What no one told us was to start a spreadsheet early on with all of the commonly asked questions for funding applications or interviews. You’ll save a ton of time and you can evaluate your performance by keeping track of responses to your requests for funding.

Happy Lunar New Year!

If u r in college now, I highly recommend u take as many public speaking & journalism classes as possible even if u are confident in ur presentation skills. It is not easy to find in person pitch sessions where u can improve ur public speaking once u graduate.

I always carry a portable charging bank with me at networking events. There are always people who need a quick juice up, including potential investors and clients 😏

A mentor of mine gave me some good advice recently: stalk your competition, especially if they are outperforming you. Keep tabs on their socials, analyze their marketing, sign up as a fake client. Find out what works, and make it better.

Always talk to people in front of and behind you while you are waiting in line at networking events. You never know, they might be the co-founder you have been looking for or an important mentor or an investor working at a fund that is the right fund for you.

(US) For east coast networking events, entrepreneurs, advisors, and potential investors are fairly well-dressed. You should at least dress business casual or business professional. On the west coast, it can be completely appropriate to show up to events in a hoodie.

U should be able to pitch ur startup in 2 ways. 1st - Pitching on stage with an audience. Have a more scripted approach so u can hit all of the key points within a limited time frame. 2nd - Intro meeting. If u meet with 1 or 2 ppl from a VC , take a more conversational approach.

Entrepreneurship is not a coding competition. Even if your software is objectively better than your competitors, clients don’t know this. They need to understand how using your product will help them grow their business. You need a clear “Market Product Fit.”

There r many AI tools to help with editing or writing copy, but I recommend entrepreneurs work with real editors. Until u have a solid pitch, editors can offer a reality check n give u an opportunity to practice. Some good ideas have come from the back and forth brainstorming.

If you have an important meeting that day, cut down your caffeine intake by 50 percent. You may sound too nervous when the adrenaline starts to kick in.

Sign up for VC newsletters and go to their meetups. This is a more effective and passive networking strategy that takes much less effort than cold emails.

When you are in a pitch meeting, don’t get ahead of yourself and give a speech on a question. Sometimes take a pause after a few sentences and make sure you are answering the question.

Sign up for VC newsletters and go to their meetups. This is a more effective and passive networking strategy that takes much less effort than cold emails.

Story #12. It’s a wrap! Demo Day of Vibranium.VC Softlanding Program by @VcVibranium link.medium.com/uxuPNNjWDzb

植木之时，上时者昔，次之者今。The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago; the next best time is now!