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What Makes America Laugh Before Bed?

What makes America laugh before bed? Or rather who does… Monologue is a book about late night and the importance it has not just in pop culture but in the fabric of the US. Written by Jon Macks a writer for Jay Leno, you’ll get a unique view on how critical Late Night truly is to the US.

America Laughs Before Bed

It might sound silly, but Late Night shows allow us to digest important information and laugh simultaneously. It’s a time when we are relaxed open to new ideas and hopefully some laughter. At this point in time in the midst of a pandemic and America wrestling with systemic racism, we could all use a good laugh for sanity’s sake.

Macks runs through the history of Late Night and how we got to where we are today. He then looks at the different styles from the more educational approaches like John Oliver and Stephen Colbert to the more lighthearted like Jimmy Fallon or James Corden. One thing is clear though, Late Night has a prominent place in politics, culture, and the way we think.

Late Night Politics

Interestingly enough, politicians who appear on Late Night shows get boosts in the polls. Even their approval ratings jump up… if they don’t completely flub it up that is. A good politician on a Late Night show combines a bit of self-deprecation while playing along with the host. Who knew late-night laughs could dictate America’s elections?

Late Night even has the power to shape our opinions of politicians even if it never happened. Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live will forever go down as one of the prime examples. Everyone remembers Sarah Palin she can see Russia from her house? Yeah, I thought I did too… except it never happened. Palin never said she could see Russia from her house. But the overall portrayal of Palin that Tina Fey put on forever cemented that non-real-world event into our minds. The crazy thing is it doesn’t matter what Palin actually said. Late Night caused America to make up its mind based on a good laugh and seemingly accurate portrayal. 

“I can see Russia from my house” at 1:23

Through the Hard Times and the Good

Additionally, Late Night helps us process the difficult things that happen as well. John Macks gives examples throughout of how Leno to Lettermen and others handled difficult situations. Macks uses the monologue excerpts following September 11th, 2001, and how following President George W. Bush’s call for normalcy Late Night approached the topic. The power of these moments when a humor based Late Night host turns somber has a way of emphasizing the seriousness of a situation. Truthfully, I started crying when I read those 9/11 monologues. 

As we have seen through the pandemic, Late Night continues to adapt and each host has their own style. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen hosts recording in make-shift home studios, bringing in their families and allowing us, the audience to grow even closer through a challenging time.

It is clear how critical Late Night laughter truly is to the fabric of the US and America’s sanity. It’s worth a read or listen if you prefer audiobooks.

Purple Cow Marketing

The purple cow marketing strategy is pretty simple… What piques your interest more a Purple Cow or a brown cow? Obviously a purple cow… It’s not every day you see a purple cow. 

Well this concept is from Seth Godin and it comes from his marketing book Purple Cow. The idea is simple… the standard marketing techniques the “proven practices” don’t work anymore. Everyone is doing it these days and your bang for your buck is not there. 

Now Seth wrote this book back in 2002 just as TV ads were starting to decline in effectiveness and alternative more targeted advertising like Google Ads came on the scene. Well in 2020 boy has the landscape shifted even further. With Facebook and Instagram ads starting to become expensive and less effective. 

Yet, the core principles in Purple Cow remain. 

Purple Cow Marketing Principles

You have to be remarkable in some way to truly win and today that is usually starts with your product or service. What is that you do differently than everyone else and makes you unique. 

How can you challenge the status quo? An example Godin uses is Curad the bandage company. Band-aid was literally synonymous with bandages. They had cornered the market and were winning. Yet a new company came in Curad and decided to print cartoon characters on their bandages. Kids wanted superman and batman on their boo-boos. They didn’t want a regular old band-aid. This was Curad’s purple cow marketing strategy that made their product stand out. Thus Curad managed to create a huge opportunity through approaching a boring old product with a new purple cow idea. 

As more and more competition rises in a crowded market you have to be unique enough to create natural buzz. The best type of marketing is the free kind that comes from your customers. How can you create a product or service that is so darn unique that people can’t stop talking about it? 

Where’s the step-by-step guide?

Godin doesn’t have a fancy formula or step-by-step instructions on how to create your own purple cow marketing strategy, but does give plenty of examples to follow. If you look for the edges and find inspiration outside of your own industry, you are more likely to identify a purple cow. 

The other important takeaway is that a great product isn’t enough. You have to utilize purple cow marketing to truly rise above the noise and be unique. Find your purple cow, own it, love it, nurture it and most of all be proud of it. 

If you’d like to read it yourself, get the book here.

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

Is there such a thing as perfect timing? Actually, it really just depends. You hear how the best ideas, businesses, and plans often fail due to timing. Yet we shrug timing off focusing on everything else that caused the failure. As a society, we have failed to take into account timing and truly understand the importance of when.

The art of perfect timing

From what time our schools start to promote the best learning for our kids to the way we structure our workdays. We are terrible at taking into account timing. Daniel Pink’s book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing unveils how important timing truly is. 

The day to day of perfect timing

First, we have the hidden pattern in our day which essentially looks like two waves. There is a rise and peak in the morning and second rise and peak in the evening. You can improve your chance of surviving surgery or being properly diagnosed by simply taking the morning appointment while the doctor is still fresh. The art of perfectly timing your daily activities is taking into account this double wave pattern.

Inmates can increase their chance of being granted parole by being one of the first to stand before the judge in the morning. We are sharpest in the morning and by lunchtime fade into a lull. 

The next best time to stand before a judge is immediately after lunch after a nice long break. Being able to recharge and break away from work helps us become more focused and sharp when we do start back into our activity. 

By simply understanding these peaks and valleys in the day you can increase the chance of receiving your desired outcome.

Using significant dates

Beyond just perfectly timing your day, us human beings like clean beginnings. You are more likely to begin something or pick back up on a workout routine on designated start days. Mondays more people go to the gym than Fridays. It’s easier to make a change on January 1st than January 5th. 

We are naturally inclined to find “significant” dates and use those to begin something new. Try it for yourself! You can hack your way to starting a new habit or routine if you align it with a natural start date.

Fast, slow, faster

Another important piece to note is that when we are running a marathon or lighting Hannakuh candles. There is usually a dip in the middle. We as human beings are good at starting, not so great in the middle, and pick it back up in the end. When starting something new don’t aim for the perfect time instead, aim for a clean start.

More people run marathons on their 29th, 39th, and 49th birthdays than any other ages. As we come to the end of a decade we look for a way to do something meaningful and finish strong. Thus the overwhelming majority of first-time marathon runners fall into those 3 age buckets.

Getting back to perfectly timing projects, the challenge is in the middle. While we usually experience a slump in the middle the actual mid-point can be a catalyst for projects. During the midpoint of a deadline, teams begin to come together to do the majority of the work on a project. Almost all of the work happens in the last half. We experience an “oh crap” moment when the clock is running out. This encourages the team to kick it into high gear and finish strong.

Using the power of time

Being aware of time and how the when can have just as big of an impact as the what, how, or why will elevate you to be more productive, effective, and more likely to survive your next doctor’s visit. Use this knowledge to find your perfect timing.

Get Daniel Pink‘s book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

Train Your Mind to Think & Grow Rich

Training your Mind

To start off 2020 right, I read an all-time classic Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill to train my money mind. If you aren’t familiar the book was written in the 1930s after Hill spent 25 years at the behest of Andrew Carnegie to study successful people. The end result of the thousands of interviews is Think & Grow Rich

If you’d prefer, you can watch the video here.

Mindset is everything

One of the reasons I chose to read Think & Grow Rich to start the year is because of the focus on mindset. In the New Year’s Goal Setting episode of the Silicon Alley Podcast, I went into great detail about my belief in the power the mind has. All of our actions are shaped by the thoughts and decisions we make. Thus if you train your mind to provide positive self-talk and reinforce your dreams then you will succeed in achieving them. 

Let’s dive in a bit deeper. 

What do you mean by Think & Grow Rich? 

Simply, all outcomes start with a thought. Before you can become rich you must first think about being rich. If the thought never crosses your mind then you will not achieve it. 

The next piece is putting emotion behind it. Is the thought of being rich merely a flash in the pan? Or is it something that has true desire behind it? You’ve daydreamed about being wealthier than you currently are, but have you truly desired it? 

According to Think & Grow Rich the answer for most people is no. If you truly desired it then your thoughts would provide you with enough desire to take action. Thoughts lead us to make decisions and those decisions lead to action. Whatever repeated and thoughtful actions we take will lead to our desired outcomes. 

Thus if you train your mind to focus on growing wealthy. Then you take repeated actions to become wealthy then you will achieve your ends. There is no crazy formula, but what you must overcome is the negative self-talk, distractions, and excuses that our subconscious creates. 

We all have a voice inside of our head that incites fear of criticism, failure, and rejection to name a few. Unfortunately, that negative voice usually wins out. This is why we do not take action to achieve our dreams. 

Planning

It is also imperative that you have a plan. Thinking, believing and taking action are great, but you must have a plan to achieve riches. Bouncing from idea to idea, never fully following through or becoming discouraged at the first roadblock is no way to grow wealthy. 

Hill discusses how having a plan is of the utmost importance as it is purposeful actions that lead to achievement. You must create a plan in order to be successful. Failing to plan is planning to fail as the saying goes. 

What if I don’t want to be rich?

If becoming rich is not your prerogative then the principles in Think & Grow Rich are still applicable. The idea is to train your mind to focus on your dreams and to overcome the common pitfalls that stop you from achieving them.

Hill published this book in the midst of the depression at a time when the US & global economy was floundering. Unemployment was crushing most Americans and many of Hill’s lessons strike a chord following the 2008 financial crisis

As we move into 2020 the global macro-economy will go through cycles, but your micro-economy is in your control. I encourage you to read or re-read Think & Grow Rich and train your mind to focus on what it is you truly want.

You can also watch the video that accompanies this post.

Eating Right to Be Fit for Life

Eating right to be fit for life is based on the lessons from the famous book by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond Fit for Life. Since implementing just a couple of the core principles I have seen a change in my own energy levels. At its core, eating more fruits and vegetables is almost certain to have a positive impact on your health.

You can watch the video here if you prefer.

Eating Right to Be Fit for Life

Fit for Life discusses proper food combinations and when to eat certain foods throughout the day to optimize your energy. The entire focus is on how can you provide your body with the proper amount of energy and reduce the energy burden on your body’s digestion. 

You learn that the body uses most of its energy for digesting food, absorbing nutrients, and eliminating food waste. As you can probably guess the modern American diet causes your body lots of stress during digestion as it does not take into consideration your natural digestive cycle.

Fit for Life Cycles

According to the book, there are three phases of the digestive cycle that occur in sequential 8-hour cycles throughout the day. 

The phases are as follows:

  • Noon-8pm – Eating & Digestion
  • 8pm-4am – Absorption
  • 4am-Noon – Elimination

Your body has to have time to cycle through each of these cycles or it will cause problems. The problem with most diets is not optimizing eating to align with these cycles. 

Elimination

During the morning elimination phase, you should stick to fruit only. Jesse Itzler, owner of the Atlanta Hawks has been following the fit for life principle of eating only fruits before noon for decades. Jesse regularly runs marathons, ultra-marathons, and extreme endurance races. By sticking to fruit in the morning you give your body energy in the form of fructose to fuel itself. Water & fiber from the fruit juices to aid in the elimination phase. 

Eating & Digestion

Next is the eating & digestion phase where you consume lots of vegetables and avoid combining proteins and carbohydrates. Proteins and carbohydrates each produce different enzymes to digest and when eaten together cancel each other out. Proteins breakdown from acidic enzymes while carbohydrates need alkaline enzymes. Thus when you eat these types of foods together your stomach has to work twice as hard and it is likely you never fully digest all of your food. 

Vegetables can always be eaten together with either proteins or carbohydrates as they aid the digestion and can breakdown in either an acidic or alkaline environment. 

Absorption

If you properly combine foods during the first two phases of the day you will be able to absorb nutrients properly. Your body will not have to work as hard and will nourish your body at night. 

Results of eating right to be fit for life

Since picking up Fit for Life, I have been following the morning fruit only intake and upping my vegetable intake. I am more aware of my stomach and digestive process. After a few days, I feel better energy-wise and can tell a difference in terms of digestion. 

I haven’t been able to fully implement the eating guidelines yet, but I am slowly but surely adopting them. It’s hard not to believe that eating more fruits and vegetables will have a positive impact on your health. Ultimately, I enjoy the principles because they are mostly common sense. 

Give Fit for Life a read and try applying the principles to your life! Also, check out the 30-day 1,000 pushups challenge if you are looking to improve your physical fitness. If you’d like to see the Fit for Life video you can see it here.

1,000 Pushups Challenge – From 0 to 1,000 Real Quick

Last month I completed a 30-day fitness challenge 1,000 pushups, squats, and crunches in a day. Watch the video if you prefer.

The Idea for the 1,000 Pushups Challenge

In early November I completed the New York City Marathon. I realized during my marathon training I’d solely been doing cardio. Besides some power yoga, I had done almost no strength training and was feeling weak. I wanted to come up with an indoor strength-building fitness challenge as it was getting cold in New York. 

Early this year I read, Living with A Seal by Jesse Itzler the owner of the Atlanta Hawks. In it, he hires a Navy Seal to live with him and train him for 30 days. Towards the end of the 30 days, Jesse does 1,000 pushups in a single day. 

Pushups don’t require me to be outside and they are a good upper body strength test. So I set a 6-month goal to be able to do 1,000 pushups, squats and crunches in a single day. Well, I was reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb which discussed Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted. This led me to change my time-frame to a 30-day goal. 

The Setup

I drew up a training plan on the back of a napkin and I started to follow it. A key piece to accomplishing my task was using the power of social accountability. The company I am building in the personal finance space, Ostrich uses social accountability to help people improve their financial situation. So I announced my challenge on Instagram/Facebook and began my journey. 

Early on I struggled to follow the training plan I drew out. 1,000 pushups seemed so far out of reach. What kept me going is the commitment I made to others that I was going to complete this challenge. Throughout the weeks there was only 1 day that I did over 200 of each exercise in a single day.

Game Day

On game day, I woke up and immediately the voice in my head said “you aren’t ready” & “you can’t do it.” But having announced the challenge on social media the voice changed to “you don’t want to let people down” and “not trying at all is worse than trying and failing.”

Ultimately, I got up and started doing my reps. My strategy was to do 30 repetitions of each exercise.

At various milestones, I announced my progress and received incredible support from folks following along.

In the end, I completed my challenge in just over 8 hours and managed to read the book What If It Does Work Out during my rest breaks. The challenge tested me mentally and physically to go from no strength training to doing 1,000 pushups, squats and crunches in 8-hours. 

I learned that creating challenges and games is a great way to make achieving goals fun. As I’ve gotten older, I lost a bit of playfulness. Undergoing this 1,000 pushup challenge helped me regain a bit of playfulness. Yet what truly kept me going is knowing that if I quit I’d let not only myself down but have to explain to my friends why I quit.

Now You Try!

Since I’ve completed this challenge a week ago another friend has already completed it himself! Now it is your turn to give it a try! Here’s a link to my training plan for you to try. For nutrition, I exclusively use Isagenix products. I have been using their plant-based protein for years. If you are interested in Isagenix, you can purchase products through my site and can even become a licensed distributor. 

If you decide to attempt the 1,000 pushups, squats and crunches challenge, let me know how it goes! Stay tuned for my next challenge… Men Can’t Do the Splits.


From Idea to Business – The Leap of Faith

This is a Silicon Alley Podcast transcription of From Idea to Business and Quitting My Job which originally published in November of 2019. Here is a link to the Silicon Alley Podcast website. Enjoy!

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Hey everyone! Welcome to the Silicon Alley podcast I’m your host William Glass. On the Silicon Alley Podcast, we talk about what it’s really like to be an entrepreneur and what’s the actual journey. So looking at entrepreneurship not with the rosy-colored glasses of success but from the ground up.

How I went from an idea to quitting my job to start a business

Today I want to talk to you about the idea. Ostrich didn’t start off as Ostrich and we’ve come a long way. But the idea started, at this point, about two and a half years before I actually left my job to start this company full-time. So there’d been something that had been festering in the back of my mind for a while and it was about creating a better way to talk about money and finances.

The inkling of an idea

I’ve been a heavy user of Mint, Personal Capital, and Charlie and many of those money management tools that I really enjoyed. It gave me access to seeing exactly where my money was and I could check and track things and all that kind of stuff. So I really enjoyed that and at the same time, I also had some experiences where money has been a real challenge within my family. 

I guess the heart of it is that my parents got divorced because of money. They never had a common language and had different philosophies and we’re never able to really talk about it. And ended up getting caught up in the real estate bubble in 2008 and over-leveraging themselves when it came to rental properties and condos at the beach. There was no real consensus as to whether they were meant to cash flow or sell for a profit. Just not being on the same page led to a lot of challenges. Now not to say that that would have saved their marriage being able to talk about finances. 

Historically, one of the number one causes of relationships failure is money and finances. It’s something that we’re not taught in schools. It’s something that we’re not really taught to talk about and you learn either really good habits from your family and friends or you learn really bad ones. And that’s just kind of the way it is.

Recognizing my mission and vision for the business

For me, I think this whole idea started from that. I only realized that relatively recently after actually starting the company. That’s really where this all stemmed from, I always knew that it had something to do with that experience. But you know really analyzing why this is this stuck around for so many years. Anyway, the idea came to me a couple of years ago. I was just thinking, “I wish there was a place where I could go and just talk about money to people and have a safe place to talk about it. I could have real conversations” 

Also, I wanted to find out information about how much my co-workers were being paid. Because at work we were talking about it. I worked in sales so money is at the heart of the incentive structure of any salesperson is the commissions and bonuses. So we were having the conversations to some degree but we weren’t having the underlying conversations. You can see people that were in a lot of debt that would go out and buy brand new trucks and cars. On the other hand, you’d see people that didn’t have any student loan debt and we’re living more frugally. It was interesting observing the different dynamics. 

Often we had the conversation at a high level of like how much commission are you making this month and things like that. But there was still that level of hiddenness. So the original idea for Ostrich was to come up with a social media type platform or someplace where people could talk about money. I didn’t really know exactly what that looked like but I wanted to have a place where you talk about finances. 

Putting pen to paper

So I wrote a business plan over the course of a day or two and went really in-depth. Then I didn’t really look at it for a while. I told a couple of people and they were kind of interested but that was about it. Then it would seem that about every couple of months I would end up revisiting the business plan. So I would look at it and make some edits. I’d think to myself “man that would be such a good idea and I wish we could do this.”

Slowly I started getting comfortable talking about it with people. Truthfully that’s where the idea really started but it took a lot of time before I got to the point where I knew this was not just a cool idea but it was something that was more important. It had a mission behind it as well as was gonna be a viable business.

People always ask, “how would you monetize it” and start asking certain questions that would lead me to start to think about each piece. Going from an idea to business really took place over the course of two years. That’s where the idea for Ostrich started. 

Finding a partner in the business

Then my co-founder Andrew Holliday and I got together about five or six months before I left my job to work on Ostrich full-time. We started getting a little bit more serious. Andrew was interested in entrepreneurship and we’d been good friends since college. Being close friends, I knew that he wanted to do something more entrepreneurial but didn’t necessarily have an idea that spoke to him. Truthfully, I knew that I couldn’t do this alone. There’s a quote about building things that if you want to go fast do it alone. But if you want to go far do it with others. That is how we’ve approached the business. 

Periodically we would meet and iterate on the idea. We put together a couple of pitch decks and sent around to friends and family for feedback. Finally,  I just hit a point where it was like I’m not giving enough effort. I don’t have enough mental capacity to both do a really good job at my day job as well as build out an amazing company. 

The decision to quit my job

At that point, that’s where I finally hit the breaking point where I was like, “okay I need to leave. I need to step away.” I’ve saved up enough cash that I can float myself for a while and still have money to invest in the business. Luckily I was pretty smart and pretty frugal in terms of how I lived three or four years prior. I had a lot of success in sales and then living frugally meant that I had money lying around that I needed something to do with. 

So yeah so that’s really what it was it was just a combination of moments. It wasn’t like here’s one aha moment. Funnily enough, I recorded a video in March, probably mid to early March, saying “This is it! I’m going to quit. This is the moment.” Yet it still took me another month before I actually left and put in my resignation. 

There is no right way. Only your way

Ultimately there’s no right time or answer to start your business. You’ve just got to be able to make that decision. I think it’s a lot of really small nibblings that finally get you to the point of going from idea to actually jumping ship and starting. Now I”m not saying that the way that I’m doing it is the way for everyone. There are a lot of folks and a lot of safety in building something on the side as you continue to work. A handful of folks that I talk to are doing that. They’re starting their own a “side hustle” and will transition once they’ve got some experience. 

But that’s not how I work. I need to be fully focused on what I’m doing and interested in the work I’m doing. Personally I have to do a good job at whatever I’m doing. The focus is on giving it my full attention and best effort. Ultimately I couldn’t do that for my employer as well as build Ostrich. I just didn’t have the bandwidth to really make it successful. Again I don’t recommend my way for everyone but that was my thought process and what led me to go from an idea to start a business.

Gathering information on the idea and turning it into a business

Over the course of two-plus years, my really great idea kept festering. It hung around for two years before it finally turned into a legitimate business. Yet each time I revisited the idea I would get a little bit more information. I’d do more research and would start to contemplate how could you actually monetize the business without compromising the mission.

Then I’d think about what are the actual features. We’d talk to people about what they want and what they are missing right now. That process happened over time until I built up enough conviction that this wasn’t just a cool, neat, fun idea anymore but it was something that needed to happen. This business and platform needed to take place because no one else is trying to solve financial well-being the way that it needs to be solved based on the research and the understanding of people that we at Ostrich do.

That’s the story of going from an idea to starting a business. I’ll open up and say that I even hedged when I turned in my resignation. I told my manager at the time, “Hey I can hang around as long as you need to for another month and a half to find and train someone.” The company which I think made a lot of sense decided to actually accelerate my notice for which was the end of April and they actually accelerated it because of team morale. Additionally, there was a lot of new leadership and they wanted to hire their own folks so it was beneficial for all involved. 

Control what you can control

My point is that you can’t draw out exactly how you leave and when you jump ship. All you can do is control your end of it. Ultimately there’s no perfect way to start. 

Finally, the last piece that’s really important that helped me solidify that I needed to build this company are the things that I’d been saying. So I’ve been saying that I wanted to start a business for a while and threw around a lot of ideas. Inside I felt like a phony and like I was just one of those people that talked and never acted. That’s not how I operate. I was running different business ideas past a dear friend Vince Perez. As I was telling him about it he looked at me and he said, “Don’t start that business you don’t care. It’s just a now thing. What you really need to be doing is you need to be working on this financial platform. I’ve never heard you as excited and convicted except for this. This is what you need to do.” That solidified it for me. 

Remember there’s no perfect way to know that it’s time for you to go and start your own company. Or that the idea needs to actually turn into a business. What you’ll find are a lot of little clues. And you’ve got to be attuned to them and pick them up. And finally, make that decision for yourself. 

Wrap up and subscribe

That’s it for the Silicon Alley Podcast I’m William Glass and you heard about my process of going from an idea to actually start a business. Please subscribe and let me know what your thoughts and challenges are around starting a business. Have you been getting these little signs? What’s your thought process?

Shoutout to Brett Miller for providing his song Million Voices as the theme music for this podcast. A special thanks to Karolina Gancarz for help editing and always thank you to everyone who supports the podcast and to you! We wouldn’t be able to do without you. Thanks so much! This is a Financial Glass production.

A sneak peek into next week’s episode

“If I keep down this path I’m gonna be miserable. Am I weighing my life based on money? Or am I weighing it based on you know being happy…”

Click here to listen to the next episode of the Silicon Alley Podcast Am I Weighing my Life Based on Money or Happiness with Cory Johnston Founder of Brighteous Media or here for a preview of the episode and here for a transcription of the episode.

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The 4 things you must have when raising venture capital

There are four things that are important when raising venture capital for your business. You’ll want to have an elevator pitch, executive summary, pitch deck, and product demo/prototype. While every venture capitalist is a little different in how they want to be approached or pitched, having these four items will significantly increase your chances of getting a meeting, receiving a term sheet, and raising money for your business.

The Four Things You Must Have When Raising Venture Capital

Elevator Pitch – Verbal & Written

When raising venture capital for your business you need to have a short elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is the 30-second overview of your business. Things to include in your elevator pitch are what you are building, what problem(s) you are solving, who you are targeting, and how you will make money. The idea of the elevator pitch is to give the person context, but not overwhelm them with details. 

Whether you meet with a venture capitalist for the first time in person or via email, you’ll want to have a verbal and written version. The reason being is that when sending an email to a VC you’ll want to provide the context of what you do. From the elevator pitch, the venture capitalist will decide if the business is interesting enough to move on to the next item you should have prepared. Also having a well-written elevator pitch is important when a VC circulates your business to other folks within the venture capital firm. You want them to describe your business accurately and who knows your business better than you.

Executive Summary

The second item you’ll want to have prepared when raising venture capital is an executive summary. An executive summary is a 1 to 2-page overview of your business. This goes into more detail than the elevator pitch and quickly shows the key facets of your business. Things to include are:

  • The Investment opportunity/ask
  • Overview of the problem
  • Your solution
  • Market opportunity
  • Key Customers or users
  • Financials
  • Team members
  • Contact info

As you can see the executive summary takes the elevator pitch a step further. It includes the same information as the elevator pitch in a more detailed manner with a few additional pieces. The executive summary is not meant to be an exhaustive document. But simply provide the key pieces of your business in a SHORT format. This is the document that venture capitalists will share internally when introducing your company to other members of the firm. Be concise and informative.

Pitch Deck

The third and (probably) most obvious document when raising venture capital is the pitch deck. This is your 10-20 slide deck that goes into greater detail of your business. Now the pitch deck is often the most well-known item. There are various different philosophies when it comes to a pitch deck. You want to have as little as text as possible and use visuals or images to tell the story of your business. 

A simple rule of thumb is Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule which simply says keep your presentation to 10 slides, 20 minutes presenting and no smaller than 30 point font. This will improve your presentations dramatically. Now one caveat is you will likely have multiple versions of your pitch deck. Sending one that is a bit more verbose or has additional appendix slides is perfectly fine if you are sending a pitch deck over for a venture capitalist to review. The key here is to create a master version then make small adaptations based on the available time.

Product Demonstration or Walk-Through

Lastly, venture capitalists are like kids in that they like to play with the cool new technology or product you are building. Give them a prototype or early mockup for them to click through. The idea is to let them experience the benefits of your product first-hand. It doesn’t matter if your prototype is buggy or simply mockup screens. Venture capitalists want to get as close to experiencing what users will for themselves. Let them have fun with your product and pay attention to how they use it. 

If you are sending this over via email you can send a link to a demonstration, a video walk-through, or the actual product if it is already built. Don’t worry about not having it fully functioning or working 100% properly likely the reason you are looking to raise venture capital is to get the product where it needs to be. Don’t be shy and let the venture capitalists play!

What if you don’t have these things when raising venture capital?

Every venture capital firm is different and will want different documents. There are stories of folks getting funded off of just a deck or an idea, but those are few and far between. Often times those types of deals are serial entrepreneurs that have built successful businesses with those venture capitalists in the past. While kudos to you, if that is the case, having these four documents, will put you in a much stronger position to successfully raise venture capital for your business.

Some recommended reading for raising venture capital are below.

The Secrets of Sand Hill Road

Venture Deals

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Discovering FinCon – a First Timer’s Take

FinCon 2019 just finished up and what an exciting week it was. If you are unfamiliar, FinCon is an annual conference that brings together finance brands, FinTech, media, personal finance influencers (think bloggers, podcasts, YouTube, and Instagram), and money nerds. Depending on who you are, talking money could be the most exciting thing in the world or literally THE WORST. 

Despite your perceptions, it is a fantastic event and a lot of fun! Think lots of Happy Hours and interesting conversations. People wanting to interview you and support your dreams of becoming Insta-famous. 

I’ll outline some key themes and events and also highlight interesting people, companies, and tools I learned about at FinCon 2019!

FinCon 2019 – The Event

Robinhood kicked off the first day of FinCon with a huge party renting out the Smithsonian Museum just off of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. There was a donut wall, food, band, dance floor, rooftop views, and of course an open bar. They threw one heck of a party and set the tone for all of the great conversations and fun FinCon 2019 was to have in store.

Ramit Sethi author of the book and blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich delivered the opening keynote. Ramit also gave the opening keynote at the first FinCon 9 years before. One of his big focuses is on living your rich life, which will look different than other people. The idea is to spend lavishly on the things you care about (travel, food, your pets, whatever it is) and cut mercilessly on the things you don’t (housing, transportation). 

Essentially the idea is to prioritize your spending around the things that bring you joy. Along with that advice, Ramit gave all of the creators a piece of advice as well. He told everyone to develop your unique point of view. Most of the information is out there, but no one has your unique perspective. Rather than being all buttoned up you have to let your story and unique perspective shine through.

Meeting New Connections - Hand Shake - Financial Glass

New FinCon Connections

I met some really awesome people while at FinCon. Unfortunately too many to mention them all here. There are a few who I highlight below for their impact on me as well as the message they are promoting. Please show them some love and check out what they have going on if it sounds interesting to you.

Money Coach

From El Paso, I met Yulande Cummings The Money Coach at the opening keynote. She is incredibly charismatic and I can see why her coaching clients love her. She inspires many with her sound money and fitness advice. 

Websites

Another great connection I made at FinCon was with Jasmine Watts of Miss Millennia Magazine. She is editor in chief and began the magazine to empower millennial women 9 years ago. Jasmine has built a strong business and provides really powerful information to millennial women.

Brian Belley, built CrowdWise.org which focuses on equity crowdfunding and helping people understand how to invest in startups. Brian has some really amazing information and can help you get started investing. He’s helped me think about CrowdFunding as a potential avenue to raise capital in the future.

YouTube

Early on at the event, I ran into JJ Buckner, a YouTuber who talks all about investing and personal finance. What I took away from our conversation was the way he approaches his YouTube Channel as a business. He’s got some really great content and videos. Be sure to check him out and subscribe if you like his channel.

Podcasts

Apple Crider – the host of the Young Smart Money Podcast who interviews business leaders and entrepreneurs. Apple spoke at FinCon and gave really amazing advice on how he grew his podcast through Instagram. If you haven’t heard Young Smart Money check it out! 

Author

On the last night of FinCon, I met Justin Pogue who is the author of Rental Secrets. The book is about negotiating with your landlord and how to get the best deals as a tenant. I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but from our conversation, there are a lot of juicy details for all of the renters out there. 

Awesome Tools for Entrepreneurs

First off there are sooooo many new tools out there you can use in your business. The list I have is mind-boggling. Instead of listing out 50 random tools I’ve highlighted four that I recommend exploring after my experience at FinCon. 

Canva is a design tool that all of the creators use to create beautiful cover photos for Instagram, Blog Images, YouTube thumbnails, and Podcast covers. They have awesome templates and it is super easy to use for the non-design savvy folks out there. Canva offers core features for free with single-item purchases available and has a Pro Subscription. Their web and mobile app are both great and integrate seamlessly!

Fiverr – A silent theme of the conference was hiring other team members to help you grow your business. Freelancers are a crucial part early on before you can afford to hire someone full-time. Fiverr is a platform to find freelancers and contractors for all sorts of business functions. 

Squadcast – is more niche for those interested in podcasting specifically. Squadcast allows you to schedule, record and conduct podcast interviews on your computer. While I haven’t used it yet, pretty much every podcaster at the event highly recommended this as a strong solution.

Audacity – is free open source software used for editing podcasts. There are paid solutions out there as well, but Audacity enables you to easily edit your podcast. The rule of thumb is it takes about 3 hours to edit 60 mins of recorded content. Podcast editing is, therefore, one of the most cumbersome and typically outsourced parts of producing a podcast.

Tools for Entrepreneurs - Financial Glass

New Brands I Discovered at FinCon

The FinCon exhibit hall was a lot of fun with Ally bank providing macaroons with your face printed on them to creating time capsules with your goals and having a caricature of yourself drawn. Lots of really exciting things to do and see.

While some of the tech-friendly big brands were there like Ally & Robinhood, I learned about some really amazing emerging companies and nonprofits that are aiming to make a big difference in the world. 

SaverLife

SaverLife is a non-profit program that pays you AND enters you into contests to win gift cards. All you have to do is create an account with them, link a bank account and save as little as $20 a month. SaverLife is on a mission to help everyday Americans increase their savings rate and offers up to $60 in cash for developing a consistent habit. When you sign up you will also receive free financial coaching advice delivered via videos over email.

This is a no-brainer for literally every American over the age of 18!

Charlie

A fun spin on budgeting and monitoring your personal finances. I’ve been using Charlie for almost a year now and absolutely love it. Charlie is a penguin chatbot that monitors your bank info (the same way as Mint, Personal Capital, & Status Money) and gives you notifications and advice. I find that coupling Charlie with one of the other apps has been an extremely valuable and way more engaging way to keep track of my finances. Rather than checking the dashboards 12 times a day, I get notified for the big things. There is a dashboard feature on Charlie, but I find myself still using Mint more frequently.

Nav

Nav is a business and personal credit monitoring app. Offering free monitoring and paid services to build your business credit, Nav is helping small business owners. A great opportunity to start building credit and find financial tools that will help you grow your business. I just recently used an offer from Nav to open up a business credit card and am super pleased with their services thus far! As an early-ish adopter of Credit Karma, I really enjoy being able to have that same access to my business credit report.

Key Takeaways

While there was a ton of really great information, sessions, and conversations, a few things really stood out. At FinCon, you can go deep into the logistics of building a successful media business. You can learn the ins and outs of podcasting, YouTube, and blogging. There a few things that are universal no matter what line of business you are in. 

Developing your unique voice is crucial. 

You have to speak from your unique voice. Most of the information you want to discuss exists in the world today. You can Google just about anything and find an answer to it. The key differentiator for any content creator and business is what is your unique voice. How are you different and how is your perspective different?

Ultimately, your story and storytelling ability is what will enable you to stand out from the crowd.

Consistency is key. 

This one is universal in life. You have to be consistent with producing information. Creating one great YouTube video is awesome, but it is not a business or a way to create a following. Being able to create a schedule that your community and followers can latch on to is key. Just like a job, you have to show up every day or you will get fired. If you don’t consistently produce then you will lose the attention of your audience. 

You don’t have to produce 2 videos a day or 2 articles a day to be consistent. You can create a monthly podcast or newsletter. The key is to pick something realistic you can handle and stick to it. 

Audio is key… even in video!

This one surprised me at first. Even in video, it is all about the audio! Having high-quality audio is crucial to successfully create a podcast, YouTube channel, or just marketing material. Audio is a trigger sense for us that can either create credibility or destroy credibility almost immediately. If you have really great information, but you hear a dog barking in the background… it sounds like you haphazardly recorded this at home. Great audio is key! 

If you produce quality content, consistently, and promote it properly you will see results. Regular people are making money by helping others. Building a profitable online business is a doable thing that regular people with grit and determination can do. 

FinCon Energy

Coming off of FinCon I am on an extreme high. My energy levels are through the roof and forging a path forward has never been so exciting. There is incredible potential to create an amazing online media business that helps people. Monetizing your business isn’t the hard part, what is difficult is finding your unique point of view, creating quality content and then distributing it effectively. 

One of my main goals of attending FinCon was to connect with possible influencers and brands that I want to partner with. Not only did I achieve that goal, but I realized how amazing the community is. Not many people understand the complexity and challenges in the online space. Thus having a group of fellow dreamers and creators is incredibly comforting. 

First Day of FinCon 2019

The first day of FinCon 2019 is in the books. Overall it was a jam-packed half-day filled with lots of good conversations and handshakes. 

Before kicking off the conference I went for a 9 mile run through Rock Creek and around the National Mall. I took in the streets and sights of Washington DC on foot without the tourist crowds. As I ran this morning, I recognized how much I like Washington DC. There is a unique energy that comes from the history and political power that is the bedrock of the city. 

Washington DC National Mall Sunset

Kicking off the First Day of FinCon 2019

During check-in, there were tons of folks around talking and networking. It was so busy the newbie first-timer session was so full they turned about 100 people away. Unfortunately, I was one of those people. 

On the first day, I started doing rounds around the exhibit hall connecting with brands and sponsors. I met some successful Youtubers, FIRE real estate folks, and lots of bloggers. The energy or the finance-focused content creating community truly shone through the first day of FinCon 2019. 

Sitting in a talk about how technology is addressing financial anxiety, I learned some stunning statistics. 

“85% of Americans felt some level of financial anxiety”

“50% experienced the same stress levels over credit card debt as they did waiting for medical results”

These stats are truly stunning and how technology is helping to reduce money stress is crucial. 

The first day of FinCon 2019 packed in quite a bit for only a half-day!

In the evening there was a happy hour and then a Robinhood sponsored kick-off event. The Robinhood sponsored the first day of FinCon 2019 kickoff event at the Smithsonian Museum of Native American History. It was huge and even featured a donut wall! 

Business people shaking hands

First Day Impressions

All in all, I made some solid connections and found it really interesting how many people have created successful businesses from YouTube, blogging, Facebook Groups, and podcasting. It shows that if you dedicate time, create quality content, and are consistent you can make money in the digital economy. 

The first day of FinCon 2019 has me really excited for the rest of the conference. I am excited to hear the content sessions and I’m hopeful that I’ll continue to meet interesting people.