Dr. Richard Bruno responded to last week's post about Friends, Family and Fools by sending along the complete PowerPoint he uses during his "How To" VC speeches. Of particular interest was his "Bizplans-to-Bucks" timeline. In essence, Dr. Bruno takes entrepreneurs down this path:
- 1,000 Business Plans Are Written
- 150 Are Moderately Credible
- 50 Are Interesting To Read
- 20 Undergo Due Diligence
- 5 Get Funded
- 1 Makes Money
The big Surprise here is not that only one makes money; the big Surprise is the qualifier of "Interesting To Read" as a crucial criteria. Many times, as entrepreneurs try to appeal to their corporate audience, their brilliant ideas are sanded down and neutered by VC-speak.
But like anyone else (remember my Everyone's a Kid in Disneyland theory?), Venture Capitalists are susceptible to the right Pow!
And as Dr. Bruno points out, it may be the difference between being considered for funding...or ending up in the recycling bin.
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(A great personal story here. When Garner and I put together our first business plan for Airborne, in one of the slides, I wrote that he and I were professionals with "pristine reputations."
"Pristine?" he said. "You don't use the word 'pristine' in a VC pitch! They'll laugh us out of their offices!"
I gave in on a number of points, as Garner was way better versed in the way of VCs than I, but I held my ground on "pristine."
Cut to presentation day, and the VCs are sitting like statues as we plow through our presentation.
Then comes the fateful slide.
"Pristine!" Suddenly, the mannequins came to life. "Now there's a word you don't see too often!"
All of a sudden, the guys were animated and discussing the meaning of "pristine." This led to questions about our past, and to hypothetical situations and projections of the business-to-be.
I looked over at Garner, who had a huge smile on his face, and gave me what soon came to be known as his trademark "life is strange" shoulder shrug. We were back in the game...)