Comments on: Diary of an Entrepreneur Raising Capital: Naked Bungie Jumping

By: Steve Sherlock

Steve Sherlock — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:23:46 +0000

@john @lloyd

just watched the end of pirates. thanks for the tips on where that song played. will download the full song.

just re-enforces that nothing is totally unique. good book on that is Borrowing Brilliance.

i agree that movie is too entrepreneurs pitching as is eye of the tiger to boxers.

guess also says – no matter what level of success so far or how much money, does not necessarily co-relate with having one’s shit together.

i like to see the ending added to slightly, to reference ipod and iphone impact. (just to rub it in to gates a bit)

google now being the next generation incarnation

By: lloyd

lloyd — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:49:03 +0000

Hi John … the song from the movie that sticks in my mind is “The Guess Who” “No Time” 1968. I made the mistake of looking it up on You Tube and it’s now permanently playing up there. Most appropriately in the context of Steve’s article, it plays when Steve Jobs is touring the banks trying to get finance for the Apple 1 (electronics in a wooden box).

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:13:18 +0000

According to Bill Gates, the issue is to find a need in the person you are selling to (“make them need us”). Having found that need, you then sell that need, so that you have positive recognition and feedback from the potential customer. Then you relate your proposition to that need. This may sound like an academic Sales101, but it’s amazing how often the right answer does sound like Topic101. These aren’t my ideas … these are from that movie.
Now we get to the point: what need does your target VC have? You’ll recall Gates trying to sell to Steve Jobs: “G: You’re vulnerable … we can help you”, “J: have a Tshirt”, “G: we have Multiplan running on different platforms”, “J: Nah”, “G: we have multi-tool interface …”, “J: Nah”, “G: IBM is going to want all our stuff”, “J: Uh … IBM? Why should I worry about them?”, “G: We can help you so that you don’t have to worry about them”.
So understand what are the problems a VC needs to address to keep his/her business successful. No, don’t sell the nth+1 business plan for the week. What worries the VC? Dealflow? Getting the investors’ money earning income? Talk to some VCs about VC needs, then try Bill Gates’ tactic: make the VC need you. If you can’t do that, then that’s the most valuable feedback you can give yourself!
Hey … It’s time for a beer!

By: John Power

John Power — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:36:59 +0000

Specifically, when the “other” Steve (Jobs that is) makes his entrance at a computer expo, it’s playing in the background.

By: Steve Sherlock

Steve Sherlock — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:24:57 +0000

good one lloyd, will check that out.

@john – im a bit slow but i get it now. that song was used in the soundtrack of pirates of silicon valley. (song released in same year i was born 68)

apparently its a drunken slur of Spanish for “in the garden of venus” (amazing how one can ‘almost’ sound knowledgeable after a couple searches).will see if i can reference the movie in my next post.

By: John Power

John Power — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:15:41 +0000

@Steve, You’ll be humming “ina gadda da vida” for weeks!

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:07:57 +0000

Steve. Grabst thou a copy of Pirates of Silicon Valley (Warner Bros) and watch it a few times, focusing on Bill Gates’ selling technique to Altair, IBM and Apple. The night before you do a selling meeting, watch it again. It is a guiding principle to our business success.

By: James Tuckerman

James Tuckerman — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:09:44 +0000

Hi Steve – We’re in the process of incorporating Disqus. Watch this space!

By: Steve Sherlock

Steve Sherlock — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:36:11 +0000

Peter – thanks for your feedback.

i think you make some very astute points! i agree that holding out hope of an offer is a long way short of getting an actually offer and should effectively be discounted and move on. ive done this with the vast majority of potential investors ive met, simply because i didn’t think they were a good fit.

however i think there is also a greyer area of posturing. Where either or both parties try to not appear too keen, and see who blinks first and moves from particular and stated stand points.

though i concede one could easily delude themselves that this is the case. but if it genuinely is the case then the dilemma is to revise one’s stand points, in an attempt to move interest forward (ie. compromise) or stick to your guns and just move on.

So its not quite so simple, though more generally i think your points are valid. (food for thought: would be easier for me to put your comments into context if i knew where you were from. googling you didn’t give me any direction).

ps. @anthill – suggest making these comments boxes wider (on new site), as they are only 18 character wide.

By: Peter Clutton

Peter Clutton — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:57:15 +0000

Steve …food for thought!
I believe we can all save ourselves a lot of angst and retain our energies for the REAL prospective Business Partners by putting all of the “interested but busy right now”, “we really like it, just need to finish a few things before we can look at it in depth”, etc.responses straight into the NOT INTERESTED bin.. for the following reasons ….

1.Retaining them as ‘possibles’ (even at the back of our mind)can lessen the drive or focus available for more likely prospects.

2.They are almost certainly just keeping the door open for themselves in case they find some reason down the track to take more interest. (whilst we grow old waiting for them to get to that point)

3.If the venture hasn’t fired them up enough from the very outset to have them trying to secure our commitment(even an option)so that others can’t get to it …. then they are not really interested.

4.The process we used to “qualify” them in the first place was probably flawed or misguided.

5.Our initiative in giving them a NO and not wasting undue energy on them can be energising and remove the cap-in-hand feel that we can all do without.

6.We can use the time (and thought processes) that are spent on these ‘not-possibles’ in seeking out and qualifying more genuine options.

I believe most deals come together when the qualifying process has already defined why they are defined as a genuine prospect(suits THEIR needs). The first meeting will almost always prove our assumptions right or wrong and the second meeting will show whether they really want it to proceed. Third meeting … negotiations !

If it doesn’t shape up this way… I think we best move on.