Venture Capital For A 5th Grader | Hacker News Reader

Venture Capital For A 5th Grader

slideshare.net

18 pointscwan6 comments

Now I have the urge to start an ice cream company.

(I would love to do a food-oriented startup or something. Probably a bad use of time/money. I invested in Foodoro, which was a good compromise. They don't actually make the food.)

I read an article in New York Magazine about ice cream "innovations," one of which was no-melt ice-cream. It has a lot of gelatin. I think Coldstone Creamery makes it.

LOL, I love this!

Ironic that someone on HN brought up this Ali G video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuOuxRD1Bc (where he invents the "ice cream glove" and Donald Trump thought he was going to say ice cream that doesn't melt) in response to an article on the front page today.

haha, this is great!

on a funny sidenote, can we see the VC "boogeyman" story where the 5th grader is "put in time out" as chairman of the board and replaced by a more experienced 8th grader?

On another note, one thing I think people should take away from this slide presentation is how to communicate your ideas so simply.

I find myself at a struggle many times to explain ideas or projects I am working on without going into detail or over-explaining/selling it.

I always try to remember "how would you explain this to a 5 year old or 5th grader" and try to come up with simple, almost child-like, drawings or visuals like in this slide.

I am sure there's going to be a parody of this sooner or later

1 year later, go back for Series B after people get sick after eating ice cream so you have to restart the entire company, 2 years later fire your first 3 employees and shut down the factory as sales dwindle due to economic recession, 3 years later fight to stay alive due to competition from Ben and Jerry's who have now invented their own version of your product as your friends and family leave you and your health lapses, 4 years later get sold in a fire sale to a large Chinese company, don't get any money because of the participation of the VC's, and go get a job at Ben and Jerry's. You are now bald and in your mid-thirties.

(Seriously though, sell the company for $200M after 1 year, not very realistic!)

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