TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

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

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. I finally got around to writing it having read Fred Wilson’s post about what a CEO does. This is akin in the US to having sales staff in NY, SF & LA with your HQ in one of these locations.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

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

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?” “Ok, so this guy can write a blog and source deals but can he make any money?”

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” the sale of the company for $1 billion. Many angels I know have signed over more than their comfort level in just 12 months and then feel stuck. It was ~30 days from bankruptcy.

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

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. The abundance of late-stage capital is good for us all. My first ever investment as a VC was Invoca. Entrada Ventures? —?that

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

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. Distribution and Sales.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?”

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

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). I'm a bit of an anti-VC, as you know. It's all about leverage.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

But then you can springboard from there to your next gig and you’ll be an experienced startup employee with functional experience at sales, marketing, product or whatever roles you played.” My starting salary when I joined a VC fund as a partner at the age of 39 (and after 2 exits)? I had never been a VC before.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. Many businesses that pitch to me have White Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. He disarmed me.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is. Greathouse: Having run these groups, I know all about the inherent friction between sales and marketing with regard to lead quality, volume, etc., That causes friction internally. It was a viable option for us.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

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. If you have a very low gross margin (10-30%) it can be very hard to build a large, scalable business because you need to make a lot of sales to cover your operating costs.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Then fans would be tasked with writing their own stories, submitting them to the Realms of Ruin universe by minting them as NFTs on the Solana blockchain. If the authors are inviting fans to write fan fiction about a universe they created, who owns the derivative works? Another unabashed proponent of fan fiction is N.K.

Writing 196

Writing Outsource Development Technical Review Examples 196

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. I just had this chat last night with a friend / VC who I respect.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

Yet despite his ability to raise over $1 billion of private equity and to build an organization that is worth $5 billion as of this writing, Mason was shown the door. Is outside capital really required? Most investors will be interested to learn what you are bringing to market, but their focus will be on your sales traction.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? Every sales person with a bit of street history will resonate with this question. So how do you reconcile this? Getting beyond the gate keeper and finding your way directly to the decision maker(s)?

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?”

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2019

Why did you decide to move to venture capital? What does TenOneTen Ventures invest in? We write checks from $500K to a million dollars, and we like to fund engineers turned entrepreneurs. It's not necessarily to be the sales person, but to be able to sell me on the vision. Minnie Ingersoll: That's a good question.

Southern California 133

Southern California Startup Layoffs Venture Capital 133

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Talented brand sales people? Help them write other stories. One day they’ll write yours. Raising money from angels and VCs some day? Are You a VC? Imagine the human progress you could make with 250 short, relationship-focused meetings. Here’s why it’s critical: 1. Recruiting. Office hours.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2012

They are your route to angel money. Your entrée to sales meetings. Helping with a Sales Lead. After all, if your VCs won’t help you get access to potential buyers or business development partners – what will they do? People need access to angels and VCs. We couldn’t live without them.

Email 359

Email Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 359

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. Objection Handling training.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners). It starts as a debt instrument (e.g.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

If you are a super young, well-connected, Stanford CS or EE, worked at Facebook early, have a bit o’ dosh and have VCs chasing you … you are exempt. Nobody is offering to put you on their scout program and pay you to be an angel investor. Should I write off my $2.5 Your VC is right. You’re out of money.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital?

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” The punch line from this post was “angel yourself.” I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.” You will learn about running board meetings, setting up the ultimate financial plan, leading a team from the top, dealing with the press, raising capital, etc.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

People say we’re crazy, but we know creators are legit businesses,” Karat writes on its website — the company didn’t respond to a request to chat about what they’re working on. And just like any other business, you need capital to grow faster, services to make you more money, tools to manage it all.”. “And

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Skyler Lucci is co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based HeyTutor (www.heytutor.com), a startup which has created an online platform which connects and matches students with in-person tutors. The company recently raised a round of funding from Santa Barbara-based ScOps Venture Capital. The second part, is our matching technology.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Having street smarts with no inspirational ability to build teams can yield a great small business but will be difficult to scale into a large VC-backed business. So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. He wanted to raise angel money. Few people have it.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. If you invested in the first angel round of a startup company it is usually very hard to sell your stock – usually for many years if ever at all. I’m a VC so I have an obvious bias. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Shame about that pesky FAS 157 ruling.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of By mario on May 2, 2012 in Features , grid. Features like this, as well as our daily interviews wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support of our sponsor eMinutes – a law firm here in Los Angeles that focuses on helping entrepreneurs structure their companies. Subscribe to RSS.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78