FiniCulture

One lucky bastard who’s been able to write quite a bit more than I have over the past several months, is Pascal Bouvier of Route 66 Ventures. While he’s still finding his groove as a writer (just started blogging recently), there’s no debate that he is one of the sharper fintech investors out there, and knows what he is talking about when it comes to bitcoin (made a few investments, but I’m just not sure which have been announced). I encourage you to check out his blog at http://finiculture.com/.

He’s been on a roll this week, but one post I really liked and wanted to highlight was his “Investment Pitch Manifesto.” Many of his bullets should be obvious, and I share his sentiments. I love talking to entrepreneurs, but I don’t think many of them know how to fully prepare for their first pitches. Here is Pascal’s 22 point checklist. I’ve bolded the points of his which I prioritize the most, and are in most short supply in my every day experience. So if you’re pitching DCG (me), take note!

[Check out the original post here.]

Pascal’s Manifesto…where I prescribe how an entrepreneur, a CEO, a company should pitch me.

1) Make me dream

2) Make me laugh

3) Show me vision

4) When pitching remember to develop three important vectors: Ethos (show your credibility, trustworthiness, integrity), Pathos (weave a story, pull me in, make me believe) and Logos (demonstrate that your logic is grounded in facts, sound reasoning)

5) Clearly define what is the REAL problem you are solving

6) Clearly articulate the value proposition

7) Clearly define the market, the immediately addressable market, and where both are going

8) Clearly present unit level economics (cost of customer acquisition, churn, life time value, gross margin…)

9) Don’t be coy and let me know about the competition

10) Don’t be shy and tell me why you are better than the competition, now and over time

11) Show me your team and how you see it grow

12) Show me what type of leader you are and what type of innovation you are tackling, see my previous post on the subject.

13) Earn a competitive advantage and read about my first principles in a previous post.

***14) If you have reached out to me, send me a deck I can digest. I will be in a better position to respond to you with our level of interest.***

***15) Don’t reach out and ask me to email or phone you back, see 14***

16) Work on your deck. Work on you verbal pitch. Better be crisp

17) Have detailed presentations and financial projections ready to be shared. Be ready to dive in should I be interested

18) Be yourself, see 22

19) Be very clear about your own rules of engagement. See my previous post here. I will respect them and will let you know if I can work with them or not. Be respectful of my own rules of engagement.

20) Do your homework, research our firm and what I do

21) Leave your ego at the door. I want someone who I can brainstorm with and challenge with little psychological damage

22) Be truthful, see 18

Events

Keynote2015 | Aug 3 in Los Angeles
Bitcoin is about to revolutionise the financial world, but not in the way you’d expect. Hidden in the cyber currency’s DNA is the ability to transform the financial world from an antiquated behemoth to a modern beacon of efficiency. The secret is in the ledger. Find out exactly how a new generation of ledgers is about turn banking on its head at Keynote2015, the conference that redefines FinTech. A one-day agenda packed with the brightest industry minds will get you quickly up to speed on future applications and the existing goldmine of start-up opportunities. Tickets: keynote2015.com | Sponsorship and exhibit enquiries: hello@keynote2015.com

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Grayscale Investments, New York (a DCG Company)

The manager of the Bitcoin Investment trust, the first publicly traded bitcoin investment vehicle, is making two non-engineering hires. (grayscale.co)

-Account Manager — Min 3 years of demonstrated sales-driven success within the financial industry, preferably in an investor development or capital raising role; Series 7 and 63 licenses certifications. More info here.

-Marketing Manager — Min 4 years of demonstrated success in product marketing, preferably in the financial space; looking for candidates with experience marketing either public or private investment products and/or marketing for asset management businesses. More info here.

ConsenSys, New York (consensys.net)
Blockchain production studio building decentralized applications in the blockchain 2.0 space (mostly on Ethereum). These tools will be packaged into separate ventures that are individually funded and skinned for different business niches. We are hiring 5–15 students for a summer internship program where they will have access to our amazing team and have the opportunity to plug into numerous ongoing projects. (Since ConsenSys is itself a somewhat decentralized company, with personnel in various cities, remote working interns may be considered.)
-Please apply by sending an email to info@consensys.net with work samples, resume, and general interests in the space. If you include a proposal for a dApp, smart contract, or other useful tool you want to build, we may consider the development of that project.

Today’s Tid Bits

Catching up tomorrow…stay tuned!

Have a tip or feedback? Email me! (2bitidiot@gmail.com)