About KEC Ventures We are a team of early-stage investors based in New York City. We invest in information technology startups that are pursuing business models with the potential to transform the way business is done in their market. In such startups, we invest in the first institutional Seed Round. Often, but not always, we […]
Archive | Pitching
#NotesOnTactics: Relationship Management Hacks For First-Time Early Stage Tech Startup Founders
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on July 23, 2016 in Entrepreneurship, Funding, How and Why, Innovation, Operations, Pitching, Startups, Venture Capital
Note: I published a post titled “Relationship Management for Your Startup” on January 13, 2014 at Tekedia.com. This post is inspired by that one, and portions of this post are exactly identical to the original. It appears the post at Tekedia is no longer online. This post updates that one, with lessons I have learned […]
User Manual: The Early Stage Startups I Want To Hear About Most in 2016 and 2017
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on January 15, 2016 in Deal Flow, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investment Themes, Investment Thesis, Pitching, Startups, Technology, Venture Capital
At KEC Ventures, I have been largely focused on finding and meeting the founders that we can become most excited about and partner with. I will continue to maintain that focus over the course of 2016 and 2017. Here are some notes for the founders of the startups I am most eager to meet. About […]
What Is Your Business Model?
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on February 1, 2015 in Business Models, Entrepreneurship, How and Why, Innovation, Long Read, Pitching, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
“It is a B2B2C business model.” is generally not what I am hoping to hear when I ask “What is your business model?” #BusinessModelGeneration — Brian Laung Aoaeh (@brianlaungaoaeh) February 2, 2015 Invariably, when I am meeting the founder of a startup for the first time to discuss the possibility that KEC Ventures might invest […]
Question Everything; My Remarks At FOCUS100 2014
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on October 4, 2014 in Behavioral Finance, Entrepreneurship, Funding, How and Why, Investing, Pitching, Technology, Venture Capital
Background: I gave these remarks at Digital Undivided’s FOCUS100 2014 Conference which was held between October 3rd and October 4th in New York City. A number of investors were invited to explain to the audience how they ought to pitch venture capitalists in order to win funding. Digital Undivided is a social enterprise that develops programs […]
The Most Important Thing A VC Needs To Know About Your Startup
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on February 12, 2014 in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Pitching, Venture Capital
Over the past 6 months I have been spending more time meeting many first time founders in New York City and elsewhere. One question has arisen over and over again. What are the most important things a venture capitalist wants to know about my start up in order to invest? I will attempt to answer […]
How an Investor’s Behavioral Traits Might Completely Derail Your Pitch – Part III
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on October 27, 2013 in Behavioral Finance, Long Read, Pitching, Venture Capital
This post continues the discussion about how behavioral psychology might affect the outcome of a meeting at which a startup team is pitching to a potential investor. You can get caught up by reading part I and part II. My goal is to offer some advice on how entrepreneurs pitching to early stage investors might prepare to […]
How an Investor’s Behavioral Traits Might Completely Derail Your Pitch – Part II
This post continues the discussion about how behavioral psychology might affect a pitch. You can get caught up by reading part I. My goal with this series is to offer some advice on how entrepreneurs pitching to early stage investors might prepare to mitigate the problems that might arise due to the behavioral traits of […]
How an Investor’s Behavioral Traits Might Completely Derail Your Pitch – Part I
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on September 7, 2013 in Behavioral Finance, Case Studies, Funding, How To, Long Read, Pitching, Venture Capital
Many startup pitch meetings start out on a promising note, but things fall apart during the conversation between the startup and its prospective investor. Sometimes this could have been prevented if the startup team had studied a little bit of behavioral psychology beforehand.1 Traditional finance theory tries to tell us how investors should behave, if […]
What If Q&A: What Should I Do To Spread My Idea?
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on August 3, 2013 in Entrepreneurship, How To, Innovation, Lean Startup, Pitching, Startups, What If Q&A
Rajoshi Gosh in Chennai, India sent me this question via email; I am a startup founder in the developing world.1 How should I go about making the right connections in the developed world for: A product that is global in nature? A product that is specific to the developing world? I will paraphrase Rajoshi’s question, and […]