Riga, Latvia
After spending two years at Stanford Business School during the run-up to the dot-com bubble, my appetite was whetted in the intersection of technology and business. Aside from two years at a strategy consulting firm Bain & Company, I have spent the past 18 years at technology startups in the US and Europe. Highlights include two executive roles, including 2 startups, that each exited for over $100M.
Outside work, I am a father of four kids, husband to a wonderfully smart and capable lawyer. I co-founded and am on the boards of the TechHub Riga and TechChill foundations and work to support the startup community in Latvia and the other Baltic States. Last but not least - I’m a part time (aka weekend) warrior in the National Guard of Latvia, serving as an infantryman in the 1st Riga Brigade.
MY TOPICSTopic is a subject user would like to share its knowledge about.Outside work, I am a father of four kids, husband to a wonderfully smart and capable lawyer. I co-founded and am on the boards of the TechHub Riga and TechChill foundations and work to support the startup community in Latvia and the other Baltic States. Last but not least - I’m a part time (aka weekend) warrior in the National Guard of Latvia, serving as an infantryman in the 1st Riga Brigade.
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Thank you, Andris, for taking time and for your advise.
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Andris Berzins on Startup adviceVC investor, former startup founder, startup activist, weekend warrior
Interesting research from Yale that positive mood when pitching helps raise capital. Implications: founders need to practice maintaining that positive, confident tone when pitching; investors have to be careful to distinguish "hutzpah" from real competence.
For startups from Central and Eastern Europe pitching in the USA especially, I always advise that you need to pitch very aggressively and with extreme confidence, such that you feel uncomfortable yourself. The result will look mildly confident to the US venture investors who are used to seeing American founders pitch all day long….
https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/passionate-startup-pitch-is-powerful-but-can-be-misleading
A Passionate Startup Pitch Is Powerful—But Can Be Misleading
Marijus KrasnickasValue Creator Through Unity. Founder of UNO Parks. Your Gold Fish.
Andris Berzins would you please share some of US pitches who are "extremely confident" and no "hutzpah" at the same time. Thank you
Andris Berzins on Venture capital investingVC investor, former startup founder, startup activist, weekend warrior
As a venture capitalist, when I invest in a company I am investing and risking reputation, as important as the capital itself. Because there are so few investors relative to startups and funds have very few “shots at goal” to return money to their investors, the credibility aspects of an investment are very important. Check out this great article by Chris Harvey that provides more detail: https://lawofvc.substack.com/p/10-episode-the-stories-behind-cap
#10 Episode - The Stories Behind Cap Tables
Luis Tavira JiménezEstudiant
hahahaha, I think that's the question that makes capitalism strong or weak, does it?
Andris Berzins on PR and marketing for startupsVC investor, former startup founder, startup activist, weekend warrior
Yesterday a startup asked for advice about putting out news about their recent funding round. I believe PR can be one of the most leveraged marketing activities for a startup, worth doing right. Here are the key points to keep in mind, as I see these points are needed again and again:
Be clear who your #1 audience is. Other investors? Clients? Industry analysts? Then spend effort writing the main message in one headline until you have that clear. That message can have several components, but needs to be concise and to the point.
Write the first paragraph, where you expand on this in 2-3 sentences. Remember to think about the message from the journalists point of view - what will they think is interesting to their readers? After that you can expand the full text to add more details.
Check for keywords that you want to include, make sure this fits with your SEO strategy. A good news post can generate SEO for years, worth making sure you are consistent in your usage of terms and keywords. Align with other marketing efforts.
Assemble your list of target media. Sort by news category and journalist type. Some will write long form pieces and require a more sophisticated approach, some will just re-post industry news. Pick targets where you really want the news to appear and work those individually.
Some outlets (e.g. TechCrunch, Tech.EU in tech press in our region) will respect embargoes, so use them. That means a prohibition against publishing until time & date of announcement (in bold at top of document). They prepare a post ahead of time. Give them a week's notice.
A good PR firm will help you craft the message and leverage their journalist relationships to get placement. Some Change Ventures portfolio companies have used TrueSix, BallouPR and Black Unicorn PR. Ideally you want a long term relationship with a firm for best results.
Questions? Shoot them over in the discussion.
Tech.eu
Paulius VezelisRetail tech | Startups | Drones | Triathlon | Tennis 🎾
Great advice! Especially true about the headline.
Andris Berzins on Startup adviceVC investor, former startup founder, startup activist, weekend warrior
Great podcast with James Currier of NFX interviewing Keith Rabois, legendary startup co-founder and investor, now with Founders Fund. Keith talks about what a contrarian really is, how important teams are in determining startup success, all with fantastic stories from Square, PayPal and his other startups and investments.
https://www.nfx.com/post/how-contrarians-think-with-keith-rabois/
How Contrarians Think: The Early Days of Square, Yelp & PayPal with Keith Rabois
Andris Berzins on Startup adviceVC investor, former startup founder, startup activist, weekend warrior
This is a fantastic detailed post on what it takes to be Series A ready.
By Louis Coppey of Point Nine Capital.
https://medium.com/point-nine-news/9-tricks-to-be-series-a-ready-f93b2a050c85
9 tricks to be “Series-A ready” - Point Nine Land - Medium
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