What does it take to pitch, run, and grow your own business? Although it is true that many people have a lot of good business ideas, only a few make it to the mainstream. In the video below, Jehangir Irani of Mashable.com asks CEOs a variety of questions to unlock some great startup tips. How do you pitch an investor? What has running a company taught you? What are some rookie mistakes? What advice would you give an entrepreneur? Let us take a glimpse at their insights.
How to pitch to investors? David Lerner, an angel investor, advises that before you pitch to a venture capitalist (VC), you should meet him beforehand. You have to meet with these investors and be part of their community. He says that there is no need to show any business plan since it is as good as the demo. “There really is no excuse anymore not to have a demo out there,” says Lerner. Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr.com says you have to build a really great prototype, and then you have to reach out to people who are in the industry.
In running a business, “you need to have a great lawyer and a great accountant,” says Alexa von Tobel of Learnvest. Fake says you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. Both of them agree that there are lots of mistakes rookie entrepreneurs make. “A lot of rookies think of ideas in a vacuum that are divorced from what the real market problems are,” says Lerner.
The latter part of the video offers tips from these CEOs. The video features entrepreneurs from Appfund.com, Howaboutwe.com, and Roadify.com. Watch the video below to learn about the insights of these CEO’s.





