#27 Pitching, thinking big, characteristics of great founding teams, and more | Cecilie Skjong (Skyfall Ventures)

My guest today is Cecilie Skjong, Investment Manager at Skyfall Ventures - a Norwegian early-stage venture capital fund.As a founder, nailing your pitch, thinking big and challenging yourself to be more visionary, and quickly testing your ideas to get a sense of the market pull are crucial.And the same applies to a cross-functional team building a new product in a scale-up. The same applies to a product leader leading a new opportunity in a large organization.After being exposed to hundreds of pitches and investing in several early-stage ventures, Cecilie shared with me:* Characteristics of great founding teams* The importance of drive and resilience when testing ideas and building products* Early signs of market pull* Thinking big and the importance of Vision* How to craft a great pitch* The power of Founder-led Sales* The importance of understanding your macro trends (Waves)* The state of the Norwegian startup scene* And moreIf you’re a founder, I recommend pairing this episode with:* Episode 1: Testing Ideas with David Bland, co-author of the book Testing Business Ideas written together with Alex Osterwalder* Episode 9: Understanding Jobs to be Done with Bob Moesta, co-creator of the JTBD framework together with Clayton Christensen* Episode 19: Nailing your Positioning with April Dunford, bestselling author of one of the most well-known marketing books out there This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com