Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Not that I blame you! Here’s why.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. If a fund has a $25 million fund then you know they aren’t going to be writing $5 million checks!

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

“Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not uttered by base sale of chapmen’s tongues” . Even if your company is not acquired and you elect to access the public capital markets via an IPO, the above tenets remain valid.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

It is code word for “I’m not ready to invest for whatever reason … I need more proof.&#. They get positive product reviews on TechCrunch, GigaOm or Paidcontent.org. Sales owns the former, the latter get marketing emails so you’ll be top of your prospects’ minds. They hire key staff.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The multi-tiered platform allows for money to be transferred between Facebook friends, the ability to click and purchase any item that you see on Facebook and through the published API’s, developers can integrate and write their own applications on top of the ZunguZ platform. As we know, developers always give their product a code name.

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. It’s like people arguing that there’s a beautiful beach house in 2006 that represents great long-term value due to scarcity of similar property. source: Capital IQ. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

Google’s market capitalization is in the stratosphere for a reason – keyword search advertising is highly effective. However, you are only paid for ads that generate sales. Such actions include sales, trials, leads, downloads, etc. Such sales are highly trackable, because the clicks can be measured like any other online ad.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I’m a software guy so I’m sure there are cases where building isn’t feasible. The key to getting money is that the people writing the check trust you. The pure delays due to admin if I would have had 3-4 pig farmers would have killed me. Product : You should build a product or a prototype. How much to raise?

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. Our first big round of venture capital (our A round) was a whopping $16.5

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - Many other great companies are not. -

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever. You can write this as a narrative in 3–5 key bullet points. There is limited way for board members to read them, digest them, compare them to the last board meeting, write up questions.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. My company had raised venture capital in April 2001 but we were told that there may never be any more coming. But in these years I learned how to sell software – necessity is the mother of all invention. There is a lot of long-term value in loyalty.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Having recurring revenue allows you to keep the original purchase price down, which in turn increases sales.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

I’m looking for somebody who can sell, but not better than our head of sales. You want somebody who can raise $15 million to build out your R&D, business development and sales organizations. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story. You have beautifully executed software.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

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