Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 22, 2020

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 -- Startup World Cup - SoCal Regional hosted by LAVA and Pepperdine. Startups worldwide first compete at regional events, and the regional finalists will showcase themselves at the Grand Finale event in San Francisco and compete for a $1m investment prize.

Pepperdine 100

Pepperdine LAVA SoCal Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

The new paradigm, driven by disruptive technologies, cloud-served supercomputing, and the new generation of young adults with global empathy, is partnering and giving something now for a competitive advantage in the future. A partnership was announced with the City of New York, to connect and grow NYC's startup ecosystem.

Startup 124

Startup IBM IBM Examples 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2020

Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. Online or evening entrepreneurship classes for anyone. Visibility to startup job opportunities and career guidance.

Class 124

Class Startup Resource Mentor 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2021

Today you can start a new web site business for as little as $100, produce cheap smart phone apps, or lead the effort to tap the multitude of opportunities brought by capitalizing on our concern for dwindling natural resources. Consider the startup MarkForged , which takes carbon-fiber to a 3D printer.

Startup 162

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Social Media 162

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

The new paradigm, driven by disruptive technologies, cloud-served supercomputing, and the new generation of young adults with global empathy, is partnering and giving something now for a competitive advantage in the future. A partnership was announced a while back with the City of New York, to connect and grow NYC's startup ecosystem.

IBM 131

IBM IBM Startup Examples 131

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. However, I advocate a more nuanced approach for early-stage startup teams” 1.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

Having the best solution is a good start these days, but a solution alone is no longer enough to keep customer attention and loyalty. Start with feedback from real customers, set measurable objectives, and make sure rewards and incentives are tempered by customer experiences, rather than only internal thresholds.

Customer 106

Customer Custom Startup Competition 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entree for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. Yet you may not be so sure where to start, and how to put it all together. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Last week, the University of Southern California 's Viterbi School of Engineering announced that it had established a new, business plan competition, the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition ([link] specifically aimed at students in the engineering school. Why a business plan competition, and why in engineering school?

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according the Crunchbase. Institutional venture capital dispensed in 2019 was down a bit from record highs the previous year, but up significantly over the last few years.

Funding 125

Funding Venture Capital Startup Class 125

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2021

Career survival today requires thinking and acting like an entrepreneur starting a business, staying nimble and resilient, willing to pivot, and supersensitive to the market realities of supply and demand. Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn, helped me crystallize these similarities with his classic book “ The Start-up of You.”

Startup 143

Startup Entrepreneur Demand Competition 143

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. My first startup was no different. They are the lifeblood of many companies yet they are different than the traditional technology startup DNA so the ways that you hire, motivate, compensate and assess performance of these individuals will be different.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2020

Having the best solution is a good start these days, but a solution alone is no longer enough to keep customer attention and loyalty. Start with feedback from real customers, set measurable objectives, and make sure rewards and incentives are tempered by customer experiences, rather than only internal thresholds.

Customer 168

Customer Custom Services Startup 168

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Design together, the course that introduced the idea for brightblu, they were concurrently taking three other classes: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Marketing and Art of the CEO. These courses all proved to be serious influences on turning the dream of starting their own company into a reality. Share and Enjoy.

Class 231

Class Startup Santa Barbara RSS 231

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2018

The new paradigm, driven by disruptive technologies, cloud-served supercomputing, and the new generation of young adults with global empathy, is partnering and giving something now for a competitive advantage in the future. A partnership was announced with the City of New York, to connect and grow NYC's startup ecosystem.

Competition 60

Competition IBM IBM Startup 60

socalTECH

MARCH 27, 2019

Los Angeles-based startup Trellis Research , which is developing decision making tools and maintains a database of California court records, said on Wednesday that it has raised $2M in a seed funding round. The startup was created by CEO and co-founder Nicole Clark, which the company describes as a career litigator.

Tool 100

Tool Seed Funding Class Research 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according to a classic Crunchbase article. The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down. Super angels have greater scope to match talent with a startup.

Guide 136

Guide Venture Capital Funding Class 136

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 13, 2012

However, at most startups, competitive advantages are derived from a combination of invention and innovation, as described more fully in Inventor Or Innovator – Which Are You? Startups often out-maneuver their larger rivals by changing the key parameters upon which competition has historically been based.

Startup 198

Startup Competition Activity Class 198

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2015

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Startup 118

Startup Competition Patents Resource 118

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Created in 2014 and acquired by Dentsu in 2019, MuteSix was recommended to TechCrunch by Rhoda Ullmann, VP Consumer at Sense, a Boston-based startup building a home energy monitor. “They demonstrate best-in-class expertise with Facebook and Google paid ad platforms. But these days, ground up is tougher. The key takeaway?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

They were early to that idea: Danna describes it as “creator tools for YouTube before YouTube built them itself,” and he said they came up with the idea for Boulevard out of a joke between them. “We started obsessing about this,” Danna went on. Things then took an investigative, plainclothes turn.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

According to a recent Forbes article , UC Santa Barbara''s Technology Management Program offers students a superior startup education over the University of Pennsylvania (home of Wharton), as well Harvard, Northwestern and even its acclaimed southern neighbor, the University of Southern California. Techpreneurs. All-Star Alumni. Am I biased?

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 21, 2017

But why are startups taking up residence in this city versus the nearby ones? In this interview series of #StartupsEverywhere , we talked with Lee Reeves, cofounder of Startup253, and Shadrach White, founder and CEO of cloudPWR, to talk about the differences between the cities, the uptick in the business sector and emerging startups.

Startup 70

Startup Class Resource Examples 70

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)).

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2014

Steve Benson, Founder and CEO of Bay Area Badger Maps , intends to hire so many interns this summer that he will effectively double the size of his startup. According to Steve, "Startups are, by their nature, a great place for interns, because there are more essential things that must get done than there are people to complete them.

Startup 257

Startup Santa Barbara Competition Class 257

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Editor's note: All this week, and into the start of next year, we'll be featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. Here in LA we continue to be excited about the growth of the startup ecosystem and the quality of the companies here.

Startup 124

Startup Press Commerce Southern California 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2015

The new paradigm, driven by disruptive technologies, cloud-served supercomputing, and the new generation of young adults with global empathy, is partnering and giving something now for a competitive advantage in the future. A partnership was announced last year with the City of New York, to connect and grow NYC's startup ecosystem.

Startup 100

Startup IBM IBM Examples 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

A continuing question I hear from young entrepreneurs is whether a university degree is important to startup success, or just a distraction in achieving their purpose in the world. Most colleges have now added classes in entrepreneurship to include the necessary business focus to technical majors that usually drive innovative ideas.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Since Bill Hewlett joined with Dave Packard in 1939 to create what is today one of the world’s largest computer companies, there has been an evergreen debate as to who is more important in starting a tech company: the techie or the business guy? Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak? Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer? Jim Clark or Marc Andreessen?

Startup 189

Startup Sales Ideas Entrepreneur 189

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2022

Outbehave Your Competition to Create Customers for Life ,” offers eight key principles for defining and managing the experience to keep it consistent and profitable: Keep every employee on stage, delivering an experience. They have to out-behave and outperform your competition. Walking the talk is the place to start.

Customer 123

Customer Custom Services Training 123

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

You can also adjust start and finish dates on-the-fly to account for any delays — or even bring things forward! You can also adjust start and finish dates on-the-fly to account for any delays — or even bring things forward. Trello Business Class. The timeline view lets everyone in your team keep on top of project schedules.

Software Review 152

Software Review Guide Technical Review Class 152

socalTECH

JUNE 20, 2012

There is a large menu of startup accelerators in the Los Angeles, but one of more established efforts in the area is LaunchpadLA ([link] The effort actually started as an informal mentoring program, but has grown and expanded to follow the accelerator model. Our current class has performed incredibly well.

Class 261

Class Mentor Startup Santa Monica 261

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Our 3rd fund began investing in March 2009 (raised in 2008) and our 4th fund started in April 2012 so this fund will naturally begin investing around March / April 2015. Our investment strategy has always been to do predominantly Series Seed & A round deals, which makes up > 85% of our first investments. I don’t know.

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2023

New and old entrepreneurs submitted over five million startup business applications in 2021 and again in 2022, making these the most popular years on record , according to data released by the U.S. For decades, companies have restricted current and former employees from working for competitors, for up to two years after employment ends.

Layoffs 113

Layoffs Technical Review Startup Class 113