Venture Beat Entrepreneur's Corner
I spend much of my life listening to other people talk. I know what some of you are thinking: those people in your head are not real; consider a stronger medication.
But seriously, a large part of my job is to host a parade of entrepreneurs through my office as they pitch me on their business plans. When I am not doing that, a portion of the remaining time available to me is spent sitting in Board Meetings hearing those entrepreneurs my firm has backed tell me what is going on in their businesses. The rest of my waking hours are spent listening to my daughter ask me for things that she is not allowed to have, but that is only approximately 72% of my week; the rest it’s all about the entrepreneurs.
When I tell people that our firm invests in fewer than 0.3% of the companies we hear from in a given year, they are shocked that the number is so low. Sometimes I am shocked that the number is so high. There is a stunning lack of communications skills out there in the free world and this may well be the number one barrier to success in getting venture financing. If only people knew how to tell their story e...
