TekStart LLC is a venture capital firm that provides interim sales, marketing, and business development services to hardware, semiconductor, and software startups. It aims to accelerate these companies' time to market and revenue generation. TekStart works with startups through three stages: orienting them with their first customers and funding, pioneering by helping them expand sales and markets, and conquering by institutionalizing processes to achieve scale. The firm's team leverages over 100 years of experience to serve as interim chief business officers for its clients.
2. Mission Statement
TekStart LLC - CONFIDENTIAL
Differentiating Your Core Competence
Leading value-added facilitator of technology
development for young hardware, system,
semiconductor, EDA and IP solution companies
Accelerating the time to enterprise development
with team of professionals to facilitate initial
business and market development.
Providing partners a sales channel and know-how,
to expedite revenue, initial funding and company
build out.
3. TEKSTART Overview
Leading value-added facilitator of technology
development for young hardware, system,
semiconductor, EDA and IP solution companies
Accelerating the time to enterprise development
with team of professionals to facilitate initial
business and market development.
Providing partners a sales channel and know-
how, to expedite revenue, initial funding and
company build out.
Simply put - strive to get our partners to market faster
and more efficiently than left to their own devices
TEKSTART LLC - CONFIDENTIAL
4. Management Team
Howard Pakosh, Managing Partner
Entrepreneur and senior executive experienced in
semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) and EDA. Highly
motivated leader with an emphasis on partnerships, and
strategic accounts with large, mutual upside.
SONICS, Elliptic, Virage Logic, Synopsys, Magma, Avant!
D. Christopher Keil, Managing Partner
Semiconductor professional experienced in Business
Development, Strategic Marketing and Corporate
Development. Skilled in market evaluation, and ability to
provide partners guidance, knowledge and choices for
development.
RMI (Broadcom), LSI, Virage Logic, Kellogg MBA -
Northwestern
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5. Advisors
Gregg Recupero
Semiconductor and IP executive with history of company
development, sales, and engineering know-how. Deeply
technical professional with vast network of global contacts.
Performance-IP, Vautomation, Boston Circuits and AMD.
Phil Casini
Phil is a Sr. VP at Cisco Systems. He is a recognized author,
having published reports on a variety of topics from SoC
architectures and semiconductor IP economics to IP Video
trends. Phil has also pioneered a new analytical method for
establishing product and service value and improving it
communications with customers, which is called Visual Product
Analytics. Phil has spent 26 years in the semiconductor industry,
including 14 years as a Vice President, with companies such as
Intel, Dallas Semiconductor, Cirrus Logic, Cradle Technologies
and Sonics Inc.
TekStart LLC - CONFIDENTIAL
7. Startup Challenges
Funding environment
Broken business model
No approach to revenue
Competitive landscape overwrought with
daunting competitors
Pricing strategies unknown
Lack of channel for new concepts
Limited relationships
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8. Opportunity
Market need
Market demand
Multiples moving upward
Call for advanced technologies
Need for differentiation
New wave of technologists
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9. Adventure CapitalTM
Services
TEKSTART provides interim sales,
marketing and business development
capital to hi-tech companies and
entrepreneurs during three major
stages of their startup "adventure":
Orienting
Pioneering
Conquering
TEKSTART LLC - CONFIDENTIAL
10. Orienting
The biggest challenges for companies in the Orienting stage
(defined as "bootstrapped ventures with annual sales between
zero and $1 million") involve the development, funding and most
of all the implementation of a workable business plan. Specific
attention is given by TEKSTART to sales and marketing activities
such as:
Developing and articulating a compelling value proposition
from the customer’s point of view
Selecting and testing the optimal business model and
product/service pricing
Identifying and validating the initial target market and
closing the first paying customer(s)
Establishing long-term technical and business partnerships
Coaching for presentation to outside investors
TEKSTART LLC - CONFIDENTIAL
11. Pioneering
Pioneers (defined as "seed-funded companies with annual sales
between $1 million and $5 million") must be able to expand
beyond the core team, especially in the areas of sales and
marketing, in order to generate significant revenue quickly.
Items of particular importance to entrepreneurs at the
Pioneering stage include:
Evaluating and selecting major markets for products and
services worldwide
Choosing, implementing and building the ideal sales
channel(s) for each of these markets
Developing and implementing ongoing campaigns to
generate highly qualified sales leads
Creating compelling marketing materials to build awareness
and credibility
Generating repeat business and building customer loyalty
from major accounts
TEKSTART LLC - CONFIDENTIAL
12. Conquering
Companies destined to be market leaders become known as
Conquerors. In order to achieve this level of success, these
companies (defined as "venture-funded startups with annual
sales between $5 million and $15 million") focus on critical success
factors in sales and marketing, including:
Institutionalizing a repeatable sales process involving all
company personnel
Accurately predicting sales revenue from quarter-to-quarter
Building sales, technical and management skills to achieve
peak performance
Attracting and retaining the best people
Erecting significant barriers to competitive entry while
building brand equity
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13. The TEKSTART Strategic
Solution
Chief Business Officers
Development of business model, initial
customers, engineer roadmap to success
Market knowledge
Relationships
Tap into channel for partners, customers,
revenue, and funding sources
Prepare for next level
Funding, acquisition, ongoing entity
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14. TEKSTART Overall
Summary TEKSTART is an "adventure capital" firm that provides
interim sales, marketing and business development services
to start-up companies
The company was founded in 1997 and headquartered in
Palo Alto, CA staffed by a talented team with >100 years
business, sales and marketing experience
Most TEKSTART clients have been from the Enterprise
Software, IT Services, Electronic Design Automation (EDA),
Semiconductor and Consumer Electronic industries. These
markets share the following
characteristics:
Complex, highly technical products and services
Major corporate customers (Fortune 500, Global 1000, FTSE 100, Asia Week
1000)
Long sales cycles with many competitive technical and business hurdles
Multiple levels of decision making, and complex customer-vendor
relationships
15. TekStart Contact Page
www.chip-start.com
TekStart LLC
228 Hamilton Avenue 3rd Floor
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Telephone: +1.650.461.9194
Email: info@tekstart.com
Howard Pakosh
Mobile: +1.415.244.8558
Email: howard@tekstart.com
Chris Keil
Mobile: +1.408.826.1255
Email: chris@tekstart.com