Author: Jeff Thermond

How to Sail Over Investors’ Hurdles When Projecting the Size of a New Business

This blog was written by XSeed Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond.

My last blog on the fact that a five-year projection of key financial metrics was a hard and fast requirement for any startup pitch deck drew a lot of engaged commentary.

The comments generally fell into two camps. The responders who provide services (e.g.,

Timely Discussions: Net Neutrality-The One Thing We Could All Agree Upon

This week’s Timely Discussions was written by XSeed Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond.

Like most VC firms, we have spirited discussions on Mondays when we look at new deals. As you might expect, we often talk about current events or what is in the news during downtime.

Timely Discussions is a new short form blog which will

Mastering the Hardest Slide in the Pitch Deck

This article was written by XSeed Capital Partner, Jeff Thermond.

Almost half of the initial pitches we view at XSeed do not contain a Five Year Projected Financials slide. Another quarter have a forecast, but it only goes out two years. So, three quarters of the entrepreneurs we meet start out with a pitch deck missing an

Fundraising For A Humanitarian Startup? Show VCs The Money

This article was written by XSeed Capital Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

A noticeable fraction of the thousands of startups I have looked at in the last seven years have made attacking a societal evil (e.g., hunger, homelessness, etc) a key part of why they exist. This is extremely laudable from a

Surefire Signs Your Startup Needs Product Management Help Now

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

What do Facebook, Whatsapp, Salesforce.com, and the iPhone have in common? They all benefitted from great product management. All avoided UX clutter, confused pricing schemes, and non-existent product roadmaps. It is hard to imagine a world without these products.

5 Steps To Standing Out When You First Meet A VC

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

I often ask entrepreneurs I’m meeting for the first time to imagine that our meeting just ended and it was a great success from their point of view. Then I ask, “What made this such a great meeting for you?”

Avoid The Bridge To Nowhere In Your Startup’s Funding Plan

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

I have seen several recent startup pitches covering different markets, having different technologies, and built with teams of differing calibers, all of which shared one unfortunate trait: The founders’ funding plans looked a lot like a Bridge to Nowhere.

Founders: Steer Clear Of This Dangerous Mindset

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

When I ask friends with pilot’s licenses what the hardest thing was about learning to fly, they always say, “learning how to get out of a midair stall.” The hard thing about it, they tell me, is how counterintuitive the

Setting Sales Quotas Is Like Running A 10K Race

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on TechCrunch.

If you’ve ever run a 10K road race, you know that race organizers spend a lot of effort to have volunteers at every milepost telling runners what their time is. If you’re like me, you’ve probably sped up at each

Entrepreneurs: Beware Of Pursuing The Next Big Thing [Cough] IoT [Cough]

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

Up until about 12 months ago, we heard every week from new startups focused on big data. Entrepreneurs were patting themselves on the back about catching a huge tailwind of market momentum and seemed surprised that we were worried that