Category: Growth

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.,

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

Want To Win Like Amazon, Netflix And Google? Don’t Be Afraid To ‘Look Foolish’

This XSeed blog was written by Executive-in-Residence, Mike Hoefflinger, and originally appeared on Forbes.

There’s something special about breakout Silicon Valley-style innovation. Not the ecosystem that makes it possible for hundreds — if not thousands — of efforts to launch, but the handful that win. And keep

The Most Common Mistake In SaaS Sales Strategies

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

Life is good: You’ve got an enterprise SaaS startup that is getting a lot of buzz. You have scores of customers, and some of them look ripe for upgrades which could deliver a 100% increase in bookings. Your VP of

How To Recognize A True Winner: A Venture Capitalist’s View

This XSeed blog was written by XSeed Capital Partner, Robert Siegel, and originally appeared on Forbes.

Three times in my business career (twice recently) I have witnessed the metaphorical “winning” from a unique vantage point. No, I’m not referring to the Charley Sheen version of “winning,” but rather the raise the Stanley