Tag: Entrepreneurship

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

The Path To Software Success Starts With A Data Roadmap

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

LinkedIn and other companies draw hundreds of millions of users every day in large part thanks to their ability to acquire, transform and leverage many types of data. The use of a data roadmap, which is a disciplined way to

How To Survive A Failed Product Plan — And Come Back Even Stronger

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

In a previous article, I argued that great startups solve large, and even more importantly, immediate pain points for customers by positioning products more like a pain killer and less like a vitamin. This is the essence of product/market fit:

Easing Market Pain: How To Position Your Products For Success

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

Whenever I talk to a startup CEO, the conversation moves quickly to the company’s growth rate for bookings and revenue. Too often, they’re not what the entrepreneur had hoped for. I want to offer a few thoughts on why that

How To Field Investor Questions Like A Pro

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

When asking entrepreneurs how their pitch went to a new VC firm, I often hear, “It was going really great until I got asked this question which really threw me. It was completely off topic. Things didn’t go so great

Your Pricing Strategy Isn’t Working — Here’s How To Land An Investor

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

Somewhere in every entrepreneur’s pitch deck is a slide on pricing. Even when a pitch is going well, as a venture capitalist, I often find the pricing slide to be the weakest of the entire deck.

I’d like

3 Reasons Not To Start A Company With The Goal Of Being Acquired

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

Generally speaking there are three types of exits: going out of business, getting acquired, and going public. Often overlooked but important to keep in mind is what I call “The Trapped in Amber Company.” It’s too big to shut down,

Is Your Startup Ready For Venture Financing?

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

So you’ve got a great idea for a new startup. Congratulations! Before you begin, you might want to think twice about the scope of your great idea.

Put simply, the question is whether your great idea is a

A Different Take On Being Authentic

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

As I was running a mentoring session last week at the FailCon conference in San Francisco, the popular notion that entrepreneurs should be “authentic” kept rattling around in my head.

When I first arrived

Sitting On The Other Side Of The Table

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

Sitting on the other side of the table from bright entrepreneurs with really intriguing ideas is a lot of fun for me. It’s also interesting because I’ve previously been the one raising rounds for my startups. Here are some tips