What I really like about last night's presentation on "How to make a great pitch to investors" is that it offer 2 perspectives of business pitch, that of a CEO and that of a Venture Capitalist (VC). Between the 2 presentations, I find Rana Gupta's presentation more illuminating. Here are the main points from his presentation:

• Started off by disagreeing with Cary. He jokingly said that VCs are not the smartest people in the room. If they are so smart, why they didn't see the Internet Bubble coming?
• Pitch is like a resume, it's a hook, but it has a story to tell.
• Each point of greatness has to be countered with risk reduction. Don't use the clique "a great opportunity."
• Convey how you have reduced substantial risk in the deal.
• Make investors excited and comfortable.
• Grab the investors by describing the drama of pain. For example, "the market can't live without this."
• State your assumptions on your slide - this often overlooked. Assumptions cast off the investors doubts and questions by recognizing what is most variable.
• Don't splash your presentation slide with corporate icons especially when you don't have any substantive contact with those companies yet. Sorry, middle managers and engineers don't count. Only when you have contacted a decision maker with substantial follow-up can you even mention that you have contacted that company in your pitch. If you do have credible contacts, show them on a table (no names please, just title) and when, including follow-ups.
• A deal has three legs (like a stool), comprising of the team, the product, and the market. Always build your pitch around these 3 components.
• Don't say we have a patented technology when you haven't even filed for one or even possess a provisional. Saying patent-pending isn't great either. Say this instead: "We have 3 provisionals, 1 filed, and 1 issued."
• State clearly the deal (usually at the end), including the terms and timing. Keep it simple and clear.
• If you have advisors in your team, it is important to tell them how accessible you are to them. Please if you consult your advisor only once a quarter, that doesn't count. They have to be accessible to your enterprise.
• Finally, Rana in defense of all VCs over the world, causally debunked the fact that VCs are not evil people. He emphasized that VCs have no collateral on you. They are not giving you a loan, they are investing. If they lose it they lose it all. Of course, they want to know about risk. Everything is examined under careful scrutiny. Therefore, every attribute that you pitch has to have a risk-reducing component.

Excellent presentation... I really like it.

2/17/2006 1:04:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

Entrepreneurship

The MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge kicked off the 2006 $125k Ignite Clean Energy Business Competition featuring 2 excellent speakers: Cary Bullock, CEO of GreenFuel Technologies and Rana Gupta, VC at Navigator Technology Ventures. Both presenters gave excellent presentations on pitching a business to investors with Cary giving the perspective of an ent> Here are the main points of Cary's presentation:

• Don't run out of money when you are in a startup, you have less leverage asking investors for money when you have exhausted your money. The investors know that you are desperate.
• Sometimes investors are more receptive if they know that you don't come with an agenda of asking for money. Investors are especially keen if you come to solicit feedback from them about your idea. Believe it or not, many investors are more than happy to help you.
• Investors don't have a long attention span. Keep it terse and go straight to the point. That's why a good pitch is key.
• Of course, being investors, they are interested in making money. So tell them how you make money with your idea.
• Practice your presentation. If you have more than 1 person presenting, choreograph it. Have people available to answer the different aspects of the business - from products to finance.
• Be prepared with the elevator speech. Oh yeah, elevator speech isn't just done in the elevator. Telephone follow-up is a situation where elevator is done.
• Get a great lawyer don't skim!!! All lawyers sound articulating but look for someone with substance.
• Don't overvalue your company.
• Partnership is critical.
• Everyone in the company has to have the same story. In other words, everyone in the company should say the same thing consistently to the customers and investors.

2/17/2006 12:43:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

Entrepreneurship

I have improved my squash skills since I started playing squash with John. A few nights ago, I threw my back and hurt my shoulders while playing squash at the z-center. I think I over stretched my back while trying to get the ball at the far corner of the court. I am no longer a young stallion anymore and my back just couldn't take that kind of (mild) abuse anymore. Another reason why turning 35 sucks. I was flexible enough not to stretch before any major exercise or run in the first 35 years; do remind me to stretch the next time.

Also, the way I am hitting in squash the last 2 weeks is bad. How bad? Bad enough to hurt my shoulder. For some reason, I have developing a tendency to hit the squash ball like I would with a tennis ball. I think I am explaining the physics wrong (please comment if this is incorrect) but the reason why a squash stroke is not the same as a tennis stroke is because tennis ball is heavier and requires more power than squash ball. Furthermore, because of the presence of a tennis net, you do need give the tennis ball a good spin by rubbing the ball with the racquet upon contact. Thus, a tennis stroke draws power from the shoulder and elbow, and requires a slightly different follow through than that of squash to give it a good spin. In squash, the ball is smaller, lighter, and more elastic, you just need to hit it hard enough to get a good bounce off the wall. So you can imagine hitting a squash ball with tennis stroke is not good because it is fundamentally wrong. I am over exerting my shoulder and spinning the ball for no good reason. In squash it is all about the wrist...

2/16/2006 9:57:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

Sports

No time no blog... I can't believe that we are at the end of the second week at MIT. How time flies? Thank you to those emails and comments asking me not to stop blogging. I thank you for the encouragement. I am actually quite surprised who read my blog these days. Like I said, I am not going to stop blogging entirely, just not as often. And no, I am not stressed out or depressed - at least, I am not as stressed as I was last quarter. However, I do lament the fact that I am 35 and still unmarried. I am really sick and tired of the life in Boston. It is the same thing over and over again. There is enough negativity on my blog already. I will be more upbeat from now on.

2/16/2006 9:52:32 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Personal

Long time no blog. No kidding. Well, this week marks the first week of the spring semester at MIT and I have been busy auditing a bunch of classes. Consequently, I didn't have time for anything else. Or so it seems. I really haven't been writing very eloquently lately and with school starting up, I am less inclined to blog. The truth is that I am less motivated to blog these days. I am actually thinking of calling it quits. All the sudden, I started feeling that I am sharing way too much about my life with the rest of the world and I am not very comfortable with that notion. Somehow I think that what I write now will come back and haunt me in the future, especially if I become famous one day - yeah that's the dream/goal. But seriously, I haven't been articulating very well on my blog. For some time, I have been going with quantity instead of quality. Besides the daily anecdotes about school and my life have become quite mundane and predictable (well, at least for me). Moreover, I don't make very strong statements on my blog, which maybe why my blog is a little uninteresting. Instead, in most cases, my words really reflect my stream of consciousness at the moment of writing. In a sense, it is like a public memoir - one share one's personal thoughts to the public. So it all comes back to full circle; I am having second thoughts about sharing my feelings and thoughts publicly, but spontaneous writing is what I am good at and enjoy. So citing a busy schedule at school as an excuse, I think I am going to keep a low-profile on my blog for a while. There will be fewer updates from now on.

2/9/2006 11:05:07 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [10]

Blog

What is so happy about birthday anyway? Wishing someone "Happy Birthday" is for kids. I say "Happy Birthday" is only appropriate for someone who is under the minimum voting age of 18. Remember when you are young, there is always something to look forward to and getting a year closer to the milestone is something to celebrate. But wait, what about the legal drinking age of 21? Turning 25 is also significant as auto-insurance premium is substantially reduced. Perhaps 25 is the cutoff age for wishing someone "Happy Birthday."

From now on, I don't want to wish anyone who is over the age of 25 a "Happy Birthday" on his/her birthday. At the same time, stop wishing me "Happy Birthday" from here on. Why? A birthday does nothing but to remind someone that he/she is getting year older and there is no joy to it. As one gets a year older, one surely recognizes that through injury and sickness it hurts more than it did a year ago. When you are sliding downhill, the last thing you want to hear is to be reminded that people are celebrating this so-called joyous occasion. It makes no sense.

2/6/2006 12:17:41 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [7]

Rants

I had a good time spending my time with AJ (SDM 06) and his family over the weekend. I had a lot of interaction with his kids who are aged 5 and 6. They are so full with energy, reminding me of what I was when I was a kid that age. Maybe it's the age factor, I really enjoy my time with the kids. I am sure raising children requires significant time, energy, love, patience, and sacrifice; but ultimately I am sure there's no better feeling than to feel love and watch one's children grow up. For the first time, I really enjoy being around with kids and believe that I will make a good parent or guardian.

2/5/2006 5:28:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

As most people know, I am a moderate when it comes to politics. I don't like to be labeled as either a liberal or a conservative. I also don't want to be neither a Democrat or a Republican. I think that America is too diverse to be represented by just 2 parties. That's why what Camille said yesterday during lunch made a lot of sense to me. He observed that when the political views of the people in this country are represented by only 2 parties it makes it easy for politicians from either party to take a stance on an issue and blindly advocate their solution to be absolutely right while sneering at the views of their opponents. It becomes easy for either party to spin any political discourse as being good vs. evil or conservative vs. liberal. However, the issues that politicians are tackling with are by nature ambiguous and framing the issues under the context of drawing to either side of a set of binary views become unproductive and even misguided. I think that any political discourse has to be based on a platform that brings people to the center with common actions. So is having more political parties a solution to forming a more centrist government? Having more political parties can provoke better discussions and offer more choices. On the other hand, having too many parties can slow the political process and suppress efficiency. So what is a good model? Also, should government always strive for moderate political agenda or policies?

2/4/2006 5:40:42 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Politics

Today marks day 2 of the negotiation workshop that I am taking and it is all about practice - a negotiation class just isn't complete without practices. The students finally got the chance to practice the theories learned yesterday with a case study followed by a mock negotiation (or what the professor call simulation). Since the course was sponsored by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the context of the case study and the simulation was specific to real estate development. After today's exercises, I can certainly appreciate the negotiations that take place between grassroots advocates, developers, town selectmen, and of course lawyers. The professor stressed that negotiation is negotiation, it is independent of the context. He said: "What you learn today can be applied to international diplomacy, trade negotiation, labor dispute, and salary negotiation." Indeed, I really enjoyed the class and thought I got a lot out of it. I definitely recommend this class to everyone who is looking for a class to take in next year's IAP.

2/1/2006 8:36:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

School

I have always considered communication and negotiation important skills to have in the business and policy world - there's no escape form interactions and transactions. So to focus my learning on negotiation, I attended a negotiation workshop taught by Prof. Lawrence Susskind today. During our class introduction, I had the misfortune of saying: "I have heard that negotiation a important 'soft' skill to have." This remark was immediately objected by the professor who insisted that negotiation is not a soft skill. He prefer to associate negotiation as a "hard" skill with lots of maneuvering.

We started the class by identifying the determinants of successful negotiation and how they can be applied to give the negotiator the advantage. Interests, efficiency, and relationships are how we measure success in negotiation. It is important to identify the interests of every party involved in the process, especially your interests - some negotiators don't even know what their interests are before going into negotiation. Next, there's efficiency of outcome. Ideally, all negotiators should strive for the goal of being "Pareto efficient," which is defined as "an outcome to a negotiation if there exists no other outcome that is better for at least one party to the negotiation and not worse for any party to the negotiation." In other words, you should always seek for the optimal package for all parties to the negotiation. Last but not least, there are relationships to maintain. Sure, you can go for the hard bargain approach but in this day and age, you still have to deal with the other party after the negotiation process. Therefore good relationships should always be maintained. For this reason, Prof. Susskind advocated the mutual gains approach to negotiation where all parties focus not on what a party will gain but rather what mutual agreement means.

I think if there's one take-away from today's class, this is it: "Dont' be nice. Niceness gets you nowhere. Instead be trustworthy, not trusting. You want the process and outcome to be efficient and that the interests of all parties are met, whether I'm liked or not." I look forward tomorrow's mock negotiations to put today's theories to practice.

1/31/2006 12:28:37 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [10]

School

Eimear, Karine, Camille, and I watched the Squid and the Whale. And no, the movie is not a documentary about squids and whales. However, you will undoubtedly understand the origination of the title at the end of the movie. I mostly enjoyed the movie but do find certain parts a little disturbing. The central theme of the movie mostly revolves around the 2 children whose lives were dramatically disrupted with the separation of their parents. There is one technical flaw in the movie that pesters me a lot. The movie is set in 1986; yet I kept seeing the modern versions of Subaru Outlook and other car models in the movie. I attribute this to the film's low budget. So it is no big deal. Overall, I like the movie. I give it a 7.5 out 10 rating.

1/28/2006 11:08:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

Movies

Brian made an interesting observation last weekend while we were exploring the East Village for food. He said that if you stumble upon 2 restaurants, one with a Zagat rated sign and the other without, always pick the former. Make sense... But the best tip on dinning in NYC came from Brian's roommate John who recommended that Menupages is a must-have for every diner in NYC. This website not only have over 4000 restaurants rated by users but every listed restaurant has an on-screen menu available for viewing. So you can check out reviews, rating, menu offerings, and prices online. Too bad, this website only shows restaurants that are based in NYC.

1/25/2006 11:02:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Food