Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Ability to balance right-brain and left-brain activities. He is an optimist.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Activity Ideas 110

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

To hear about the firm's interest in Los Angeles, and Southern California investments in general, we spoke with Fouad ElNaggar , Principal at the firm, to hear about where the firm is nowadays and what kind of investments it is making locally. We can also write checks as large as $35M out of the Omega Fund. Thanks for the time today.

Redpoint 154

Redpoint Southern California Cornerstone OnDemand Invest 154

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

As an Angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Able to balance right-brain and left-brain activities.

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Product Startup Activity 63

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We also discussed how to deal with pricing in angel rounds and a strategy I advocated in my “social proof&# blog post , which is to price your initial angel round really low and get in the best possible angels as a way to get momentum in the company. Angels have a much lower threshold for returns than do VCs.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

In the Los Angeles startup world, there are lots of high profile, buzzy companies which have lots of attention and funding--but which haven''t earned a dime of revenue. We started looking at the landscape, and as I was getting my MBA at the time, ended up writing the business plan for ConsumerTrack.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

It encompasses everything from crumbling roads and bridges to a lack of clean drinking water, failing sewage systems, inadequate recycling facilities, and increasing demands on power generation, transmission and distribution assets that the nation’s electricity grid is unable to meet. Sick of your ISP?

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Tech.Co

MAY 24, 2017

My spouse’s work is demanding, but he is an extremely present dad, covers for me during work dinners, and still spends the time to talk to me about how to handle work matters. Whether it is yoga, a workout class or even just writing a journal, spend at least three to four hours on yourself a week.

Class 90

Class Journal Writing Demand 90

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. Many people don’t realize that the majority of the monetization of the Internet originated in Los Angeles but was perfected in Silicon Valley. LA By The Numbers.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. So there is likely robust demand from borrowers. Enter P2P lending.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Jason Nazar

MARCH 22, 2011

I asked the panelists ( David Travers , Brian Norgard , Fouad ElNaggar , & Demian Sellfors ) about the specific challenges that we face down here in Los Angeles as opposed to Silicon Valley. That’s typically not the case in Los Angeles. Challenge #3 – There Needs to Be More Institutional Capital in Los Angeles.

Company 111

Company Companies Startup Twiistup 111

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Since launching 2011 global membership has grown to be over 500k people actively collaborating and supporting each other to move film and television projects forward. The continued proliferation of media network and online distribution channels has increased demand for quality content. The stage is now global. Again, access is limited.

Education 81

Education Entertainment Class Manhattan Beach 81

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. Last week I went to the Inaugural Open Angel Forum run by Jason Calacanis. They joined the YCombinator program and have raised a small amount of angel money. Measuring my daily activity. We’ll see. Enter Withings.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

For simplicity I’ll assume you’ve raised some money from angels or seed investors and you’re either raising an A round or a B round of venture capital. People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.” Fund-raising is a year-round activity and never ends.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Aspiring creators learn by connecting with top web filmmakers and YouTubers on a topics specific to the web: developing a web series, producing web series, writing for genres like comedy & sci-fi, directing, editing, camera, Kickstarter funding, show hosting, distribution, and marketing. When was it launched and where? How does it work?

Web 93

Web USC Course Guide 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

For those of us without angel investors, there are still plenty of reasons to move ahead with new ventures, and we are not alone: It's all you. An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause. Your mortgage and grocery bill depend on it.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. Performance marketing also demands accountability. We met with a ton of VC’s and angels. How has your history with Jason Spievak , Colin Kelley and the rest of the former CallWave team shaped and benefited the company?

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free! We write about $40 million of first-checks into new deals / year and about $40 million of follow-on investments. But I promise you nobody I know is actively enjoying the correction in the way that some entrepreneurs seem to think VCs are.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

In Los Angeles we don’t have “patron technology companies&# that are big enough to matter – we’re still hoping to see them emerge. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. Local Angel Community / Recycled Capital. How do we make that happen? It’s important.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

► August (1) Invest in Transparency & Active Communication ► July (1) The Fear of Success ► May (2) Optimized for Speed = 30% Waste Happy 1st Birthday Rubicon Project! Whatever the biggest, most challenging, most demanding, most important job we had at L90, I always turned to Tim. ► October (1) New Video!

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2011

They write and tweet every day, with the single guiding credibility and personality that the new social culture demands. These are both experienced entrepreneurs and angel investors. VentureHacks also created AngelList, a mailing list of prominent business angels that facilitates entrepreneur fundraising.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Technical Review Blogging Java 92

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

Providing the major funding source for an early-stage startup is a totally different dimension, but it usually trumps all the items above in demanding some equity. For example, if your rich uncle is providing all the initial funding, but has no active business role, it might be smart to offer him a 20% slice of the pie.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

If I Tweet about the Wynn Hotel while I’m in Las Vegas that Tweet has a different value to local business than if I Tweet it from my office in Los Angeles. Ryan Sarver who was heading up platform development was active in the developer forum giving guidance to worried third-party developers. In fact, they seem intentionally opaque.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Providing the major funding source for an early-stage startup is a totally different dimension, but it usually trumps all the items above in demanding some equity. For example, if your rich uncle is providing all the initial funding, but has no active business role, it might be smart to offer him a 20% slice of the pie.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91