Dennis Crowley opened up about what it takes to run a successful start-up and the state of the start-up scene.
If Dennis Crowley wasn’t the CEO of Foursquare, he’d probably be a snowboarding instructor. At least, that’s what he told a small crowd at the PandoMonthly event held last night in New York City. More factoids: He also turned down multiple acquisition offers for his location-based service and once used a 160-slide pitch deck to woo venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
Check out these five takeaways from the two-hour chat with the moppy-haired poster boy of the New York City start-up scene:
Crowley’s first go-around at pitching VCs was pretty terrible.
While Foursquare has raised $71 million in venture capital, Crowley said his first pitch to venture investors was a learning experience. “We arrived at the San Francisco airport and took a cab straight to Sand Hill Road,” Crowley said. “We had no idea what we were doing.” Using a detailed 160-slide pitch deck, Crowley said it look about 35 tries before he got it right. Ironically enough, Crowley is now on the receiving side of pitches as an angel investor.
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