Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2023

Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. Every startup dreams of achieving that milestone, when they can focus more on scaling the business and enjoying their earnings, rather than fighting for another investment infusion. Both have worked.

Organization 94

Organization Invest Customer Custom 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Google was clear that they WOULD NOT go into this business. They were a juggernaut and Google was a small company. But obviously Google won the war. Mostly, Google just had way better organic results (“the loss leader&# ) so it was always preferred by consumers. That gave Google a huge cost advantage.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2011

I’ve just completed an investment in Ryan Carson’s new company, TreeHouse. I’m investing heavily in Internet video. So I invested in Maker Studios , which is now the 3rd largest producer of Internet video on the web. I’m investing in businesses that reinvent education. Americans watch 5.3

Invest 295

Invest Carson Technical Review Education 295

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2020

Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. Every startup dreams of achieving that milestone, when they can focus more on scaling the business and enjoying their earnings, rather than fighting for another investment infusion. Both have worked.

Organization 173

Organization Invest Customer Custom 173

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Calculate investment amounts and timing. Project your cash burn rate to keep at least 18 months between venture capital or angel investments.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Scott Kupor of A16Z responded with a comprehensive overview of valuation methodology in a post that while accurate feels more targeted at sophisticated Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in funds. This was an industry defining deal on returns in the league of Google, Facebook, Twitter and one imagines Uber. We can’t know.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Invest Funding Competition 264

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Do research on investor visibility via Google and social media. To get the terms you want, it’s better to start with your own term sheet.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2011

San Diego-based Qualcomm is putting its money behind one of the winners of its second annual QPrize Venture Investment Competition, New York-based Enterproid , Enterproid revealed Thursday. READ MORE>>.

San Diego 159

San Diego Competition Google Mobile 159

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2022

The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. Cultivate a preferred relationship with Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google to ensure the best possible placement of your offering. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier. Be aggressive and alert.

Develop 138

Develop Development Platform Mobile 138

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. Send them a private message via Twitter or Quora that contains a compelling link relevant to their investment focus. Major League baseball pitchers spend far more time preparing to pitch than they actually do pitching.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Tech.Co

APRIL 24, 2018

Being one small company amongst the sea of thousands of startups vying for customers, capital, and talent, the way to get noticed above the crowd, connect with that next big partner, and raise some capital is to throw your hat in the ring to compete at Startup of the Year. A Strong Alumni Network.

Startup 70

Startup Competition Google Capital 70

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). 15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

If you don’t have a destination, don’t waste your money trying to get there, and don’t expect anyone to support you along the way Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 147

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

This round is being led by Point72 Private Investments, with previous backers Toba Capital, Index Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, and VMG Partners also participating.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

Given the limited nature of how many people you’ll approach (ie not that many) I actually just do these in Google Sheets. I literally have a Google Sheet for nearly every portfolio company who is in the process of raising a round. The next pass is the “competitive pass”?—?have People make this mistake all the time.

Funding 215

Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

I didn’t invest in any of their fine competitors either like Lyft, Sidecar, Hailo, etc. They were a little too fierce in their competitive practices against Lyft to sign up drivers. They seemed a little excessive in trying to make it hard for their competitors to raise capital. I’m not so sure. I wish I were.

Press 418

Press Journal Startup Competition 418

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Do research on investor visibility via Google and social media. To get the terms you want, it’s better to start with your own term sheet.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). I sure hope that Apple is working with Google to make this work. We talked about Facebook.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. Cultivate a preferred relationship with Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google to ensure the best possible placement of your offering. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier. Be aggressive and alert.

Mobile 126

Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

Angel and venture capital money always comes with ownership and management implications, starting with the obvious ones outlined in the term sheet for the deal. Also, these peers are now your competition in a portfolio ranking, so you need to know to stay ahead of them in the pack.

Funding 173

Funding Startup Entrepreneur Report 173

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 22, 2011

I first heard the term from Chris Fralic at First Round Capital. I talked in specifics about a bunch of my investments including Factual , MongoLab , Maker Studios and Gogii (maker of TextPlus ). I have always been equally impressed with Brew PR who represented them and would hire them for any company in which I had invested.

Company 295

Company Companies Gogii Google 295

socalTECH

JULY 8, 2010

Whoever wins, these are some of the local firms in interesting markets--and their tough, well-backed head-to-head competition--worth watching. HauteLook, one of the first firms to capitalize on the sample/private sales market, is already profitable and is growing rapidly. DocStoc vs. Scribd. DocStoc - Profile. Funding: $12.8M.

Southern California 124

Southern California Rustic Canyon SoCal Startup 124

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

Consider the situation in which the entrepreneur wants to accept a financially life-changing offer to sell her company which is vetoed by the investor because the price does not meet its minimal investment return criteria. Avoid too much specificity, as you may risk sounding like yet another startup that is, “Waiting For Google.”

Entrepreneur 253

Entrepreneur Google Invest RSS 253

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2013

Speaking of the new investment, CapLinked CEO Eric M. Jackson said, “We’re using the proceeds from our financing round to invest in our technology, build new features, and increase sales and support.”. Jackson added that the firm was proud of its product, and even uses its own software to manage their capital raised from investors.

Draper 68

Draper Google Software Engineering Invest 68

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. If you don’t know Montgomery & Co it is one of the premier technology & media focused investment banks in the country (and as Michael corrected me they also have a strong Healthcare / Med tech practice).

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Given the general consensus that Business School is essentially a farm system for investment banks and consulting firms, I was initially concerned when one of my star entrepreneurial students, Sieva Kozinsky , told me of his plans to attend my alma mater, Wharton. Nothing they learned (at Business School) will help them succeed at innovation.”

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Allegis Startup Competition 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. 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.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

The reality is that due to competition and a desire to keep legal costs down (convertible debt deals are cheaper to implement than priced rounds) there are many deals done with convertible debt. What advice do you have for people who want to get into venture capital? Google’s investment in Zynga. Don’t.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2018

The funding was led by Moonshots Capital, and also included Techstars and Luma Launch. Patrick Ip: My background is I spent the last three years at Google, working on advertiser retention for small and medium businesses. There, I learned that there is a lot of top level churn from small businesses because Google ads cost too much.

Help 133

Help IP Content Google 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Venture Capital is a tricky industry. Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. Far from it. Lots of it. It was an early and smart bet.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. Almost certainly the startup would have raised some capital. You have been at Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! Get yourself in a big demo day competition. Woo the press.

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. Raised angel money from Rob Lord, Reid Hoffman, Benchmark Capital and others. And the broader question of whether VC’s will continue to invest in the Twitter ecosystem.

Venture Capital 214

Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. The Yin and Yang of Product and Engineering - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 22, 2010 For a tech company, product and engineering are the heart and soul of the business. Tesla is not.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. If you are talented, of course, you can get funded in any region with enough venture capital and obviously in markets outside of the Valley it is easier to get noticed and get access. eBay and others.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 22, 2011

I’m often asked by people what investment areas interest me. I try to invest in things that I know and that I believe I might have better knowledge and relationships than the masses of VCs. But one theme in pervasive in all my thinking about investing in Internet-based companies: Deflationary economics. Here’s what I mean.

Startup 386

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 386

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. Have easy access to capital by investors who are committed to building businesses at Interent scale. Internet scale.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. Who can get help get access to their capital? Local Angel Community / Recycled Capital.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317