Dr. Tony Ratliff, MBA

I don’t really like putting  labels on people, but if I had to chose a few to describe myself – I guess they would include:  Dentist, Angel Investor, Start-up Enthusiast, Adviser, Christian, Husband and Dad.

When people ask me what I do and I respond, “I’m a dentist”, they immediate put me into this “dental box” and we begin our conversation with a few horror stories involving teeth.  Those that know me well often describe me as a “an entrepreneur that happens to practice dentistry”.

I was introduced to Venture Capital Investing in 2009 and have been “hooked” on start-ups and investing ever since. I still love dentistry, but hanging out with entrepreneurs and talking about ideas, strategies and businesses that can make a difference in the World is really cool.

 

Fails in the Pitch – #2

By • February 20, 2012 • Fails in the Pitch • Leave a comment

Fail #2: Don’t show me a confusing looking web application or interface with tons of features. Save all those great ideas and extra features you want to put into the product for later. Show me something simple that can get the job done and that I can understand. Wait to add all the “bells and [...]

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Excitment > Hesitation = Investment $

By • February 4, 2012 • Pitching Investors, Start-ups, Venture Captial • Leave a comment

I’m not big on formulas, but here was a great quote that I read this week in an article about “desrisking buckets” by Brendan Baker. You can read the whole article here: http://brendanbaker.tumblr.com/post/16830178199/derisking-buckets-how-to-identify-and-deal-with “Investors fund startups when their excitement outweighs their hesitation. Hesitation comes from perceived risk. And for a startup, we can group these [...]

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Fails in the Pitch – #1

By • January 10, 2012 • Fails in the Pitch, Pitching Investors • Leave a comment

Fails in the Pitch I can share with you lots of thoughts and ideas to incorporate  into your “pitch”, but I also wanted to share some things you should NOT be doing during your meetings and presentations with investors. This is the first post in a series called Fails in the Pitch. Fail #1: Don’t [...]

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