Well, I finally saw it myself. Two friends of mine just raised venture capital for their startups on…a POWERPOINT.
Before this time, it was by rumor that I heard people were walking in with ideas and getting funding. No company, no corporation, no IP, no technology…nuthin! But getting $1MM to $4MM committed. And the rest of the world struggled along with their business plans and prototypes…
I tried to quantify what made these two people unique. Here are some thoughts:
1. They are both very persuasive presenters. Very good at pitching their ideas.
2. They were well-known to the venture fund. Both people had fund partners begging them to start something…anything…so they could fund it.
3. They had decent track records.
4. Both had high integrity, so trust is a factor. They were also very realistic about their prospects and didn’t oversell or overcommit.
5. Both could attract talent amazingly well. While everyone else was struggling to hire, these two got committed employees with no company existing! So they were well-known and trusted to the people they got on board.
6. Of course their ideas were pretty damn good too. They were presented as very well thought out ideas and with an answer for all tough questions.
Sorry Microsoft, but I don’t think Powerpoint had anything to do with their success. Too bad if that was all someone needed was advanced presentation software to get funding…!