Take the time to refresh those pitch decks

The holidays are in full swing, which means you might start getting autoresponder emails as people take off on vacation.

But don’t let the relative calm of the holidays stop you from raising money. According to a DocSend report on fundraising trends, new startups aren’t looking so hot. This means that, however, trying to attract the attention of investors does not work. For example, there was a drop in the time investors spent on the “product” and “business model” slides, and a significant increase in the time they spent on the “competition” slide.

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Now is a great time to refresh your pitch decks, practice your pitch and prepare for when things pick up again next year, writes pitch deck expert Haje Jan Kamps.

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Karini

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As we wrote last week, if initial public offerings resume in 2024, as many predict, the secondary market could begin to return to normal. But how are secondary market investors thinking about things now? One thing reporter Rebecca Szkutak found in her research: LPs actually aren’t as hungry for liquidity as you might think.

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It makes sense: It’s better to build a tool in-house than to buy or subscribe to one from a vendor. Control over every aspect of the business can help reduce costs and even improve efficiency.

But not so fast, says Asanka Abeysinghe, CTO of WSO2: Having absolute control over everything is “an illusion” that leads “organizations down a path filled with unpredictable challenges and limitations. What initially looks like an end-to-end solution can quickly turn into a quagmire of escalating costs, diminishing focus and suffocating complexity.”

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Startups must dominate operations

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“While technological innovation gets most of the glory, business innovation is the next giant leap for companies trying to gain a competitive advantage,” writes Accelsius CEO Josh Claman. He offers some advice on how companies should think about innovation, as opposed to improvement or excellence.