Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

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Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

I’m planning on going to a Tech Coast Angels mixer tomorrow and the topic for me is whether there is angel funding out there for startups that don’t meet classic VC models. By way of background for the question, there’s a great post by Bob Aholt, a Pasadena Angel: An Angel Investor’s Thoughts on Valuation.

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Invest Angel Tech Coast Angels Pasadena Angels 205

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

The dinner parties now are filled with self-righteous angel investors bragging about how many deals they are in on. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing.

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Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). After that it’s domain experience, access to VCs and deep pockets. He’s bound to be able to help a company or two at the time of a sale. The best angels or angel funds will do tremendously well.

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Invest Angel Venture Capital Yahoo 280

socalTECH

JULY 14, 2021

Los Angeles-based Endgame, a developer of software that links user behavior with sales opportunities, has raised $17M in funding, according to the company. The funding was split between a $12.25M, Series A funding round led by Menlo Ventures, and an earlier $5M Series Seed funding which was led by Upfront Ventures.

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Sales Software Seed Funding Los Angeles 124

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Jason concludes that: A top founder takes much more risk, at least on paper, but can make a lot more than even the best VC of all time. A pretty good VC probably makes more than a pretty good and successful founder. Jason’s comments caused me to compare my career as an entrepreneur and a VC with Rincon Venture Partners.

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Venture Capital Capital .Net Entrepreneur 100

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Many, many companies accepting venture capital lost it all following this instruction. VCs have a goal of creating extraordinary value for their investors. Venture investors need large scale to make large exit valuations, or in many cases are not interested in maintaining marginal companies. But beware.

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Venture Capital Social Media Invest Marketing 156

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I had invested in myself for years.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

socalTECH

AUGUST 16, 2010

The Tech Coast Angels , Southern California's largest angel investment group, is hailing its latest exits today, saying that the recent IPOs for Green Dot and Trius Therapeutics , as well as the sale of Language Weaver to SDL, have left members "smiling". Financial terms of those various deals were not disclosed.

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Tech Coast Angels Invest Angel Southern California 157

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Los Angeles-based venture investor Bonfire Ventures , the venture capital fund led by SoCal VC veterans Jim Andelman and Mark Mullen, has launched a fundraising effort for a new fund, Bonfire Ventures Select I , according to a regulatory filing from the firm this week.

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Venture Capital Funding SoCal Southern California 140

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. This is a big news day at Upfront Ventures. But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. The idea immediately resonated.

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Invest Venture Capital Startup News 340

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Los Angeles- and Atlanta-based Mighty Oak Entertainment , which produces sports clips for traditional, digital, and streaming, has received an investment from former MGM Television President John Bryan and entrepreneur and KDOCTV (Los Angeles) owner Bert Ellis, Jr., the company said last week. READ MORE>>.

Entertainment 113

Entertainment Invest Los Angeles Content 113

TechCrunch LA

JULY 2, 2020

When it comes to venture capital, Los Angeles is a city on the rise. In the past year, it’s seen one of the most profitable venture-backed exits of any tech ecosystem (with the $4 billion sale of Honey to PayPal) and investors are minting billion-dollar companies in the region at a torrid pace.

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Los Angeles Venture Capital Capital Invest 277

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

Berkonomics

JULY 23, 2020

Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event. Especially when outside investors, venture capitalists, or angels, have put in substantial money and the sales price is less than the value of their investment. Dig into investment agreements for those expensive clauses.

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Company Companies Sales Venture Capital 156

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2021

You can listen to the entire conversation above or via this link , but I also wanted to highlight one topic we discussed that I feel strongly about, which is how I think enterprise sales and venture fundraising are basically the same muscle. OK, so you’ve found your target LPs who invest in funds at your stage. Let me explain.

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Sales Startup Invest Funding 375

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to invest. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong.

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Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. Step 2: Get Personal & Give Freely – Once you identify a handful of potential VC partners, stealthily cyber stalk them. Subscribe to their blog.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Berkonomics

JUNE 15, 2017

Taking in angel or venture money requires a setting of an entrepreneur’s expectations that may come as a shock at least at first. From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering.

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Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 243

Berkonomics

JANUARY 28, 2021

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up pre-money valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. And here’s the “why.”.

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Startup Outsource Venture Capital 156

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. sold to Disney for $670 million and since our first investment was at < $10 million valuation we did quite well. Maker Studios?—?sold

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

socalTECH

MAY 15, 2014

Los Angeles-based online apparel and shoe company JustFab is eyeing a possible IPO, and also is in the midst of raising between $50 to $100M, according to a report. JustFab has previously said it is expecting to generate around $400M in sales in 2014. justfab venture capital merger acquisition exit apparel fashion shoes clothing'

Invest 147

Invest Venture Capital Report Acquisition 147

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. 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. This post is for those who want to raise angel money.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Strategic partner” investors: If you can find a strategic partner willing to invest in your enterprise, consider it a blessing.

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Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event for the early investors, including the entrepreneur or the founders. Most sophisticated investors will take either a promissory note or preferred stock, both of which come before founder or management stock in a sale or liquidation.

Angel 120

Angel Sales Pricing Equity 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

First, the implied promise: Taking money from professional investors such as angels or VCs usually requires that you agree to seek an exit for those investors in your plan, often targeting five to seven years as the ideal period for growth before a liquidity event. Investors will not be happy and will usually react.

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Equity Course Sales Invest 156

socalTECH

AUGUST 26, 2010

San Diego-based IntraStage , a developer of quality management software for companies who design and manufacture electronic products, including statistical process control (SPC) and other testing and data analytics tools, has raised a round of angel funding. According to the firm, it raised a Series A investment led by the Tech Coast Angels.

Angel 140

Angel Tech Coast Angels Funding CIO 140

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 22, 2019

The company is looking to raise roughly $200 million in the stock sale for its portfolio of burger, chicken and sausage replacements, selling 8.75 Another winner from the Beyond Meat public offering is the corporate investment arm of Tyson Foods. The meat processor and marketer invested in Beyond Meat back in 2016.

Pricing 236

Pricing Los Angeles Venture Capital Study 236

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

Los Angeles-based Allset , a startup which develops an app that lets diners "pre-order" food at sit down restaurants, says it has linked with digital food ordering company Olo. Allset said takeout and dine-in orders placed by customers on the Allset app and website will flow directly into Olo restaurant partner's point-of-sale systems (POS).

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Los Angeles Platform Sales 100

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. At the time I pointed out: “If I had realized exits almost certainly it would be because I invested in a company that failed. “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Existing investors DST Global, 01 Advisors, Dragoneer Investment Group, Franklin Templeton and Mubadala Investment Company too doubled down on their investments in SpotOn, joining new backers Wellington Management and Coatue Management. With the new capital, SpotOn has raised $628 million since its inception.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 2, 2021

Making money on livestreams has never been easier thanks to a suite of tools from the Los Angeles-based startup Maestro , which just nabbed $15 million in financing to grow its business. Sales, Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement. . “The third piece is a developer ecosystem,” Evans said.

Tool 315

Tool Commerce .Net Entertainment 315

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). What's the theme of your investments? That's why we have investments in Heal, Saucey, and FragMob.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2018

Los Angeles-based venture capital investment firm First Beverage Ventures , which specializes in investing in beverage brands, has made an investment in vitamin-infused coffee and tea company VitaCup. Size of the equity funding was not announced. READ MORE>>.

Commerce 113

Commerce Venture Capital Equity Los Angeles 113