All Posts By
Caya
Pantone Color of the Year 2020: Classic Blue template and palette
The Pantone Institute has chosen Classic Blue (19-4052 - #0F4C81) as the Pantone color of the year 2020. With some pretty solid reasons:
How to Grow a Small Business: growth marketing for startups (Part II)
In our last article, we talked about the 19 growth channels available in the world, so for this one, I am going to talk about the ones that we've tried, the ones that failed, and the ones that worked.
Startup Forensics | Yik Yak: a deadly combination
Anonymous messages and local context were the perfect mix to make the popular social network, YikYak, come to life in 2013. They were also the poison to kill it and to write on its tombstone the epitaph of: died too young and too soon.
Storytelling for Pitch Deck Presentations
Throughout this article, we will present practical ways to fix the insertion of storytelling for a pitch deck. If that is not what is happening in your business presentations already. Improve your presentation
Is WeWork dead? | Startup Forensics: the downfall of Adam Neumann
In this article, we will analyze the story behind WeWork, their rise, and downfall, and of course, what lessons we can learn from them.
Startup ideas: should you compete against an established company?
Is starting a business that directly competes against a player as big as Microsoft a good idea? Maybe. I hope our story sheds some light.
Pitch Deck and Fundraising Fireside Chat with Slidebean & Dreamit
Join us in this casual conversation with Caya, Slidebean CEO and Steve Barsh, Managing Partner at Dreamit Ventures as they talk about how to create compelling pitch decks and how to effectively pitch to VCs.
Pitch Deck examples from successful startups (Airbnb, Uber, Facebook)
Pitch Deck Examples that made companies like Airbnb, Uber and Facebook, the giants they are today. A pitch deck is usually a 10-20 slide presentation designed to give a short summary of your company, your business plan and your startup vision.
Are Startup Accelerators Worth it?
In this article we are going to look into: What startup accelerators are, choosing a program that is worth it for you (or deciding if you should skip them altogether), and finally how to get in.
Startup Questions: Starting a Business, Startup KPIs and Product development
We get dozens of questions from people interested different topics. From starting a business to measuring KPI's of a successful company.
Pitch deck outline: What to Include in a Startup Pitch Deck
A pitch deck outline is the standard document used by startups to present their case to investors; it’s a brief deck comprised of about 10 to 20 slides. There’s a standard pitch deck outline because it’s what an investor expect to see before meeting a prospect.
Elevator Pitch Examples from Successful Startups
An Elevator Pitch is a succinct 20-30 second speech geared to convince someone about a product or company. We've collected some startup elevator pitch examples like Airbnb, Facebook, Buffer, for you to get some inspiration out of it!
How to Grow a Small Business: Growth Marketing for Startups (Part I)
In this article, we are going to talk about how to grow a small business. If you don't know me, my name is Caya. I'm one of the founders and the CEO at Slidebean- a venture-funded, profitable, multi-million dollar startup.
How to start a business with no money: tips for entrepreneurs
What if I started a new business today? How would I approach it?
Startup mistakes that almost put Slidebean out of business
In this article I am going to talk about the startup mistakes I made, the hard lessons I had to learn, and how they translated into the success of this new company.
5 Startup Myths that Kill Companies
9 out of 10 startups fail; that's just the hard truth. The most common reasons, according to founders themselves, are related to the 5 Startup Myths that we covered in this article.
Fees breakdown: a US Corporation costs $7,500 per year just to operate
If you are a US company or a foreign startup that is looking to incorporate in the US for billing/investment purposes, this article will help you with the number of corporation costs that you should be prepared of, in order to avoid a hit to your company.
The Uber Pitch Deck Used to Raise Funding in 2008
This Uber pitch deck that successfully raised the company's first round of funding. It's a fantastic example of a perfectly defined problem/solution combination.
How to Make a Pitch Deck: Dos and Don'ts
Coming up with a compelling pitch deck is an essential instrument for getting a startup off the ground. How to make a pitch deck, therefore, is crucial, and startups need to nail this part of the funding process.
Youtube content marketing ROI: the cost of making our videos
Each minute of this video costs around $150. Based on this numbers, what's a good YouTube content marketing ROI?
How to Find a CoFounder: Starting a Business as a solo founder
As we've scaled Slidebean and had the chance to connect with hundreds of companies, one of the most common questions I get is around how to find a cofounder.
How to get seed funding: Getting your startup off the ground
How to get seed funding: Just as a seed needs unconditional care and water to grow, a startup business needs crucial nourishing of finance to expand and grow.
Startup Business Funding: Ready to meet with investors?
Startup business funding: Going into business for oneself is always a daunting decision especially if you cannot personally fund the launch.
What is a Company Profile Template
Your company profile is a marketing tool that showcases your brand’s products, services, and activities. A powerful company profile presentation should be more than just a brochure.
Series A Pitch Deck: Creating a Killer Presentation
You’ve started up, and gaining traction. You’ve put your seed money to good use, you’ve got a small but sustainable customer base, made your first couple of million and it feels like you’ve got something good going.It’s time for Series A pitch deck.
Startup financial model: full Slidebean earnings and expenses
What is a Startup Financial Model and how does it work? We reviewed the full financials of Slidebean for our most important year.
Pitch Deck Design: Make your first impression count
Discover three powerful alternatives to deliver a powerful pitch deck design to your potential clients or investors. A pitch deck that stands out can say a lot about the stage your company is in.
Starting a Business: FAQ answered by Caya, CEO at Slidebean
Caya, CEO at Slidebean, answers questions from the YouTube audience. These are frequently asked questions when fundraising or starting a business.
How to Write a Business Proposal
If you're a freelancer applying for a contract job or a company proposing a new vendor agreement, learning how to write a business proposal properly will guarantee that you showcase your skills and close more deals when making your pitches. Also, get access to our business proposal template for free.
3 Startups Pitch Deck Templates Every Founder Needs
Startups Pitch deck templates can serve very different purposes, from trying to get a meeting with a new investor, to presenting in front of a stage, and each one of them should follow a different structure! Here's a few pitch deck examples every startup founder needs.
Starting a small business vs starting a startup
Not all businesses are created equal. There are many differences between starting a small business vs starting a startup.
How to raise money for a business: startup funding, find investors and prepare for investor meetings
In this article, we to look into the workflow of how to raise money for a business. Today we are going to look into the process of raising capital.
Pitch Deck Design Service by Slidebean
We have decided to open a new pitch deck design business segment within Slidebean – Pitch Deck Content + Design. We can help your create a killer pitch deck.
Startup CEO Roles and Responsibilities
Startup CEO roles are a demanding and mentally exhausting job. The decisions you make, affect the future of your company and your employees.
Vivino's Founder Heini Zachariassen | Ask me anything (AMA)
Heini Zachariassen is Vivino’s Founder and currently serves as board member and chief evangelist. Largely credited with bringing a technology revolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since. During his tenure, Vivino grew into a community of 30 million users, raised $57 million in funding and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. Prior to starting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security company BullGuard.
What is a Pitch Deck Presentation: A complete Presentation Guide with examples
What is a Pitch Deck Presentation: it is usually a 10-20 slide presentation designed to give a short summary of your company, your business plan and your startup vision. Pitch presentation also serve very different purposes, and each one of them should follow a different structure.
Ask Lorem CEO - Sam Wilcoxon | Ask me anything (AMA)
Sam Wilcoxon, CEO and co-founder of Ask Lorem, a two-sided marketplace connecting SMB/e-commerce businesses with a network of pre-vetted freelance web developers and designers.
How to Write a Pitch Deck that gets you funded
The main goal behind presenting your pitch deck is to get investors excited about your product and confident enough to spend on your startup. Here are some essential guidelines on how to create a pitch deck, that will make your startup stand out and pave the way to your company’s success in today’s competitive market.
How to Insert a Youtube video in Powerpoint Presentation
In this article, you are going to learn how to embed a Youtube video in your presentation. We are going to compare how to do it with Slidebean and a couple of different Powerpoint versions.
Startups Fundraising: 16 Most Common Mistakes
A pitch deck is one of the most important representation that a startup could have. If you get this first step wrong you could jeopardize startup funding opportunities before investors even take a look at the 2nd slide. Here are some of the most common startups fundraising mistakes.
Stock Options explained: basics for startup employees and founders
Stock Options explained: basics for startup employees and founders. You started a business and you want to compensate your early employees. Or you've joined a startup and were offered company stock options as part of your compensation. How do those work?
When to incorporate a business in the US: cost and expenses for startups
You're an entrepreneur and want to start your US company. You found this online platform that handles everything for $500 or so. Should you go for it?
Starting a Business: Vesting, Salaries and other early founder agreements
There's a lot to consider when starting a business, but the relationship with your co-founders is probably one of the most critical parts.
Product Management in Startups: MVP to 4.0 roadmap and product manager tasks
Keeping a product alive often seems like the sole purpose of an entrepreneur. So much of your time is dedicated to figuring out how to keep the ship from sinking and moving it forward, that you can quickly lose perspective of why you began the journey in the first place.
Slidebean Launches World’s First AI Slide Presentation Builder
Slidebean’s fully automated AI software can create stunning slide presentations in seconds, saving users time and delivering a beautifully designed slide presentation.
A note from the CEO
Running a startup has been one of the two most amazing experiences in my life (the other being raising a kid). It's an everyday problem-solving challenge. It's an everyday brainstorm. It requires you to reinvent yourself every other week, to try and outsmart the smartest people, who also happen to have more experience and more money. Holidays and weekends are but an illusion when the fate of 25 co-workers and hundreds of thousands of users rests on the decisions you have to 'sleep on.'
Find Entrepreneurs to partner with: Announcing Cofoundrr
We are thrilled to tell you about our new product release, coFoundrr: the new and simple way to find entrepreneurs to partner with.
Demo Day: how to deliver a startup pitch deck
Demo days are often the first chance a startup gets at getting in front of investors. For most startup accelerators, this is your graduation event, and a lot of work goes into preparing those slides and those pitches.
How to Create a Pitch Deck for Investors? - Fundraising for Startups
Digging deep into what is a pitch deck and how to create a pitch deck for investors. There is a pretty standardized outline that most presentations follow, so we'll look at each slide and dig into what content you should include in each one of them.
Convertible Notes, Equity and Startup Funding Explained
If you are an early-stage startup in the tech space and you are looking for money to grow your company, the official term is raising capital, the most commonly recommended instrument to raise funds is a convertible note. However, to understand how those work, we first need to understand how equity (or stock) works.
Slidebean Valentine's Playlist
This Valentine, we asked each staff member to let us know which is their Valentine’s song and created a playlist to share with the world.
Our Experience With Accelerators: Fundraising for Startups
Today we wanted to talk about accelerators. Slidebean/FounderHub, as a company, went through Startup Chile in 2013, through DreamIt in 2014 and through 500 Startups in 2015. Why so many accelerators, you ask? Well, great question.
Best Presentation Software List: Complete 2019 Guide
We’ve created this list of the best presentation software tools to ensure you make the right call in the platform you select. This articles is the result of several weeks of research and review of 50+ presentation tools currently available on the web.
3 Products Every Startup Needs
Here are three products we swear by in Slidebean, if you are starting a company, these products may be exactly what you need.
MailChimp: The Best Email Marketing Campaign Platform
MailChimp is THE standard email marketing campaign platform. To give you an idea of our stack, here's what we use in Slidebean
Ahrefs: Teardown
This we were looking into Ahrefs one of my favorite marketing platforms.
Why Do We Use Stripe At Slidebean?
Stripe along with Square are the two main billing processors for startups. While Square focuses on point of sale devices, Stripe is mostly used for digital purchases.
How To Write an Elevator Pitch (Free Template)
The Elevator Pitch can be used in many situations faced by startups. It can be used in any scenario where we need to grab our audience's attention and pitch a product quickly. Use this article lo learn how to write an effective elevator pitch!
How to start a business: The best video tutorials for an early stage startup
Starting your own business requires a lot of new knowledge. And most of us didn’t have Entrepreneurship 101 in Middle School So sometimes, you have to take learning into your own hands. Thankfully, today is not that day, as we’ve done the heavy lifting for you.
Seed Funding for Startups: How to raise venture capital as an entrepreneur
Raising money is hard. It's so hard most companies fail at it. In this article, we'll look into traction requirements, pitch decks, alternative funding sources and on how to find investors and raise venture capital as an entrepreneur. This is seed funding for startups.
What the hell is Bitcoin?
Cryptocurrency is booming, and it's going mainstream. Bitcoin broke $10,000 per unit in November 2017, and since then, more and more people have become interested in this internet 'curiosity'.
Best Times New Roman Alternatives: Fonts to Avoid Default Fonts
Times New Roman Alternatives: A slight change in your typography can go a long way in making your documents stand out. Fonts are a powerful design element, as much as color and image use, and so I’ll share with you some of the alternatives I often use in my work as a visual designer.
Presentation Outline Template: A Complete Guide
A presentation outline is a roadmap to a more successful business pitch — a general plan that summarizes what you want to say to prospective customers, clients or investors. This presentation outline template will help you cover the key points of what to include in your slides.
Overcoming your Fear of Public Speaking
Do you have fear of public speaking? In this article we’ve covered some practical ways to turn public speaking into something you can face, rather than fear!
A SaaS Entrepreneur’s Budget: Where to Spend & Where to Save
A third of startups end up closing shop for the simple reason that they run out of money. That’s why it’s important to know where you can afford to spend your money, and where you can’t afford to. In this article, we’ll show you the best practices to keep up with your SaaS budget!
Announcing FounderHub: tools for starting a business and raising capital
Think of FounderHub as tools for starting a business, all conveniently located in the same place, and curated by the same people that used them to build and grow their startup.
Airbnb pitch deck: teardown and redesign (PDF Download)
The Airbnb pitch deck has become an increasingly popular reference for entrepreneurs around the world. The company founders, Brian Chesky raised $600K in 2009, from Sequoia Capital and Y Ventures. The company has since become a giant in the Travel Industry.
3 Must-Have Customer Support Tools for Startups
90 percent of startups fail. Most of them can’t make it. It is a sad reality. Lack of capital, inadequate training of customer support teams and failure to comprehend the needs of the customers are a few of the reasons why startups don’t prosper. In the highly competitive business environment of today, we cannot afford to ignore their customer needs. Delivering a delightful customer experience can make the difference between success and failure of our businesses.
4 Common Startup Mistakes that have ruined their Business
A single mistake can make or break a company. As a startup, you need to be very careful with every modification that is applied to the product or service. Although there are countless examples of startup common mistakes that have caused them to fail, I've compiled four known cases, so we can learn from them.
Your slides: More stylish and stunning than ever
Recently have come up with implementations that you'll love! Lear in this article about our new themes and palettes and other significant changes.
Private data from your friends company
I recently came across a founder database Nathan Latka created where Founders and CEO’s share their customer count, revenue, funding data, and more. Learn all about it in this post!
How to Lift Up Leads' Quantity Through Writing
Lead generation is one of the ultimate business goals of our era, but with so many competitors wanting the same thing as you, it is getting increasingly difficult to hit the bull’s eye. It leaves most marketers wondering – how can I increase the number of leads?
Freemium business model: a most dangerous experiment
We are considering the option of opening our product once again, and have started a few experiments and case studies to understand the real potential of a freemium business model, and how it could reshape our business in the months to come.
How to Introduce Yourself in a Speech or Presentation in 10 Steps
You need to know how to introduce yourself in a speech or presentation to make a great first impression. With an outstanding introduction, you'll be able to break the ice and generate interest in your audience. Follow these 11 guidelines to make your next presentation a success!
How Keyword Rankings Alone Don't Necessarily Matter Anymore in Internet Marketing for 2018 and Beyond
Keywords were widely regarded as the main ingredient in running a web marketing campaign. What is that they used to say -- “keyword is king” or was it content? In any case, people used keywords as a basis for evaluating results and making quick judgments about whether a campaign is profitable or not.
Blog Guidelines: Guest posting on the Slidebean blog
Slidebean will continue accepting guest post submissions for our blog. We are working to organize our content according to our followers interests, and have condensed our blog into the following sections.
Sales Deck Template and Examples
You only get one chance to make a first impression. Using these sales deck template and examples will be the tipping point that decides between a closed deal or a prospect passing on your product or service.
Content Marketing: Youtube
We started experimenting with Youtube as a content marketing channel a couple of years ago. Came up with a few series concepts, including; Startups and Spirits: conversations with investors and key startup people over drinks. Blog to Vlog: a video-version of our most successful blog articles. The Good, the Bad and the Tip: inspired by the legendary (and discontinued) ‘Winners and Losers’ by L2Inc, but adapted to presentations and design- related topics. The (Startup) Office: A weekly 3-minute sitcom of mostly real stories from our office. All of these FAILED. Why? The views weren’t there. There was no organic visibility, needless to say virality. No direct route to conversion. Expensive compared to other brand awareness campaigns
Slide Deck Presentation Design: How to make better presentations
It's essential to have well-thought-out slide deck presentation design before facing not only customers but also investors, who are the ones that will help you secure seed funding. In this article, we'll show you how to build an effective deck.
Fyre Festival Pitch Deck: How we knew it was doomed.
The Fyre Festival pitch deck it's a 43 slides presentation that managed to receive $26 million in investment. In this article, we’ll show you the specific reasons that made such an anticipated festival an epic failure.
Why Your Landing Page Might Be Wasting Your Money
Landing pages are the most important thing for your business right now. Get your landing page right, and it’s basically a money generator. Get it wrong, and you’re leaving money on the table. In this article, learn what you might be doing wrong with your page and how to fix it!
The ABCs of a Winning Sales Presentation
Nowadays, customers have become smarter and more discerning regarding products and services that are being sold every day. The rise of this new breed of consumers, has changed the traditional sales presentation into a more personable and customized selling experience. Here's how you can create the ultimate sales pitch!
Can entrepreneurs find "racism" in the VC community?
I definitely do think that it makes a difference or at least, we should be aware that there's a difference but I don't think that investors, or the VC community is deliberately trying to be racist or deliberately holding people back, deliberately being sexist or things like that.
What would you do differently when you started your company?
It would probably be spend more time with our target customer in the very beginnnig before building the product and before investing our time and effort into the product.
How diverse is your team?
It would probably be spend more time with our target customer in the very beginnnig before building the product and before investing our time and effort into the product.
What would you do if you get fired today?
"That's a great question man. Actually know exactly what I would do."
Remote work vs local office?
"I think remote works really well for some types of roles. I think it depend on the type of product."
What is Chartmogul's exit strategy?
That's about the only strategy. And keep doing that: keep trying to grow ourbusiness, improve our product, bring on more customers and make our customer as happy as we can possibly make them.
Should companies be transparent like Buffer/Baremetrics?
I think every company's is to decide for themselves, whether it's in their best interest, I suppose. Some of our customers do it, but yeah, it hasn't been an emphasis.
Do companies with overseas teams have an advantage?
Well, there's pros and cons, right? Right now, we benefit from lower costs in Berlin, and being maybe, one of the coolest SaaS companies in Berlin.
What is a batch success ratio for a startup accelerator?
Doing on average is half of them raising their next round within six to nine months and then usually an "A round" or a seed extension a heavy seed extension. if I'd had two standouts, plus another three or four doing well, still had a chance of also becoming standouts that would have been a good if not great group.
What is the sweet spot when raising a Series A?
Series A it's different. You can raise a little bit on the dream, you could raise on the potential. By the time you're getting for A around a lot of the investors are looking for a $1M-$3M annual recurring revenue, and also the slope of the line, right?
Is there a difference between West Coast vs East Coast investing?
I still feel like there's a slightly different mindset. Like I joke around that there are these the "West Coast A rounds", "East Coast A rounds" and the"Midwest A rounds".
What is a batch success ratio?
Andrew Ackerman is a successful serial entrepreneur, startup mentor, and occasional angel investor. He runs Dreamit's UrbanTech Accelerator and see over 2000 startups each year, selecting fewer than 20 to work with. He works with partners such as Jeff, Vinik's SPP, Penn State, and Blackboard to develop and execute on their strategies for sourcing external innovation and encouraging internal innovation.
Have you ever invested personally in a DreamIt company?
"It's very interesting, I was actually more active as an angel before Jordan DreamIt. It's weird so, I still haven't figured out a way to invest in one of my companies without that sending a signal to others that, you know..."
Are demo days useless?
Even if you raised five million dollars? It's a brutal pain to try to get it at fifties and hundreds. You can argue Demo Day doesn't work at all... period. I do believe that if you're not one of the top ten, or top five even, accelerators, demo date doesn't usually deliver.
It's widely accepted that YCombinator is the Top Accelerator, Why?
If it is the best, you want to be in the best, so, they get their choice of the best. So, that's great and I don't envy them that at all. In fact, part of the reason DreamIt went later stage, is because we're all pretty competitive guys, and well you know we could be top five and our fund would do really well, we could make good money... F*ck it, we wanna be number one.
What have you learned through the years of being an Accelerator?
So one of the things that really makes a difference is your ability to bring customers to the table; customers who are ready to partner, and want to do it quickly, that's basically air to a startup.
Are there too many accelerators?
If they're not top five, top ten, maybe top twenty or if they're not really deep in your industry, and no bullshit, but really can make those custom introductions.
About Author
Caya
CEO at Slidebean/FounderHub. TEDx Speaker. 500 Startups Alum. 40-under-40.
