Ever wonder why so many of your cold emails to investors and potential customers go unanswered? It’s no surprise, everyone’s inbox is overflowing and most people who get a cold email just ignore it. In this Dose, Steve Barsh, Managing Partner at Dreamit Ventures, shares his pro tips on how to perfectly craft a cold email to investors and prospects.

The venture capital screening call is an important step to get right in due diligence. To get to partners, often you’ll have to go through the associate first. In this Dreamit Dose, associates Alana Hill and Elliot Levy offer five things they wish founders knew after screening over 1,000 startups in the last year.

Most VC investors see hundreds, if not thousands, of startup decks and pitches each year. In this article, we’ll outline Managing Partner Steve Barsh’s top 5 things investors wish startup founders knew when reaching out, sending a deck, or pitching a VC.

Whether it’s $100k in revenue or another relative inflection point, make sure your cofounders can get there without hiring any external talent. We brought on Caya (CEO of Slidebean) to provide a smart framework on how to find the right cofounders that can hit this mark.

Traction is one of the most important elements to nail when pitching investors. The problem is, most startups do a poor job talking about it. In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Partner Steve Barsh highlights pro tips and traction insights across all early stages of the startup lifecycle. From pre-revenue early traction to post-revenue momentum, this Dose will teach you the ins and outs of presenting traction to investors.

Uncertainty and startups go hand in hand. Whether you’re planning micro-pivots to product development or macro-pivots in light of recent market change, you’ll need a well-tuned internal schema to assess uncertainty. In the wake of the pandemic, startups across all stages have been pressed to make swift decisions and adjust plans. Today, more than ever, the relevant question founders should be asking themselves is: what’s my bet?

Market segmentation is a data-driven exercise that founders should engage in at various points after they begin selling to customers. To figure out your market segments, your team should be looking at factors such as market size, growth rate, CAC, win rate for gaining customers, and average LTV. Based on these numbers, you can then determine your sales activities, marketing initiatives and even your product roadmap. In this series, we'll discuss key topics around market segmentation and give you a framework for doing it effectively for your startup. 

Here are our tips for meeting with new VCs and potential investors. 

Whether you’re pitching an investor, speaking at a conference, or simply delivering meeting talking points to peers, this webinar will give you the tools to connect with your audience.

Since first launching in 2008, Dreamit has received thousands of applications – heck, I’ve personally reviewed thousands of applications in the not quite three years since joining Dreamit. I’ve had the pleasure to read some really excellent applications that crisply and concisely showcased what made that startup shine. And then there were those other applications. 

A 409A valuation is a formal report that tells you the value of your company’s common stock. When you give stock options to your employees, you are giving them the option to buy equity in your company in the future at a price (the “strike price”) that is determined today. This post explains when and why you should have a 409A. 

Before answering the "how" of digital marketing, entrepreneurs should ask who they are marketing to and why this audience might need their product or service. As CEO of Startup Professionals Martin Zwilling points out, digital marketing is "all about selling solutions (not technology) to real customers who have real needs and problems they want to be solved." By identifying who your customers are and how you will solve their problems, you'll be well on your way to marketing success.

Engagement is a huge problem in the American workforce. In 2015, Gallup found that 50.8% of employees were not engaged and almost 18% were actively disengaged. Big firms experience this problem more acutely than startups, but founders often see the disparity between their level of excitement and their employees as well. Learn how to keep employees engaged by building a community within your startup. 

Tips on how to approach public relations for startups at the earliest stages. Whether you are announcing a product launch, event, or partnership, these lessons can be applied.

Building your sales pipeline requires a strategy that will vary from startup to startup, but it is always one of the most complicated and stressful parts of building a company. We'll be hosting a webinar on October 26 on the topic of building and maintaining a sales pipeline, but here are a few tips in advance. 

Last week we hosted a panel about the importance of Advisory Boards for startups. Unlike a board of directors, an advisory board is much more informal and commonly utilized on an ad hoc basis by founders when they need help. Advisors make critical introductions, provide essential tactical advice regarding business strategy, fill in knowledge gaps, and signal to the market that your startup is worth engaging with.

Looking to grow your startup’s traction? Digital marketing and growth hacking are two strategies that will help you accomplish that goal. This article provides a brief introduction to both topics.