Real-Life Lessons From Shark Tank

North was recently quoted dropping some knowledge in the article, Real-Life Lessons From Shark Tank on Entrepreneur.com.
Here’s an excerpt:
Know when to pitch. Entrepreneurs with a well-developed product and proven financial success have the best luck with the “sharks,” says David Brody, a managing partner at the venture analysis firm North. “Nothing builds momentum like demonstrating [...]

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New Venture Evaluation #21

Is Your Revenue Model Automated?

The purpose of this element is to determine whether or not the company can automate the revenue model. Transactions and sales take time (time is money); even retailers spend a fortune on making checkout happen just a few seconds faster. For a business to successfully scale and grow, a turn key [...]

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New Venture Evaluation #17: Debt

The purpose of this Phenotype element is to determine what if any debt the business may have at the time of the financing, and more importantly if that debt will be serviced immediately upon closure of the round. What one isn’t looking to do is to fund a company only to have all the cash [...]

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Conclusion: North’s 10 Rules For Breaking Through

As we’ve outlined on this blog over the last few weeks, the system for raising early stage capital today is fundamentally flawed. Even though the road to success for entrepreneurs trying to kickstart their visions is littered with potholes and deceptive directions, it can all be corrected with a little teamwork. If change is going [...]

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New Venture Evaluation #14: Operational Speed

This  element is designed to look for a key trait in the management team of nearly all successful new ventures: speed. While some people can drive a car comfortably at 100 MPH, others start to panic and constantly ride the brakes. Key entrepreneurial instincts and the ability to move quickly (combination of confidence, analysis, and [...]

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Breaking Even: New Venture Evaluation # 13

When evaluating a venture, one of the key areas to look at is the company’s projected time to break even. In economic terms the equation looks like this: (Break Even = Fixed Cost / (Unit Price – Variable Unit Cost)), but in reality the break even point is a huge day for a new [...]

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North Mindmeld: The Rise of Pitch Farms

The scarcity of capital for early stage companies in recent years has lead to the creation of literally thousands of businesses focused on helping entrepreneurs raise money for their start-ups. At North, this subject is close to our hearts, as we’ve made it our mission to make the entire process for fostering, filtering, and funding [...]

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Can Data-Driven Analysis Predict The Next NBA MVP?

I ran across this interesting article today from John Hollinger of ESPN.com, where he took his Player Efficiency Rating stat (PER) one step further (PER is Hollinger’s overall rating of a player’s per-minute statistical production).
He came up with a new acronym: VA. It stands for “Value Added.” The idea behind VA is to take the [...]

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DIY or Farm It Out?

Entrepreneurs are an interesting bunch. While nearly all of them have an “I can do it myself” attitude, which is crucial to get the ball moving, that same attitude usually ends up preventing the company from scaling. The truth is there are some situations where you simply can’t be the most effective person for the [...]

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Focus On Effiency

The following excerpt is taken from Breaking Through The Broken: The Transparent Guide To Overcoming The Inefficiencies In Early Stage Venture Capital.
A good presentation with a good PowerPoint given by an individual with a strong personality can easily sway a room full of investors into cutting a check. Investors need to be sure they’re [...]

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