TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

Warren’s plan called for regulators to be appointed to oversee the unwinding of several acquisitions that were critical to the development of the core technology that make Alphabet’s Google and the social media giant Facebook so profitable… and Zappos. In this case the barrier would be reduced access to capital.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. We can now write $20M, $25M, and $30M checks to existing, breakout companies in our portfolio.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

Privacy is important, so inventory owners can choose the restrictions on who can see the liquidation, like competitors, and it doesn’t appear in Google searches, Kaplan explained. The investment was led by Union Square Ventures and included participation from Eniac Ventures, Human Capital and Flexport. Buyers then can bid on the goods.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. The patents Overture held became known in small circles as Google’s ’361 problem as outlined here.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

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. Put simply – if you invested early in Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. ” Some do, some don’t. Thus begins the dance.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

socalTECH

MARCH 16, 2017

Earlier this week, Derek Norton , a long time advisor to the media, Internet, and technology industry in Los Angeles, announced a brand new venture capital fund called Watertower Ventures (www.watertowerventures.com). That's the first time organized, institutional, managed capital is coming into a company, right after friends and family.

Invest 145

Invest Funding Capital Startup 145

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.” Are you beating up every Silicon Valley VC that didn’t do Facebook or Google or Uber early? Mostly kidding.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 2, 2014

As the capital needed to start a small business continues to fall, the number of software companies being started is exploding. Now, you’re handling payroll and doing writing as well. You may even discover that you enjoy writing more than crunching numbers. Image courtesy of Refinery29 via Pinterest. Startups are hiring.

Startup 102

Startup Social Media Writing Google 102

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2018

While we all know a few good entrepreneurs who dropped out of school, the Internet is full of stories on many more who capitalized on at least four years of college, including Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Chad Hurley of YouTube and Bob Parsons of GoDaddy. Don’t forget business writing and communication.

Startup 97

Startup Writing Coach Incubator 97

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). I’m sure you’ve heard the meme that “email is dead” – if fact if you Google it you’ll find a long list of articles that will mislead you. Google knows it. THE FULL STORY.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

I think that’s the beauty of both capitalism and innovation. Would Google have become today’s juggernaut without Yahoo! What if Google had paid attention to Dodgeball – would there be no FourSquare today? &#. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. If you were reading the headlines from only 2.5

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

And any even casual follower of the tech industry knows that Google Plus has been criticized for cracking down on anybody who wasn’t a “real person.” Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Quora, Tumblr. Where you can talk about topics that it might not be appropriate for a VC to discuss in writing.

Social Network 329

Social Network Startup Blogging Venture Capital 329

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. What advice do you have for people who want to get into venture capital? I talk in the video about the economics of venture capital and how we make money. Google’s investment in Zynga. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. Don’t.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2016

While we all know a few good entrepreneurs who dropped out of school, the Internet is full of stories on many more who capitalized on at least four years of college, including Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Chad Hurley of YouTube and Bob Parsons of GoDaddy. Don’t forget business writing and communication.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 98

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I was excited to read it because Robert Cialdini had been a speaker at Google when my wife worked there and she told me that many members of the senior management team at Google had been raving about his work. John gave me the book after I spoke at his entrepreneurship class at UCSB. You should, too.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

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! Acquihires and Venture Capital. And who cares, right?

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We caught up with CEO and co-founder Brett Rossman to learn more about the company and how it''s been able to grow, profitably, all without raising a dime of outside capital. We generate thousands of new customers everyday for clients such as Ally Bank, GE Capital, Transunion, and a few other big brands.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

While we all know a few good entrepreneurs who dropped out of school, the Internet is full of stories on many more who capitalized on at least four years of college, including Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Chad Hurley of YouTube and Bob Parsons of GoDaddy. Don’t forget business writing and communication.

Writing 111

Writing Coach Incubator Entrepreneur 111

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

They get pissed off if a senior executive at Google doesn’t take a meeting with them, if people are late to their meetings or if they have emails that are unreturned. You need to know how to write good & action oriented emails. It ends up being a turn off to potential employees, investors, business partners and the press.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. And so is venture capital. and I realized that without years of experience it is tough to answer this question. Most VCs are book smart. Nothing blows up great opportunities faster than founders who are constantly fighting.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

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

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Wildlink is backed by Mucker Capital. If I write back, and tell them to stay at the Marriott in Del Mar, we would detect the Marriott Del Mar in your message, whether that's on Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, in a text message, in an email, or whatever, and convert that into a link to one of our merchants who are part of the Wildfire network.

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

If you worked for firms like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Goldman Sachs, Google and the like you’re probably more likely to rise to the top of the stack. Plus, show my you can write! I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. Are we elitist? What is the timeframe? Yesterday.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

socalTECH

DECEMBER 9, 2010

The firm is headed by Gil Elbaz , who is known for co-founding Applied Semantics, the firm which invented Google's AdSense product. Last night, Santa Monica-based Factual (www.factual.com), the data provider and data tools firm, announced a big, $25M funding round from Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures.

Artificial Inteligence 203

Artificial Inteligence Century City Web Santa Monica 203

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. Google has announced that they are planning to compete with you. - Many people Google you before meetings.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. Google suddenly makes your product category free). - There are trade offs.

Startup 319

Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital. Just don’t believe what they write about you. Get over it.

Startup 310

Startup Press Venture Capital Journal 310

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. As you may know Google recently restructured so that Larry could spend more time on big innovations – on “moonshots.”

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. 99.9999% of you won’t be contemplating raising capital at $500 million any time soon or selling for a billion. My friend Christin Herron of Intel Capital weighed in on the issue.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

In the latter cases many companies (Flickr, Delicious, Blogger, Writely in 05-08 and lately Invite Media, Aardvark, Dodgeball, etc.) My thesis on why this is happening is that large tech companies didn’t invest enough in R&D between 2008-2010 (Google even went through layoffs!!!) First Round Capital requires Second Round Capital.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. In fact, just a short Google search reveals that I’ve referred to him frequently through the years. Writing a book will be fun. You hire people who look good on paper. After 6 months – you know. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” It was meant both as a call to those writing angel checks into other people’s companies that they ought to think about putting that capital toward themselves either by becoming a startup founder or (and this was my real point) by taking an under-market salary in a company where they can learn the right skills to do it in the future.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

I recommend that you start by writing down the attributes you would want people to think about when they think about your brand. The birthplace of sponsored search (Overture), semantic search (Applied Semantics which became Google AdSense), comparison shopping (ShopZilla, PriceGrabber) and many others. Think about venture capital.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). It makes it extraordinarily hard to raise the next round of capital. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. What stage? What price?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Argument two says, “big companies can’t innovate anymore so Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. Remember it was only 2008 where Microsoft and even Google were laying off employees.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Xconomy

AUGUST 10, 2016

Just about anything you’ve heard [about] at Google that sounds interesting and new is based on machine learning,” Jurvetson said at the time. In a 2013 panel discussion at Silicon Valley’s Churchill Club, the DFJ partner said “machine learning” was his pick as the most important tech trend to watch for the next three to five years.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence San Diego Framework Venture Capital 40