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

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.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions for 2019 from Southern California's technology industry. My biggest takeaway this year was truly understanding the strength and cohesion of the Los Angeles startup community.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Too Techie - Tone down emphasis on the technology underlying your venture; an interested investor will perform tech diligence at the appropriate time. No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source. A restaurant is a generally appropriate for a bank, but not an Angel investor.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

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

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2023

Professional investors and advisors, on the other hand, usually refuse to sign these agreements today due to the risk of litigation and administrative workload, and will walk away. If you are approaching a recognized venture capital group, or even an accredited angel investor, a non-disclosure agreement is counter-productive.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Patents Ideas Sample 101

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Advisors Douglas Merritt, CEO of Splunk, and Mike Scarpelli, CFO of Snowflake, also made individual investments as angels. With the new capital, SpotOn has raised $628 million since its inception. SpotOn is paying $415 million in cash and stock for the Los Angeles-based company.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Based on the final report for 2012 from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), it may appear that IPOs are back as a viable startup exit strategy. For the full year 2012, venture-backed initial public offerings raised $21.5 Identify the right people in the right venture firms.

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Venture and angel investing has long been considered a man''s world--with domination of the industry, executives, financiers, and others by men, with only a few exceptions. Eva Helene Yazhari: It''s a program for budding angel investors, and female angel investors. What is the Pipeline Fellowship?

Angel 276

Angel Invest Mentor Technical Review 276

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 18, 2022

The alternative protein space is hot, hot, hot as evidenced by both the number of companies developing products and the venture capital going into the space. The latest company to attract venture capital is Nowadays , a company founded in San Francisco in 2020 as a Public Benefit Corporation by Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski.

Software Review 187

Software Review Metrics Startup Technical Review 187

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. However, he did confirm to TechCrunch that he had to reduce staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A core team remains, he said.

Startup 251

Startup Technical Review Outsource Development Platform 251

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” My job as a VC isn’t to beat myself up or any other partner up for the one deal we didn’t do.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

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). We want to have startups we can get productive or generating revenue pretty quickly.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” ” The punch line from this post was “angel yourself.” I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.”

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Professional investors and advisors, on the other hand, usually refuse to sign these agreements today due to the risk of litigation and administrative workload, and will walk away. If you are approaching a recognized venture capital group, or even an accredited angel investor, a non-disclosure agreement is counter-productive.

Ideas 159

Ideas Tips Technical Review Patents 159

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 30, 2020

Join JJ Richa in a fireside chat with Scott Fox, CEO of the OC Startup Council, for a discussion of the top mistakes that early stage entrepreneurs make when pitching their startups for funding.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Slides Startup Venture Capital 100

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Fortunately, for those headed to SXSW, Startup Night SXSW 2018 , presented by the Kauffman Foundation and TechCo, will be filled with investors from a multitude of industries who are looking to discover and fund startups building the latest solutions and tech innovations. Lisha Bell, Deal Flow Lead for Pipeline Angels.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2023

The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation. Equally bad is a full tutorial on your new disruptive technology.

Slides 147

Slides Funding Technical Review Startup 147

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. ” Climate resiliency . Fables of the reconstruction.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

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. It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

My primary role was “chief psychologist&# and as I’ve learned over the past few years the same has been true as a VC. Run great meetings (don’t be a productivity drain on the company). It is such an under-discussed issue as we spend our time in startups mostly talking about products, marketing and fund raising.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

It is no secret that the world of venture capital (VCs) was turned upside down by the recent Recession, and many other changes in the marketplace. I see now emerging a new wave of investors, popularly known as “super-Angels,” micro-VCs, or “super-seed” investors.

Angel 92

Angel Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. He’s thoughtful about markets, investors, products and is always very well reasoned in his arguments.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

I attended the inaugural Open Angel Forum in Los Angeles back in January and wrote about it here. Jason Calacanis started this initiative in response to the pay-to-play network of angel events that he despised. The first event was a big success and brought out many of LA’s angel elite. Pretty cool.

Angel 254

Angel Technical Review Software Review Platform 254

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. We met in August (so much for VCs taking the Summer off!) The results?

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

What's the best way to reach out and recruit diverse candidates for your technology company? It's not easy, which is why Los Angeles-based Divercity.io is an HR tech platform that makes it very easy for companies to source diverse talent. How do you create those communities, and are those focused on different technical areas?

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Startup Platform Resource 140

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Southern California venture totals for Q3 totaled around $1.0 billion in investments, according to the Q3 analysis of venture capital deals by socalTECH.com. in investments, followed by Retail Products, at $140M, and Software, at $77.8M. billion invested in Q2.

Southern California 196

Southern California Invest Westlake Village SoCal 196

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should a VC invest? Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Venture Capital is a tricky industry. When the early teams: angels, lowercase capital & first round capital funded Uber they had no idea it would be one of the most revolutionary ideas of our time. Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2021

Of course, we can’t eliminate the value of affordable office and meeting space, administrative support services and advanced communications technology to struggling entrepreneurs. Success in an incubator means likely access to venture capital, and connections to industry gurus and business opportunities. Facilities support.

Incubator 146

Incubator Technical Review Entrepreneur Mentor 146

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Los Angeles-based Catasys , a provider of technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict, identify, and treat mental issues among health plans members, has raised $45M in a debt financing round, the company said on Tuesday. The financing came from Goldman Sachs. According to Catasys, it provides 7 of the 8 largest U.S.

Artificial Inteligence 124

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Outsource Development Los Angeles 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok. otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less).

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2013

The average length of a funding pitch to Angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation. Equally bad is an extended pitch on your new disruptive technology.

Angel 102

Angel Funding Slides Technical Review 102

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2020

Kleiner Perkins , one of the most storied franchises in venture capital, has already invested much of the $600 million it raised last year and is now going back out to the market to raise its 19th fund, according to multiple sources. Companies are raising some angel money or Y Combinator money.”

IBM 164

IBM IBM Venture Capital Invest 164