Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

If you’re an entrepreneur who would like to see this clause in more startups please ask your VC to include it in future term sheets and link to it from their home page. “We We strive to invest in companies that are consciously working to create a diverse leadership team?—?one Ours is: upfront.com/inclusion.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 27, 2013

I’ve started a recent series on PR at startups since I get asked for advice on this topic so often. The start of this series was, Should Your Startup Announce Funding ? ” If your company was featured there (in the early days of what people called Web 2.0) that they probably read the main tech blogs.

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Blogging Journal Press Startup 309

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. It is also a result of pent-up demand. It affects even B2B companies because ultimately most must sell to companies who sell to consumers and if they suffer they cut back on suppliers.

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Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Union Square Ventures (USV) has been one of the most successful venture capital firms of the past 10–15 years and continues to be a leader in our industry. Lindel is no stranger to thorny venture capital issues — he was arguably amongst the most successful LPs of his generation. Maybe that’s USV, too.

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Venture Capital Funding Capital Startup 161

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital today with Jason Calacanis talking about the big VC deals at the moment and talking about the VC industry. I’d embed the video but it doesn’t seem to allow you to do this so here’s the link the This Week in Startups, Inaugural show. IPO market is back.

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Venture Capital Capital SEO Yahoo 232

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy news pertaining to startups and venture capital. Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit. Last week, I profiled an e-commerce startup Part & Parcel. Startup Spotlight: Landline.

Services 207

Services Startup Venture Capital Redpoint 207

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I recently wrote a piece for Mashable on how to create a company blog. Since it’s already written (and since I promised not to republish on my blog other than a summary) if you’re interested please have a read over there. Summary notes and then I’ll extend: Should you blog? What should you blog about?

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

tl;dr version: If you’re an entrepreneur or VC or will be working in this industry - buy this. When I first started as a startup CEO in 1999 there were no guides on raising venture capital. 3) VCs are anal about things like voting thresholds, seniority of their stock, protective provisions, etc.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Guide Blogging 304

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. Tracy built her company, Recycled Media , out of necessity. She hasn’t raised any venture capital.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. I just cover the companies that were funded that week. Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog. I’m always grateful when people point them out. LendingClub.

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Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. I think many board members (including VCs) were trained 10+ years ago when life was very different and their advice often comes from an outdated lens.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. I believe these VC funds have suffered some amount of reputation fall out. Let me explain: 1.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2020

In response to VCs’ sudden rush to invest in more Black founders , Black venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have penned a bunch of advice on the best way to tap into talent. Team up with Black firms already doing the work. The program is expanding to Chicago in 2021, the blog post notes. Among the strategies?

Equity 220

Equity Technical Review Venture Capital Blogging 220

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. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. But let’s face it, as a VC you spend time with whichever companies you want.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Xconomy

OCTOBER 9, 2018

Once considered a passing phase, the concentration of capital into fewer, larger venture capital deals appears to be the new normal. based venture-backed companies as of the end of the third quarter hit a decade high, and is on pace to pass the $100 billion mark by year’s end. That’s more.

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Venture Capital Capital Invest Report 81

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

And what’s up with this crazy new blog design? But for now … Every year we run a big VC, LP & Tech Summit in Los Angeles (this year downtown) to showcase the best of our community and invite others from around the country. I look forward to being back to blogging next week. I will tell more. Whaddayathink?

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Startup Blogging Venture Capital Los Angeles 290

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. They are venture bankers not investment bankers.

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Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

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. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I funded them 8 weeks later.

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Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. 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). It was a verbal discussion on my post on distributed teams. -

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. At the time almost nobody had heard of the following funds: FirstRound Capital, TrueVentures, Floodgate and SoftTech. Neither did Y Combinator, 500 Startups, TechStars, Amplify, Mucker and countless others. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2010

I’ve been using Chartbeat for over a month now to track performance of my blog and I find myself looking at Google Analytics much less these days. Chartbeat is a relatively young company and product. Let’s start with what I like most about the product. They’re both one day out of date when you read them.

Blogging 287

Blogging Google Screening Mahalo 287

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors. And in my interviews with many VCs I feel that people can watch these and get to know the VC’s as human beings a bit better. So how did Mike get into VC?

Venture Capital 230

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Fandango 230

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. We’ve grown accustomed to a professionalism where we know when a work issue comes up we can count on each other for a quick Sunday call between family time. It’s not exactly like you can disclose complex and confidential situations to outsiders.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Xconomy

MAY 2, 2019

A new venture capital firm, which in November marked its launch by raising a $53 million-plus fund to invest in startups, has made its first investment. The duo built a proprietary software system to help them find companies that fit its parameters, which is what led Blueprint to Sunwave, Lewis said.

Equity 93

Equity Venture Capital Software San Diego 93

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. You could just outspend. It is to out friend. Enjoyed this post? Disruptive. We get it!

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. Improving startup productivity ?

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Xconomy

MARCH 29, 2019

What does it take for a tech startup to be considered “cool?” In the eyes of the San Diego Venture Group, the key element is readiness for venture capital backing. Read more » Reprints | Share: UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS.

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San Diego Company Companies Startup 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m often asked by people, “how do I get into VC?&# Well, I know 3-4 VC jobs that are publicly available. At the highest level we’re looking for somebody really intelligent, digitally native, financially numerate and interested in startups. and I normally respond by saying, “there is no easy path.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. I often tell people that raising venture capital is more difficult than getting married. Not so in venture capital. You’re tied at the hip to your VC. But what was the VC like when the chips were down?

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Help 298

Xconomy

JULY 10, 2019

More than a third of the companies that went public in the first half of this year were backed by venture capital. That, plus robust merger and acquisition activity, set a record for venture-backed exit value—$165.2 Those returns. Read more » Reprints | Share: UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS.

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Venture Capital Invest Startup Activity 86

Tech Coast Venture Network

APRIL 22, 2010

Virgina Lorimor There are several options for financing a start-up business that tend to follow a natural course in a business’ development: Personal Investment. This is where all entrepreneurs have to start. Angel Investors & Venture Capital. Tags: Funding General financing funding startup.

Startup 124

Startup Tech Coast Angels TCVN Incubator 124

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

You can watch the video above for a very brief overview of why we rebranded and where we see our place in the VC ecosystem along with what has changed in our industry. I often advise startup companies not to try and pin all of your brand equity into an announcement. We have a few portfolio companies going through brand changes.

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Venture Capital Startup Blogging Platform 324

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

But for some strange reason they make you file your progress on fund raising, which is the widely picked up by the press. And why I woke up at 4.50am. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts.

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Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. However, the greater degree you can sequentially follow these steps and maintain your discussions with each venture capitalist (VC) at relatively the same stage, the sooner you can spend less time in the company of investors and get back to running your business.

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Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Xconomy

APRIL 8, 2019

If you’ve been following venture capital trends, what you expected to happen in the first quarter of 2019 did: More money is being invested in fewer deals, and women founders still are getting less of it than men. Venture firms sent $32.6 Venture firms sent $32.6 Companies raised only $9.66

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Venture Capital Capital Invest Startup 109