Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. Another common “failure to start” situation I see is one where the “idea person” insists that the idea is 90% of the value (and 90% of the equity). The same logic applies to splitting equity with co-founders.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Boy wearing Oculus Rift via Wikipedia As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Startups need to build a large passionate group of fans before the campaign.

Startup 53

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 53

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from Angel investors , called seed investments.

Organization 93

Organization Startup Incubator Ideas 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2013

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from Angel investors , called seed investments.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Funding Incubator Startup 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2012

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from angel investors , called seed investments.

Resource 94

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

Unfortunately, as a startup advisor and angel investor, I’ve seen too many ventures with great potential get destroyed or set back by legal and other shortcuts that should never have been allowed to happen. Clarify up front the potential for a conflict of interest or violation of a non-compete clause, and confirm the answer in writing.

Startup 62

Startup Patents Entrepreneur Writing 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2011

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from angel investors , called seed investments.

Startup 92

Startup Organization Incubator Ideas 92

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.” How Many Investors Should You Speak With?

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

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Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

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. Businesses can be built on sweat equity.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 20, 2014

TechZulu recently sat down with east coast transplant Olenka Polak to talk about startup life in Los Angeles. It was great to relive a moment when I was in my dorm room at Harvard and watching Toy Story 3 on my laptop and seeing something that we built with no cash, just sweat equity. Now people are using it – it’s been incredible.

Startup 91

Startup Entertainment CTO Coach Screening 91

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. “10 angel investors walk into a bar …” Do you remember AngelGate at Bin38 ? In short – no.

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. That’s one model.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Competition: Chegg (has raised $144 in debt and equity)—estimated by Steven Carpenter ( TechCrunch ) to be 10x more unique visitors than BookRenter (during peak book renting seasons) with nearly $140mm in revenues for 2010.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217