Confident in the marketing slides you’ve prepared for your upcoming board meeting? If so, you may be on the wrong track.
Few board members have any direct experience in the field, so founders need to “stick to something measurable,” suggests Michelle Swan, a partner at investment firm Tercera.
In this TC+ post, she explores five marketing essentials boards need to know:
- What are your marketing priorities?
- How are you doing on these priorities?
- What is the health of the pipeline?
- Is the company and its products suitable for future growth?
- What are your plans for the next quarter or next year?
Condensing all of this into just five slides is difficult, which is why Swann includes real-world examples, “Showing the board the full value of marketing and the impact it’s (and will be) having on the business .”
Remember, pipeline metrics are only part of the story.
In your next meeting, map out where you stand in terms of market positioning and brand reputation, and “create a scorecard against these priorities that you can update and share at future meetings.”
thanks for reading,
walter thompson
TechCrunch+ Editorial Manager
@your leading role
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Not all money is created equal: What it’s like to raise venture debt
Image Source: Phil Ashley (opens in new window) / Getty Images
In an excerpt from his new book, money is not created equalDavid Spreng, CEO and Founder of Runway Growth Capital, brings TC+ readers to life by explaining how venture debt is raised.
This article describes the entire process from a lender’s perspective, from a light-hearted introductory meeting all the way through to “confirmative due diligence”. Some good news: You don’t need a new financing vehicle, and venture debt lenders have “no problem” signing nondisclosure agreements, Sprenger said.
“I estimate that all the things I outlined above should have taken four to five weeks from our first call,” he wrote. “That means you might get term sheets by week five.”
Can insurtech recover from the “death of insurtech 1.0”?
Image Source: Getty Images/marchmeena29
I don’t want to be the pessimist that the startup ecosystem is driven by the hype cycle, but in the first half of 2023, “global insurtech funding is down by over 50% year-on-year,” Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm write in The Exchange .
“This morning, let’s take a deep dive into what’s happening with insurtech startups globally and see if we can spot a glimmer of light in the dark swamp where many insurtechs have lost their way.”
A Bittersweet Tale of Two Seed Markets
While seed-focused investors are seeing good deal flow, the number of seed deals is declining. Image Source: Getty Images
According to PitchBook, only 766 seed rounds were closed in the second quarter of 2023, a 26% drop from the 1,044 deals in the first quarter.
“This decline means that the number of seed deals in the second quarter was the lowest since the third quarter of 2016,” wrote Rebecca Szkutak.
“If conditions do not change, 2023 could be the slowest year for seed activity since 2017.”
Why This Founder Decided to Replace Himself as CEO
Image Source: Getty Images/Jirsak
Many people say that building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. But in many cases, it’s effectively a relay race.
Particle Health founder Troy Bannister told TC+ that he began the search for a new CEO after realizing his skills did not match the company’s future needs.
“There was an organic moment . . . that created this opportunity to ask the question: ‘Is there anyone better? Who would it be? All these questions started to arise and organically morphed into a plan of action,” He said.
Deal Dive: Backing founders after they spin off acquirers
Performance Livestock Analytics spun out from acquirer to achieve scale. Image Source: Getty Images
Rebecca Szkutak examines SaaS startup Performance Livestock Analytics (PLA) in her latest Deal Dive column.
The cattle management software company was acquired by animal health company Zoetis in 2020, but this week the PLA announced plans to spin it off “with $7.5 million in funding from Builders VC and Alaris Capital,” Rebecca wrote.
Builders GP Mark Blackwell, whose firm backed PLA’s seed round, said he was “jumping for joy”.
8 reasons why the venture capital market isn’t as miserable as you think
Image Source: Getty Images
Rebecca Szkutak said that if current funding trends continue, “this could be the slowest year for seed activity since 2017”.
However, “we can also paint a brighter picture,” said Alex Wilhelm, who found that “the data points and trends suggest that we have good reason to be optimistic that startup funding is the fastest The bad days are over.”
