

A more realistic valuation would be about $10 million for most seed stage companies with solid growth.

Founders work incredibly hard to raise money and build their companies. The last thing they want to do is torpedo their own pitch!

If you follow the rules above and keep the focus on your product and customers, you’ll impress investors. You may even find them fighting to get in the round.

Best of luck!

Ken Griffin to Spend $300 Million to Defeat Governor

December 17, 2021 tremendousblog 1 Comment

Major news today as Politico reports Citadel LLC CEO Kenneth Griffin may spend up to $300 million in the next Illinois selection. He is determined to unseat Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker and push a slate of conservative candidates:

A source who spoke to Playbook about [political operative] Mike Z, also said Griffin has committed $150 million to the campaign, which would match what Pritzker spent in his first run for governor.
Other media reports have attributed “multiple sources” as saying Griffin is willing to spend as much as $300 million in next year’s election.

Griffin was also behind a shadowy group that defeated a ballot measure for a progressive state income tax last year. The group is now interviewing potential gubernatorial candidates in secrecy, per Politico.

I find the idea of a billionaire threatening to outspend a sitting governor single handedly while interviewing candidates in secret disturbing. This is not the type of proportional representation consistent with democracy.

I also find the idea of the state’s richest resident, with a net worth of $21 billion, secretly campaigning to stop a fairly modest 8% top tax rate unseemly. Griffin has benefited enormously from the state but seems unwilling to give back.

Wherever you turn, you seem to find Griffin and his firm. His hedge fund is conversing with Robinhood right before they limit trades, causing large losses for meme stock investors.

At the same time, he’s investing in Melvin Capital, which had short positions in those same stocks. Now he’s the plutocrat kingmaker in Illinois politics.

And he even picked up a copy of the Constitution for a cool $43 million. After all, Junior had to have it!

Griffin seems determined to throw his weight around wherever he can. The question is, how long are we going to take it?

More on markets:

Hedge Fund Paid Researcher to Write Misleading Reports on Seeking Alpha

How Solana Could Wipe Out Visa and MasterCard

Parody Site Sues Citadel to Stop Shutdown

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Best of all: No fee!

This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.