Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. 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. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

I just read the Q1 2011 report from CB Insights , which shows venture capital is back. billion jump in funding over the same quarter of 2010 with a similar number of deals, so it clearly shows a trend to larger deal sizes for fewer startups. Back to VCs, Silicon Valley venture capital firms are still the most active.

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Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 93

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 25, 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 -- VC in the OC and OCTANe Innovation Showcase 2010 Deadline. VC in the OC will focus on the Orange County venture capital ecosystem with opportunities to meet VCs from throughout California and see investment presentations from some of the most promising OC start-ups.

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Venture Capital Orange County OCTANE Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. At the time almost nobody had heard of the following funds: FirstRound Capital, TrueVentures, Floodgate and SoftTech. Neither did Y Combinator, 500 Startups, TechStars, Amplify, Mucker and countless others. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 12, 2010

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 -- VC in the OC - OCTANe Innovation Showcase. The premier venture and technology organizations in Orange County, OCVG and OCTANe, have teamed up to produce a one-of-a-kind business event. One great event, one exciting day, and one registration gets you into both events! See [link] (more).

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OCTANE Venture Capital Orange County Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. VC Financings: 1. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

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Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In addition to the P2P deals covered below, on the show we also talked about some of my favorite financing startups ( Wonga in the UK run by Errol Damelin , who is a superstar) and Affordit.com run by serial (and I mean serial!) They have done 3 startups in the customer support space and one that wasn’t. LendingClub.

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Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 24, 2020

Divergent, the Los Angeles-based startup aiming to revolutionize vehicle manufacturing, has cut about one-third of its staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended startups and major corporations alike. Divergent 3D is essentially a Tier 1 supplier for the automotive and aerospace industry.

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Startup Technical Review Outsource Development Platform 251

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. To be fair to Ben Horowitz – I think he thinks this as well.

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Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

JULY 19, 2011

Southern California companies raised $739M in venture capital in Q2 of 2011, according to the latest numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) based on data from Thomson Reuters. Quarter to quarter, investments were up from Q1, when $585M was invested in the region.

Southern California 167

Southern California Venture Capital Orange County Rustic Canyon 167

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. The truth is that I’ve been warning about convertible notes since 2010 it was first declared that “convertible notes have won.” So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages?

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2010

Earlier today, we talked with Greg Martin at Archer Venture Capital. Below, we collect the thoughts of Jim Andelman , a venture capitalist at Rincon Venture Partners. 2010 was very good to us. A number of companies in the portfolio delivered very strong operating results in 2010, which is exciting.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Southern California Cloud Computing Venture Capital 160

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. Who started this meme? There are trade offs.

Startup 319

Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? . ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO?

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Venture Capital Guide CTO Coach Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. They were started in affiliation with IdeaLab and were the first-round lead in PayPal. Segment Three: “VC Deals Funded this Week”. LivingSocial.

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Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 20, 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 -- How To Raise Venture Capital. Startups Uncensored. This months Startups Uncensored will be on How to Raise Venture Capital.

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Venture Capital Rustic Canyon Capital Draper 100

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, March 9, 2007 Map of VC Investments Found this Map of 2006 VC Investments post. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Invest CTO Coach Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. In particular I tried to do most of the “entrepreneur advice on VC” up front so that if you don’t want to watch our views on the deals you don’t have to.

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Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

I am thrilled to announce that we have added Hamet Watt as a Partner at Upfront Ventures. He first came to see me in 2008 when we was raising money for his 1st startup – NextMedium. Startup DNA. Hamet started his career in Venture Capital working for the first post-apartheid VC fund in South Africa.

Invest 340

Invest Venture Capital Startup News 340

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Here are some recent great posts that I’ve come across that generally fall in the intersection of startups and CTOs. They have a related post: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs , but I think that looking at my Startup Metrics post provides a bit broader set of metrics to consider.

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Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

SoCal CTO

MAY 18, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups, Startup Development and being a Startup CTO. Here are a couple of the other collections: 16 Great Startup Posts from March , Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April. Thanks Steve! SaaS Conversion: Which metrics matter?

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Startup SaaS Metrics Patents 150

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

According to a recent Forbes article , UC Santa Barbara''s Technology Management Program offers students a superior startup education over the University of Pennsylvania (home of Wharton), as well Harvard, Northwestern and even its acclaimed southern neighbor, the University of Southern California. Techpreneurs. Share and Enjoy.

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

SoCal CTO

JUNE 13, 2011

We had an interesting presentation at the LA CTO Forum by the CTO of a startup who chose Groovy / Grails as the framework for their startup. t prompted a good discussion around how CTOs go about choosing the programming language and framework for their startup. They start with lots of other things.

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Framework Startup Java PHP 330

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2010

But until now, I’ve never seen a study of exactly how that plays out for startup founders for current venture-backed companies, specifically: race, age, experience and the number of founders per company. California (Silicon Valley), New York (NYC), and Massachusetts (Boston) are the places to be in the US for venture capital attention.

Venture Capital 88

Venture Capital Capital Startup Study 88

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

Paul Kedrosky made the case for “naive optimism&# being an important part of startup success. This is where VC comes in and why it’s needed in the industry no matter how much populist sentiment exists against the VC industry. Let’s call these cards 1996-99, 2005-08 and 2010+. It’s hard to say.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 28, 2018

Google raised the curtain with a splashy announcement that they’d be setting up their fifth cloud region in the U.S. Tech firms like IBM have been pitching the advantages of cloud computing for Hollywood since 2010, but it’s only recently that companies have begun courting the entertainment industry in earnest.

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Hollywood Cloud Computing Netflix Google 254

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 -- Meet the VCs. Please join LAVA and its friends for the second Meet the VC networking event at the Marion Davies House - Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. This networking event is for the Venture community in Southern California. See [link] (more).

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LAVA Venture Capital Southern California Santa Monica 100

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 1, 2020

The Los Angeles-based venture capital studio focused on blockchain and fintech startups which longtime venture investor Tim Draper now calls home has added a new venture partner to its team. Rodney will play a key contribution to Draper Goren Holm’s strategy to diversify our deal flow.

Los Angeles 133

Los Angeles Draper Angel Venture Capital 133

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

As discussed in Why I Passed On Twilio , VC's love to talk about their successes, but seldom publicly acknowledge their mistakes. It is far more detrimental to one’s returns to make investments in companies which fail to return capital. probably not up your alley, but thought i'd mention it.”. .

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Venture Capital Email Invest Services 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

I’m often asked about the differences between being at a VC and being an entrepreneur and whether I prefer one or the other. The biggest difference I cite is that Venture Capital often feels like an “individual sport” while startups are a “team sport.” Branding & Shared Values.

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Rancho Palos Verdes Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 150

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2010

Southern California venture capital investments totaled $686.5M for the quarter, up from both Q4 of last year as well as the comparable Q1 quarter in 2009, according to the latest numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA. in Q1, up from $588.033M tallied by the report in Q4 of 2009, and up significantly from the $320.2M

Southern California 208

Southern California Orange County Invest GRP Partners 208

socalTECH

JULY 19, 2012

Los Angeles investor Baroda Ventures , the venture capital arm of David Bohnett, has re-upped on online fashion and e-commerce site Fab.com , in a big, $105M third round of funding for that site. Baroda has been an investor in Fab since its seed funding back in June of 2010. Bohnett is the founder of Geocities.com.

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Funding Seed Funding Commerce Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. My friend Ethan Anderson put it best to me after the panel, “You probably shouldn’t have been up there. It’s a shame. We all know that.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Because of this, I've always tried to stay up-to-speed on how early-stage investors look at valuation of companies. He just post: Establishing the Pre-money Valuation of Pre-revenue Startups. What are they really looking for? What do you really need to prove? is a requirement. is a requirement. It's required reading.

Startup 198

Startup Custom Development Sales Writing 198

Xconomy

OCTOBER 25, 2016

According to the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook , this past quarter $15 billion was invested in 1,810 deals , which compares unfavorably to both the prior quarter ($22.1 Have investors drifted, becoming less dogmatic about hitting interim milestones with as little capital as possible? The projected $43.2

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Capital Activity Invest 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC? You’re a small fish.

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Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332