The setting: A buffet line at a Silicon Valley VC pitching event. An entrepreneur, not on the program, recognized me as a VC who had heard his pitch before. The action: The entrepreneur drags me out of line, insists that I see his demo, NOW!!, and corrals me into a corner, balancing his laptop on a stack of cartons. “Ok,…
Category Archives: Communication
Speak Your Audience’s Language…or Shut Up
Hai! This Japanese word for “Yes” may be the most famous international communication error in U.S. business folklore. The tale, of course, is Americans say “Yes” when they agree. But Japanese say “Hai” when they understand the speaker…even if they disagree. Many the proverbial American thought they had agreement with Japanese partners only to realize…
Trouble with Twitter
Twitter. Egad. Yet another tool people love to hate. From parodies of the service to “hilarious” fake bios, we can almost hear Yogi Berra saying, “it has so many people using it, no one uses it anymore.” Yet out of a nearly blank slate, experiments reign supreme. If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, all that matters…
It’s Time to Reinvent Live Networking
By Ken Rosen and Ron Weissman You’re busy. I know. Me too. And I suspect for both of us, it’s getting harder to convince us to leave our office to travel to live events? Why? The content is usually available online. And networking opportunities with wonderful, thoughtful, senior people are at our fingertips with tools…
VCs are from Mars, CEOs are from Venus: Bridging The Investor/Entrepreneur Gap (Part 2)
If I had a nickel… By Ron Weissman When we last tuned in, a first time CEO had struck out in his latest attempt to pitch his networking company to a jaded VC. Why? The entrepreneur didn’t have a clue as to how to tell the story the investor needed to hear. How should the…
VCs are from Mars, CEOs are from Venus: Bridging The Investor/Entrepreneur Gap (Part 1)
If I had a nickel… By Ron Weissman Why do some first-time CEOs find it hard to get to first base with investors? The product storythat CEOs want to tell has often little to do with the business story that investors need to hear before they will invest. Product or engineering-driven CEOs new to the VC world plea:…
Big Ideas: From Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars
[Big Ideas is an occasional series on valuable resources—NOT a summary, but a focus on ideas that speak to us.] Tell a story people you care about already believe is true. That’s Seth Godin’s obsession in All Marketers are Liars, and I think he’s right. Why does he believe this? Because he also believes you…
What, If Anything, is Brand?
By Ken Rosen Brand is hot. So we’ve been doing intense thinking about how strong Branding improves performance. The problem is the meaning of Brand depends on the context. Brand = Visuals: 10 years ago—and today in many visual design firms—Brand equals visuals: logo, color scheme, package design. This group might say, “the Brand reflects…
Don’t Forget Your “Poetry Pass”
As a high-school youth in a first poetry class, we faced the obligatory question: “What is poetry?” We were told: “Poetry is language in which every word is working as hard as every other word.” It rocked my world. My writing has never been the same. And with apologies to the myriad product managers who…
-
Please email us with comments, questions, or desired discussion topics.
Ron Weissman: Ron, a frequent commentator on all things venture-related, is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and angel investor. He has served on >25 early stage boards and advised or invested in >50 startups. He focuses on business software, with a special emphasis on SaaS, text technologies, analytics and Health IT. At Performance Works, he assists venture backed companies and firms seeking venture or angel capital in strategy, operational performance, marketing and fundraising.
Ken Rosen: Ken is a serial Marketing VP and entrepreneur. His passion is understanding audiences to deliver products, services, and communications that change behavior. His strategy work with clients often includes target market selection, positioning, and team development. Ken is a co-Founder and Managing Partner at Performance Works.
Business Analytics for a Complex World
TechCrunch