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14 Tips on How to Sell to Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds

It’s hard enough to raise capital from VC, private equity fund, and family offices. How do you sell to them? I’m an investor in many companies which sell to these types of clients. I put together a cheat sheet with some of the sales best practices I’ve seen. I thought this would be helpful to...

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The 7 options for family offices to invest in technology companies

An ever-growing number of family offices want to invest into private tech companies. They’re usually motivated by a combination of financial returns, a search for strategic benefits with their core operating business, and passion about tech. But how should they go about it? Dr. Joel Palathinkal, CEO of Sutton Capital, observes that high-quality founding teams...

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How to Find a Job as a VC Scout: Compensation and Which Firms Are Recruiting

The easiest way to work with and for VC funds is to become a part-time “scout”, getting paid for sourcing investments, as well as for other work of value to the fund. But how do you do that?   This is part of a series on building your career in venture capital: Reading list for working...

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An Investor’s Personal Social Media Tech Stack: In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 followers

What tech stack should a microinfluencer use? Most investors including me spend most of our day doing the same things people have always done in the job: in my case, due diligence, deal execution, etc.  However, being a “microinfluencer” is now also part of the job description.  In the future, everyone will be famous for...

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New video: Private equity origination best practices

A few weeks ago I presented on “Where Are the Deals? Best Practices of Private Equity Funds in Origination” at the Wells Fargo SBIC Symposium, an event for their portfolio funds.  I focused on using technology for sourcing.  I’ve posted below the video and slide deck. VIDEO DECK  ...

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Venture capitalists eating our own dog food: Using technology and analytics to make better investments

(To see the video above, please click the image, and then click on the Play button.) Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job.  When I was single, I registered for (a lot of) dating websites. When I met my...

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Why are Alternative VCs investing in so many women & underrepresented founders?

A new wave of Alternative VCs are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. Many are reporting that they’re seeing a more diverse pool of applicants than traditional equity VCs… even though virtually none have a particular focus on...

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Why venture capitalists are investing in international startups

Why are more US VCs investing in international startups? Take a look at The Fortune Unicorn List: of the top 100 most valuable unicorns in 2016, 39 are currently based outside of the United States.  While fundraising of US VCs has dropped slowly as a percentage of global limited partner allocations over the last decade,...

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