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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5 Lifelines For Your Startup

North was recently quoted dropping some knowledge in the article, 5 Lifelines For You Startup on Entrepreneur.com.
Here’s an excerpt:
Evan Solida was stuck.
Solida, founder of Cerevellum, which sells digital rearview mirrors for bicycles, had posted his business plan on several websites promising to connect him with investors in exchange for a few hundred dollars.

Time passed. Investors never [...]

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How do you Measure Up?

Innovation is the backbone of our economy.
Without it, we simply won’t have the game-changing economic growth needed to end the global financial crisis.
Even with nearly six million new businesses started every year, the process for creating American innovation remains remarkably inefficient.* The time, effort, and capital wasted on genetically-flawed businesses represents the loss of [...]

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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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Be Forewarned About Those 4 Wheels

The following excerpt is taken from Breaking Through The Broken: The Transparent Guide To Overcoming The Inefficiencies In Early Stage Venture Capital.

Buying a used car is an exciting process, but coming home with buyer’s remorse is easy if you don’t do your homework. To avoid a financial disaster, not to mention having a two-ton paperweight [...]

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Are They Ready For Prime Time?

Professional sports franchises spend thousands of dollars on scouting, background checks, and running draft prospects through a series of mental and physical tests before they decide to invest millions of dollars. General Managers look at everything before risking their pick on an expensive draft pick. This is even truer when it comes to making a [...]

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A Crime or Worth Your Time?

Many new gimmicks and stunts marketed at entrepreneurs now exist as ways to rise to the top of the sea of investment opportunities. While we have to admit there is an intoxicating rush from pitching your innovative venture in front of an audience, the end result usually feels more like a hangover. Investors leave with [...]

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Make Sure You’re “Clear” For Takeoff

While we’ve been talking about the deep ocean of business plans that investors struggle to filter through, entrepreneurs rarely do themselves any favors with their pitch materials. It’s sometimes difficult for an entrepreneur to sell bleeding technologies or culturally noteworthy ideas to traditional investors. Why? Well, while many of these investors were once successful entrepreneurs, [...]

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Following The Roar Not The Reasonable

Unfortunately, today’s early stage venture investing market is a little bit like following Tiger Woods on the golf course. This trend makes it extremely difficult for new innovative ideas to grab the attention from their desired audience. While there are hundreds of world-class golfers playing on any given weekend (who are plenty entertaining to watch), [...]

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Speed Pitching Produces Few Hits

Nearly every major funding website boasts that in addition to their “connecting” services, they also host entrepreneur speed pitching events. Speed pitching? It doesn’t work for finding a soul mate, so why would it work for finding a high quality venture investment? Let’s face it, true understanding of a venture, the management team, and the [...]

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