Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

If you enjoy this blog I think you’ll enjoy watching the first 14 minutes of this video (just click on the image of me below). I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. A good compromise is “convertible debt with a cap&# meaning the conversion price has a limit.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital. New investors sometimes want early investors to put in money to “prove” they have confidence in the new price. Thus begins the dance.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

On my blog I’ve been hesitant to take the topic head on. But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? In it she observes that only 3% of the comments on this blog are from women.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds. See Five Things Meme as an example.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

I think that’s the beauty of both capitalism and innovation. I was thinking about all of this as I looked at the logs from my WordPress blog this evening. I started blogging 2 years ago. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. So which is it? Feast or famine? I did that?

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

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.” Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies. Mostly kidding. Any other angle is just sour grapes.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. What price? I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. What kind of deals should I be doing?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

In London when founders failed they were ostracized in the press and culturally I believe it became harder to raise capital. I find it distracting that when you click on a link you’re taken away from the main blog and need to hit the back button to remember to finish the article. That’s why I have links open new tabs.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. It pains me to see the typical (and predictable) responses on Twitter, “VCs want prices to drop!” ” “Sure, prices are dropping.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

Thiel is providing his mentees with capital to make their startups a reality. When you don't accept capital from someone else, you aren't beholden to anyone else's input. An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

As the authors make clear in the book’s preface, their goal is to create a “definitive guide to venture capital deals” and “demystify the venture capital financing process.” Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. What price? I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. What kind of deals should I be doing?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company). Profitability.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. And that leads me to today’s post.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

I pointed to several Economist articles I had read that mapped historical prices of real estate for 400 years and how on average property values grow at no more 1.5% above inflation yet in many markets in the US & Europe prices were rising at 10-25% per year. And it’s driving up prices beyond their inherent value.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#. Thus the “true&# pre-money is only $2.4

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 2, 2016

I am not writing about this out of the blue – this seems to be the topic of the day in my social stream based on blogs written, retweets rendered and attaboys handed out. We invest large sums of our after-tax money into our funds and this gets a long-term capital gain tax rate when we make a profit.

Startup 150

Startup Course Writing Capital 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Indeed, there are some success factors that are common to both environments.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2019

You too can become an influencer through social media, videos and blogs, and people will follow you on what to buy, what causes to support, and who to vote for. I still see too many aspiring business leaders highlighting their technology, product features, and price, more than customer value and usability.

Custom 93

Custom Customer IBM IBM 93

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. The rise of crowd funding saw the first wave of founders gleeful that they could raise capital without having to deal with terrible VCs.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. We discussed in the video why they don’t price this money but give it as convertible debt) they don’t make announcements to the market. I first discovered it from Dharmesh Shah’s blog OnStartups.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Indeed, there are some success factors that are common to both environments.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Indeed, there are some success factors that are common to both environments.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

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. The key to getting money is that the people writing the check trust you. Most people are lazy.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

If you don’t understand the concept of “signaling&# please read the blog post I wrote on Understanding VC signaling. From the debate on VentureHacks, our offline chats and from our blog posts, I think that Chris Dixon and I are pretty much 98% aligned on the topic. This is the nature of compromise.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

In more than a decade of writing about the Internet and tech-enabled businesses I’ve learned that mobs don’t do nuance well. Breakout companies become much harder and this isn’t likely to improve unless we give new companies the tools and capital they need to flourish. Our social graphs are locked in Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

Course 280

Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. In a way it feels intuitive to us – the readers of this blog – because we’re the tech crowd. PHONE CALLS. Enter phone calls. Home alarms.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike Yavonditte is the founder of the “super hot&# Hashable , a startup out of NYC that has been described as a “ Mint.com for Social Capital ” Mike sold his previous company, Quigo , to Aol for $340 Million. I appreciate the write-up and your continued support of this blog. Thank you, John. We can do better.

Google 302

Google Startup Advertising Acquisition 302

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2017

You can also establish authority by writing and public speaking. Actively participating in social media is the place to start, including blogging and positively responding to customer feedback, to build a growing crowd of followers. Scarcity is one of the best justifications for higher prices.

Social Media 58

Social Media Custom Customer Entrepreneur 58

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

I’d like to get involved with capital efficient companies early in their lifecycle. I believe in my bones that entrepreneurs shouldn’t “over raise” capital. They should right size their capital raises. I’m not trying to be nice to entrepreneurs so you’ll read my blog or take my money. So what is my thesis?

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur GRP Partners Venture Capital Invest 321

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

When you think about the success that is Silicon Valley, the unfair advantage is not just the huge amounts of available venture capital. A key deal not only helps you raise venture capital but it can help attract employees, garner press attention, help with product focus & importantly drive customer adoption and/or revenue.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Xconomy

JUNE 30, 2017

There is no Obamacare replacement, at least not as of this writing. The Senate Republicans are fractured, with a handful of conservatives and moderates each giving a cold shoulder to their chamber’s version of healthcare reform, the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

Writing 56

Writing Report Artificial Inteligence San Diego 56

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. 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. This goes into the heart of my controversial blog post (coming soon!

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” According to FLAG Capital there are 100 active VCs (as defined by making at least $1 million in VC per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters).

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374