Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template

Listen to these 15 expert interviews (or read the transcripts) to learn specific techniques that entrepreneurs have successfully used to raise venture capital and the issues that venture capitalists ponder on a daily basis.

Interview #1: Guy Kawasaki

Guy is a world-famous venture capitalist, a columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, and a best-selling author of 9 books, including The Art of the Start and his latest, Reality Check.

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Interview #2: Mark DiPaolo

Mark is an accomplished entrepreneur who has raised a staggering amount of venture capital… including an astonishing $70 million dollar “Series A” round (one of the largest we’ve seen). He’s also an angel investor, so he knows how to play both sides of the table.

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Interview #3: Brad Feld

Brad is a venture capitalist who is an investor in dozens of early stage Internet and digital media start-ups. Before becoming a VC, he successfully grew and sold his technology firm to a larger acquirer. And he’s also an “A-list” VC blogger, operating two of the most popular blogs about venture capital.

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Interview #4: Ryan Allis

Ryan is a young entrepreneur (currently 23 years old) who has achieved a ton of success at a young age. He raised more than $5 million in venture capital for his software company, which now has 50,000 customers, 170 employees, and generates revenues of more than $30 million per year.

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Interview #5: John Morris

John is an investor who is the managing director of a California venture capital firm that invests in IT, digital media, and semiconductors. He’s also an angel investors, and was chairman of the largest angel investor network in the United States.

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Interview #6: Eytan Elbaz

Eytan has an impressive track record… He wrote the business plan and was responsible for raising venture capital for his start-up, which was acquired by Google, and eventually became “Google AdSense.” Have you ever seen those little text ads on websites sites that say “Ads by Google”? That’s AdSense. His “big idea” became a huge profit center for one of the fastest growing companies in world history.

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Interview #7: Mike Kendall

Mike, the “Super Lawyer”, represents both entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the negotiation process, so he’s initimately familiar with both sides of the table. In our interview with him, he identifies the key terms that you must successfully negotiate in order to get a fair deal and keep control of your company.

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Interview #8: Jim Jonassen

Jim is a serial entrepreneur who founded and built two successful software companies, raised venture capital, and more… He led one company through acquisition and initial public offering (IPO), and led another to continuing profitability. He now consults entrepreneurs and venture capitalists on how to assemble world-class management teams.

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Interview #9: John Babcock

John, a venture capitalist, invests in early stage ventures in high-tech industries such as clean technology and software as a service (SaaS). Along with his partners, he manages more than $900 million of venture capital investments. In our interview, he sheds light on exactly what VCs are looking for when deciding to invest (or NOT to invest) in your company.

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Interview #10: Bambi Francisco

Bambi is news-anchor-turned-entrepreneur who has built one of the most popular entrepreneurship websites in the world, which helps entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to potential investors. Before becoming an entrepreneur herself, and successfully raising venture capital for her own company, she was covered venture capital trends for Dow Jones and CNN. So she really has “been there” and seen it all before…

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Interview #11: Ron Feldman

Ron is an entrepreneur who runs a mobile internet company that recently raised venture capital from one of the most prestigious VC firms in the country. In our interview, he discusses the unpredictable path that led to his successful financing, and how you can benefit from his experience…

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Interview #12: Dave Humphrey

Dave, a venture capitalist, invests in early stage companies, and before that, as a CEO, he increased his company’s profitability six-fold. In our interview, he explains the secrets to networking with venture capitalists, and the 3 elements he looks for when deciding to invest in a start-up.

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Interview #13: Victor Hwang

Victor, a venture capitalist, invests in breakthrough technology companies. He was also the founding CEO of a environmental tech company, and before that he directed strategy for a video search company. In addition, he structured and negotiated VC deals as a corporate attorney, so he really understands VC from every angle.

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Interview #14: Brette Simon

Brette is a venture lawyer and a partner at a top tier law firm with offices around the country and all over the world. She advises early stage companies on venture capital transactions and was recently recognized by “The Deal” magazine as one of the top deal-makers in the country. In our interview, we picked her brain about how to negotiate with VCs.

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Interview #15: Ken Yancey

Ken is one of the nation’s leading advisors to entrepreneurs. He manages the nation’s largest volunteer business mentoring group in the U.S.A. He speaks nationally on entrepreneurship, and has been appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, and Fox. In our interview, we asked him how enterpreneurs can build a team of advisors around them, and the critical role of advisors in raising venture capital.

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