Reid's DukeGEN Blog

This thread caught my attention: Martin Tobias (Pre-Seed VC)   @MartinGTobias One of the most important questions I ask Pre-Seed founders is:  “What is your distribution trick?” I have found that having a distribution trick is key to pre-seed success.  Getting your first customers. Here are some good and not-so-good answers to the question. Good: - I have sold into the customers before and have relationships to get first customers - We have a waitlist of XX - We did YYY customer discovery calls and x% of them would like to see a product. - I am on the board of the trade association of customers I will be selling to Not so good: - Google/facebook ads - “influencers” yet to be determined. - We have spent zero on marketing and have no idea where the web traffic comes from, but is free! - “viral” - “word of mouth” - We sell to SMBs and there are a lot of them, so a small percentage is great X (formerly Twitter) Martin Tobias (Pre-Seed VC) (@MartinGTobias) on X Entrepreneur, I...

Check out this interview with Dukie Josh Felser with his business partner Raj Kapoor about their new VC fund, Climatic Earlier this month, Climactic, a New York City and San Francisco, Calif.-based venture capital firm, launched with a $65M inaugural fund. In conjunction with the announcement, Raj Kapoor and Josh Felser replied to our questions about the firm, their strategy, what they like to see in founders and introduced their portfolio companies. Listen here: https://vcwire.tech/2023/12/29/climatic-joint-interview-with-raj-kapoor-and-josh-felser/

 Check out this Pitchbook analysis of “the seed blip” which concludes “Barring the re-emergence of large-investor involvement, the continued growth of seed deal metrics is unsustainable as it stands, given that smaller funds focused on the seed stage will have trouble supplementing the drawdown of their remaining overhang with new funds amid the increasingly harsh fundraising landscape.” Read the full article here: https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/Q4_2023_PitchBook_Analyst_Note_The_Seed_Blip.pdf What does this mean for you?

FYI, all of us who are business owners and/or shareholders need to report (or have the company report) to FinCEN starting in January 2024 but not later than January 2025 . . .here are the details . . .I expect (hope?) that cap table tools like Carta and Gust will do this for us . . . Everything An Angel Investor Should Know About The Corporate Transparency Act  https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/blog/corporate-transparency-act/

 Here’s a new read for me, “how to do great work”? http://paulgraham.com/greatwork.html#f9n

A wise Dukie answered me privately with the following: Regarding HireVue, I suggest your student watch some videos on YouTube as they tell you how to prepare. This one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KtYjWIt8DU gives tips including: - Learn operation of the HireVue website before your interview so you are comfortable - Take the “practice interview” offered by HireVue https://practice.hirevue.com/signup/3m4pjuhLArd6v5kvbT6BHv/ - Prepare with a quiet location, good connection, good lighting and computer charged or plugged in - Learn about the company by reading the latest news on social - Learn about the job by reading the job description and build elements of the job description into your answers - Prepare & rehearse 3-minute answers for the usual questions such as “introduce yourself,” “why are you interested in this job?, “what qualifies you for this job?, “what are your strengths?, “what are your weaknesses?, “tell a story about a time where you failed at something?, “what will ...

If you’re leading a “growth stage enterprise startup,” Microsoft can help you meet customers via a new program called the Pegasus Program. Learn more here: https://startups.microsoft.com/blog/connecting-startups-to-customers-with-the-microsoft-for-startups-pegasus-program/