Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.” Many pension funds are simply too large to write small checks and favor the ability to write $50-100 million checks to funds. The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Short answer – yes. The deal was done in late 2007.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. The key to getting money is that the people writing the check trust you. I am always an advocate of setting a price.

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Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

A new group of investors have clustered around writing earlier-stage, smaller checks. Price creep hurts investors. But it also hurts entrepreneurs – Mike asked people about what they were doing to keep prices down. There is no way for people to keep prices down – it’s a competitive market.

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Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

I recently wrote about my views that startups rounds should be priced. Fred, who also wrote his views about convertible debt (significantly more succinctly than I) believes that the price of a single round should be the same for everybody. Since 2009 I have been counseling people to offer discounts to the first angel investors.

Pricing 294

Pricing Venture Capital Writing Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. I am simply saying that these sources of capital often have a harder time bridging you quickly or writing larger checks if / when you run out of cash and especially in hard times.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. source: Harris Interactive IM Shopping Poll (August 2009)). But it still is a major force and it ain’t going away. PHONE CALLS. Enter phone calls. Home alarms.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

In the latter cases many companies (Flickr, Delicious, Blogger, Writely in 05-08 and lately Invite Media, Aardvark, Dodgeball, etc.) This is cheaper for them than waiting for big competitors and buying companies at big prices. Let’s call these cards 1996-99, 2005-08 and 2010+. got picked up early without raising a lot of VC.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. By 2009 had reduced to around $15 billion in capital from LPs. So I prefer to watch what works first and pay a higher price to get in when it’s proven.” But I became a VC in 2007 and wrote my first check in 2009 – 4.5 They see how hard she does her job.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

When convertible debt first started being introduced as a “faster, cheaper way to get startups funded” they didn’t have pricing built into them. ” And some seed stage investors told me, “I prefer not to fight over price now. They’ll get priced soon enough by a VC.” Enter “the cap.”

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

In the latter case many companies (Flickr, Delicious, Blogger, Writely, etc.) This is cheaper for them than waiting for big competitors and buying companies at big prices. Let’s call these cards 1996-99 and 2005-08. In the first instance many angels made beaucoup bucks by getting in on deals that IPO’d quickly.

Invest 152

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. . * Im constantly frustrated by conversations that take place in discussion groups that cant cross the border into the blog world.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

Imagine if, say, Autodesk had purchased it in 2009 for $100 million? Of the first four investments I made as a VC in 2009, two have exited and two (Invoca & GumGum) still are independent and likely to produce $billion++ outcomes . Case in point, Procore just went public and is trading at an $11 billion valuation. Maker Studios?—?sold

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

Too Early – Twilio secured a $1M seed round during the first half of 2009, nearly one year after we met with Jeff. Fortunately, after turning down Jeff, we co-led the first priced round in RingRevenue (now known as Invoca ), along with Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures. Also in 2008, SMS was not pervasively used by businesses.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. It pains me to see the typical (and predictable) responses on Twitter, “VCs want prices to drop!” ” “Sure, prices are dropping.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 12, 2010

Before I start writing this review, I want to say how much I appreciate the web series' nominated for Streamy Awards. Here it is: March 28, 2009. Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series: Wainy Days (David Wain). Best Writing for a Drama Web Series: Compulsions (Bernie Su ). The first Streamy Awards was ballin.'

Web 40

Web News Technical Review Writing 40

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

There are hundreds of entrepreneurs here in Los Angeles who are building awesome companies, writing awesome books, making awesome movies and are trying to solve important problems to help make this world a better place. Goodreads raised a Series A round of funding from True Ventures in the summer of 2009. anything.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Clearly a startup should consult its lawyer before filing or not filing.But the attorneys I relied on to write this piece told me that they’ve done lots of Section 4(2) deals in the past, and would recommend it to clients who had relatively simple financing agreements (not tranched-out, not too many investors, etc.) Short answer: no.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). Dec 26, 2009). How it happens.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. 17, 2009 and before Jan. m writing about how I became our technical co-founder.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Will Price , October 11, 2010 Georgians Should Vote No - Force of Good: a blog by Lance Weatherby , October 28, 2010 Free Software for Managing a Lean Startup - Platforms and Networks , January 17, 2010 Purpose Driven Life - Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur , July 26, 2010 Two Decade-Defining Acquisitions?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

The prices of angel deals have recently crept up, VCs have also gotten their checkbooks out again, frothy deals are happening and people are feeling bullish. VCs have also gone back to writing checks because as an industry we can’t be seen as “sitting on the sidelines” for years at a time. VCs get paid to “put money to work.&#.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298