Tag: venture capital firms



My first true exposure to the real world of venture capital began when I started my internship this past semester. It has been a great, enlightening experience to see how the process works — and I’d love to share some of those insights, because I believe they are really helpful to anyone. It does not matter what industry you are going into or what phase of life you are in, these things can be applied anywhere because business is everywhere.

Be straightforward in your pitch to a venture capital firm

I cannot begin to tell you how many times entrepreneurs have pitched their ventures and left venture capitalists’ faces confused. Founders pitch their brilliant ideas using these fancy keynotes and animations and blocks of text ,  forgetting the whole point of the presentation: to explain their idea. Simpler = better. You can add all of the fireworks at a later time — in the beginning, just make sure that the person you are talking to knows what it is you are talking about!

Treat your VC pitch like an interview–be on time!

Working in due diligence, I have worked with a lot of different founders in finding information about their business model and where they see themselves in the future. This is great — I love hearing different stories about how companies get formed and so on. But, whether you like it or not, impressions are everything. And a great way to leave a disorganized impression is to show up late to a call or to deliver information late. This will, from the get go, set you back. And its not me being hard-hitting, rather its me, even subconsciously, being human. When you are trying to raise money, every little thing matters — so be on time!

Pitch your ideas to the appropriate VC

A lot of companies reach out to venture capital firms who are completely out of their cycle. What I mean by that is that seed stage funds cannot put together the money to invest in late stage and vice versa. So you should not waste the effort trying to convince a VC to do something they can’t. But you can start the conversations early and maintain a relationship with them for when you are ready!

Do your research on the VC

As a company it is just as important for you  to do your research on the VC as it is for the venture capitalist  finds it important to do research on you. You should check on their portfolio companies and see how they like their investors as partners. It is just as important that you find them to be a good fit.

This post was originally featured on Medium and was republished with permission from the author.


Today is our first day in the beautiful capital of Jerusalem. After being in Tel Aviv for four days, I cannot wait to experience a new city to compare and contrast it with what I have already seen of Israeli culture and business.

After a few changes to our itinerary, the first stop we had was a meeting with David Fisher, an Israeli diplomat for the Economic division of the United States government. David shared his knowledge of the structure of the Israeli government and showed our group the major successes of Israel’s economy. David also shared a little about himself and how he came to be a diplomat living in Israel. It was very interesting to hear from the California native that the seemingly constant moving around the world is exciting and comfortable to him. David told us about his decision to work for Israel and the extreme training he went through to prepare for the move. He told us a little about what he does and amazed us with his position as head of security for President Obama’s upcoming visit.

Next, we met with Kobi Rozengarten, a General Partner at JVP, or Jerusalem Venture Partners. JVP is one of the most influential Israeli venture capital firms in the country. The company strives to be innovative and creative, with an emphasis on new technology and strong leadership. There is a major focus on the media and electronics, which became evident as Kobi shared with us some of the companies JVP is investing in such as Reely (a movie identification game) and Anyclips (a database that pulls apart movies and organizes the scenes so that users can more quickly access what they wish to see). Our group was very excited about these new technologies and amazed at the creative energy flowing as each founder gave his or her speech.

Our third meeting of the day was with a member of the National Economic Council. It was very interesting to hear about the effects of the growing Ultra-Orthodox group on the economy. Knowing that the Haredim are not required to serve in the IDF or have jobs, it is easy to see the negative outcome this can have on Israeli economy. Moreover, the Ultra-Orthodox families have six, ten, and even twenty kids while the rate of intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews is growing. This correlation ultimately means that in the future, there will be more Ultra-Orthodox Jews who are not working or in the army, while there are less conservative and reform Jews to do these jobs.

The last meeting was with the insightful Mark Regev, the International Spokesperson to Bibi Netanyahu. Mark shared with us some top-secret news about President Obama’s upcoming visit and what will be talked about between the American president and the Israeli Prime minister behind closed doors. Mark was very personable, leading the discussion in a conversational style manner which made the meeting very enjoyable and easy to follow after a long day. I thoroughly appreciated Mark’s words of wisdom and shared experiences.

We ended the day by eating dinner and visiting the Kotel (Western Wall) in the Old City. Seeing the Kotel for the second time in my life was an amazing experience that I will never forget. Because I was much younger when I visited Israel last, I did not fully understand what the Western Wall meant and therefore, it was incredible to finally be able to experience the Wall in a way that I could not before. We also had the opportunity to walk through the Kotel tunnels and see what the temple looked like before its destruction. It was so cool to hear the story behind the Kotel and I truly felt like I was traveling back in time to a completely different world.

Arlyn – Class of 2016 – Arts & Sciences – Florida