Presentation for the BU Entrepreneur Club. I spoke about my personal story, why I decided to start CoachUp, and what it takes to get a company from nothing to a Venture backed Series A round of financing.
4. The Early Days - Infancy
Do you need to raise money?
Business plan or no business plan?
5. CoachUp In the Early Days…
What we did during infancy
• Market Validation: pre-sold CoachUp
• Seek counsel, not advice
• The Mastermind Group
6. Raising Capital During Infancy
It’s all about baby steps
• Fake it until you make it – perception matters!
• Selling your idea (not metrics)
• Demonstrable progress
Team MassChallenge Accelerator Techstars Accelerator
7. Investors are herded animals … not lone wolves
Know this and make them believe that the herd is leaving them behind
8. Adolescence:
Time to get some help
Learn to systemize and delegate
Start going from this:
To this:
9. CoachUp During Adolescence
(Hint: we’re still here)
• Investing in our team
• Structuring our business to scale for the future
• Great businesses structure themselves properly from day one,
they don’t just magically arrive at greatness one day.
10. Raising Financing - Larger Seed Rounds + VC Series A
If you make it to this stage, congrats!
You’re no longer selling an Idea…
Now, you're selling METRICS!
11. Resources and Action Items
Tangible steps you can (and should) take right now
Become active in the Boston startup community!
• WebInno - http://webinnovatorsgroup.com
• Venture Café - http://www.vencaf.org
• Meetups (find something you’re passionate about) –
http://www.meetup.com
Work out of a co-working space for a month or so … and then move to a new one
• Cambridge Innovation Center - http://cic.us
• Workbar - http://workbar.com
12. Advice / Suggestions
• Always favor action over inaction. Get out and do something!
• Remember, ideas are WORTHLESS!!! Execution and implementation
is everything!
• Strive to build a BUSINESS not to merely have a JOB … there is a difference.
“If you don’t do it this year, you will be one year older when you do.” -Warren Miller
