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06/26/12 | Uncategorized

Advice For First-Time Entrepreneurs From A Serial Entrepreneur

“For a first-time entrepreneur, what people really look at and measure is your ability to make progress.”

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

2012 PITCH competition judge Sukhinder Singh Cassidy talks about her own experience and lessons learned in raising venture funding.

She co-founded Yodlee in 1999 and raised $200M+ in venture capital for the company. Then, she was President of Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations at Google before becoming CEO at Polyvore. Today, she is the founder and chairwoman of Joyus, a venture-funded online video shopping experience company.

The veteran chief executive gives advice to early-stage entrepreneurs:

On pitching your startup:

“When you want a company, the best thing to do is just to start. There is nothing that makes something less daunting than doing it a few times, and there’s nothing that’s better for an entrepreneur than diving right in. To have your first pitch in this environment – awesome.”

Key advice for first-time entrepreneurs:

“For a first-time entrepreneur, what people really look at and measure is your ability to make progress. This is why getting going and even releasing an alpha product is so critical. It’s one of the key metrics that first investors will judge you by – ‘what is her ability to go out and get stuff done?”

On raising money for your startup:

“Inevitably to hit your first milestones will take longer than you think, so I’m always a fan of taking more money in the bank if it’s available to you.”

This video interview with Sukhinder Singh Cassidy was shot on location at the PITCH 2012 conference earlier this year:

“One of the principal laws of physics is ‘an object at rest stays at rest. An object in motion stays in motion.’ You got to get going.”

Apply to the Women 2.0 Startup Competition for your chance to pitch onstage at PITCH NYC in November. Applications are accepted from startups from around the world with at least one female founder. Finalists must pitch onstage in NYC at the November conference.

Deadline to apply for the Women 2.0 PITCH NYC Competition is August 31, 2012.

Find out more about PITCH NYC 2012 Competition for early-stage women-led startups.

For more sage advice from the speakers at Women 2.0 PITCH Conference, click here.

About the guest blogger: Angie Chang co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006 with Shaherose Charania. She currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Women 2.0 and is working to mainstream women in entrepreneurship. Previously, Angie held roles in product management, web UI design, and entrepreneurship. In 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1” for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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