Oren Klaff's Blog, page 3

I noticed many conferences have VC's panels giving feedback on pitches. And if you observe those VC's, what kind of advice do they really give?

Advice and feedback to effectively reduce the company's value, and maximize their own pricing and opportunity.

Our event takes a different approach. There are no VC's on our panel. We try to provide the companies at the event feedback from guys who work in the capital markets every day, and who know how to get capital from investors at maximum valuation, maximum speed and maximum self respect. And we feel that last item is very important, it's time, as a community, to stop groveling to investors.

We take the view that capital is a useful and broadly available commodity, not a prize that has to be won by performing impossible tasks, like a stuffed animal at a carnival.

On March 4th I'll be running a "pitch panel" at the Ansir Technology Center in San Diego, as part of their Hackaway Friday event. This will then become a regular bi-weekly pitch event at the center. They have 200 companies in their community. We'll be filming at the event, posting it to the blog, and then posting a new segment every week.

You're sitting across from an investor, the one person who can help you secure the investment capital your company needs. But instead of listening raptly, he's fiddling with his pen, looking out the window and checking his phone for messages. The is called a "beta trap" and you're about to step right in it. Your next move means the difference between getting an investment or going back empty handed.

Learn how to pitch investors the right way in the Pitch Program during the Hackaway Friday event.

On Friday March 4th, three companies will give their best pitch to Investment Banker Oren Klaff, and he'll break it down, minute by minute, even second by second. You'll see first hand what they are doing right and what absolutely will not work. This hour and a half program includes a 20 minute introduction to Oren's method of raising capital from investors:

* How to build intrigue into your pitch , keeping investors interested from the moment you start until you finish – a rare feat in today's world;

* Why and when you should push back on the investor- and make him pitch you;

* How to avoid, reframe and defeat beta traps;

* Why alpha status is so important, and how to grab this coveted position;

* The key triggers for getting the investor to want what you have.

PROGRAM:

7:00pm Introduction to the STRONG method of raising capital

7:30 Company presentations and pitch break-downs

8:30 Q&A

Only 3 companies are being accepted into this program. Please apply early.

Seating limited to 75

Oren Klaff is Director of Capital Markets for California-based investment bank Intersection Capital, where he pitches for – and raises – tens of millions from investors and institutions. Intersection Capital has grown to $250 million of assets under management by using Klaff's pioneering approaches to raising capital and incorporating neuroscience into its capital markets programs. Since 2006, Klaff has raised more than $400 million with these methods from angel investors, VC firms and such institutions as Bear Stearns, Citigroup, and Royal Bank of Scotland. Two of his deals are part of a case study used in UCLA's MBA program. He is a specialist in financial modeling and the co-developer of Velocity, a capital markets product that has raised over $100 million of private equity and venture capital. He is the author of Pitch Anything by McGraw-Hill (2011). You can find oren at www.isxcap.com.

On March 4th I'll be running a "pitch panel" at the Ansir Technology Center in San Diego, as part of their Hackaway Friday event.

This will then become a regular bi-weekly pitch event at the center. They have 200 companies in their community. We'll be filming at the event, posting it to the blog, and then posting a new segment every week.

You're sitting across from an investor, the one person who can help you secure the investment capital your company needs. But instead of listening raptly, he's fiddling with his pen, looking out the window and checking his phone for messages. The is called a "beta trap" and you're about to step right in it. Your next move means the difference between getting an investment or going back empty handed.

Learn how to pitch investors the right way in the Pitch Program during the Hackaway Friday event.

On Friday March 4th, three companies will give their best pitch to Investment Banker Oren Klaff, and he'll break it down, minute by minute, even second by second. You'll see first hand what they are doing right and what absolutely will not work. This hour and a half program includes a 20 minute introduction to Oren's method of raising capital from investors:

* How to build intrigue into your pitch , keeping investors interested from the moment you start until you finish – a rare feat in today's world;

* Why and when you should push back on the investor- and make him pitch you;

* How to avoid, reframe and defeat beta traps;

* Why alpha status is so important, and how to grab this coveted position;

* The key triggers for getting the investor to want what you have.

PROGRAM:

7:00pm Introduction to the STRONG method of raising capital

7:30 Company presentations and pitch break-downs

8:30 Q&A

Only 3 companies are being accepted into this program. Please apply early.

Seating limited to 75

Oren Klaff is Director of Capital Markets for California-based investment bank Intersection Capital, where he pitches for – and raises – tens of millions from investors and institutions. Intersection Capital has grown to $250 million of assets under management by using Klaff's pioneering approaches to raising capital and incorporating neuroscience into its capital markets programs. Since 2006, Klaff has raised more than $400 million with these methods from angel investors, VC firms and such institutions as Bear Stearns, Citigroup, and Royal Bank of Scotland. Two of his deals are part of a case study used in UCLA's MBA program. He is a specialist in financial modeling and the co-developer of Velocity, a capital markets product that has raised over $100 million of private equity and venture capital. He is the author of Pitch Anything by McGraw-Hill (2011). You can find oren at www.isxcap.com.

I believe it's best to stay away from quoting anyone else in your pitchdeck, unless its Time magazine and it's something they wrote about your company. Yet, frequently, we see slide after slide start off with quotes, "the browser will replace client software in 2013", "The Dow will reach 15,000 by mid-2011". And worse, we see motivational quotes by John Wooden, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill and others. I mention this because, this evening, I was working with the Nature Conservancy on a pitchdeck to raise capital for saving a Bio-Arc in Central America. (A Bio-Arc is a small area containing a high concentration of endangered species, obviously named after Noah's Arc.) I cautioned them against opening their presentation with quotes. It's cheesy. I said to them, "Look, it's Busch League to open a chapter of a book or a slide in a pitch deck by, say, Francis Bacon or some other old deal guy."

Then I grabbed a book off their shelf, the first one I could reach. but I could have grabbed any of 100 books. "Watch, I bet this book has a quote leading off every chapter. They all do." I flipped over to a random chapter in the middle of the book. Then came one of those holy-shit-how-did-that-just-happen moments. I read aloud:

Chapter 4: The Fall of Bio-diversity

"Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite."

- Francis Bacon

That was insanely weird. Anyway, YOU should know the most about your deal, not Francis Bacon, Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates or Bill Joy. Spare us the quotes.

There's a strange trend sweeping through the online world of start-up blogging: VC's telling companies how to prepare a pitch. But if the current crop of angels and VC – even those with major successes – aren't out pitching for capital themselves, how much value can there be to their advice? Sure – they know what they want to see in a deal. A committed founding team. Early product traction. Low cost structure. A product riding a trend. Low valuation. First to market advantage. These things haven't changed since the earliest days of the web, and truly. But if we stripped these investor/bloggers of their honorifics, their track record and kereitsu – naked in the wild of the capital markets, could they raise money? I think not.

Loic Le Meur famously raised his capital from the Skype founders' VC Fund, Automico ($5.5 Million.) However, it's less know that Loic decided to raise the last $500,000 from a variety of power investors such as Michael Arrington, Steve Case, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman, and more. That's $500,00 from the top four power players in Silicon Valley? Imagine how hard it would be to raise that much capital if you didn't know those guys. Raising capital is hard, and we should take advice on how to do from people who actually do it all the time. In the same way that we would reluctantly take advice on how to play basketball from someone who had never played or how to ride a motorcycle from someone who did it once, many years ago, we should consider taking advice from VC whose job is to deploy capital, and rarely raise it. I think we should look to investment bankers and company CEO's for practical advice on raising money, as they are always active in the capital markets and truly have the practiced skills that are needed.

The reviews are beginning. If you have read Pitch Anything we want to know what you have to say. Visit the Pitch Anything Amazon Page to give post your feedback. 

Imagine having the insight of experienced businesspeople who pitch deals every single day – as their job – mentoring you and helping you with your own pitch. That's my mission with pitchanything.net. I'm Oren Klaff. In my late 30's, from an undisclosed secret location in Beverly Hills, I raised approximately $400,000,000 from investors. This is the site I wish I had when I started. The Pitch Anything mission is to introduce you to people, ideas and stories so powerful that just hearing them will change the way you do business. This mission is grand in scale – I can help you, but obviously I can't do it for you. We have to do it together – in a community. If what I'm describing here excites you, jump in, get in touch and stay connected. There's a growing community of people learning and using the methods in Pitch Anything, and they are seriously kicking butt. When you run into a master of the method, you'll know it immediately. Hopefully because you recognize a peer and are on the way to becoming a master yourself.