Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them nearly ten years ago. What they need now is some coaching from more experienced business leaders, to catch up and overcome some unique qualms and challenges. Today they are in every business, and will likely comprise 50 percent of the workforce by 2020.

Tips 127

Tips Mentor Coach Guide 127

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs.

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Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

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. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A.

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Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Before you start your business, think hard about your vision for fulfillment, and write it down. Assemble a complementary support team to help you. Nor can they succeed surrounded by “yes” people, or “helpers” rather than help. Don’t wait for a crisis to decide what is important. Mentor others to share what you have learned.

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Satisfaction Mentor Coach Entrepreneur 173

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Starting in 2009 I began writing checks consistently, year-in and year-out. I had realized that I didn’t have it within me to be as good of a player as many of them did but I had the skills to help as mentor, coach, friend, sparing partner and patient capital provider.

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Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

In addition, the discipline of producing it, like writing a business plan, will help you immensely in understanding the key elements that drive you and your business. I often hear the excuse that writing a book takes precious time away from building and running your business, which you cannot afford.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2018

In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities. Don’t forget business writing and communication. Get involved in startup-business incubator activities with peers at school.

Startup 97

Startup Writing Coach Incubator 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2022

Write down the “ what” of your vision, but let go of “ how” it will be achieved; you can’t control the precise manner, form, or timing. Brian defines an effective Court of Support as one professional coach, one accountability partner, one mentor, and six to nine group members. Look for a mix of talent and balance in your support team.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction Mentor 153

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

I have found that the process of writing down your idea, with a plan for implementation, and reviewing that plan with a business advisor, will force you to learn and acknowledge the real requirements for implementation. Expand your own learning and knowledge by helping others. Create a written plan, with target milestones and metrics.

Ideas 126

Ideas Writing Examples Outsource 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2018

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them almost ten years ago. What they need now is some coaching from more experienced business leaders, to catch up and overcome some unique qualms and challenges. Today they are in every business, and will likely comprise 50 percent of the workforce by 2020.

Mentor 60

Mentor Coach Guide Startup 60

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2016

In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities. Don’t forget business writing and communication. Get involved in startup-business incubator activities with peers at school.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 98

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

Their investment should be structured with the help of a good attorney who understands the mutual goal of maximum leverage of funds with minimum interference in your business decisions. I was so enthusiastic that I coached the entrepreneur to approach his mother, who invested $50,000 under the same terms as my investment.

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Invest Entrepreneur Sales Startup 243

Eric Greenspan

APRIL 11, 2019

As parents, isn’t it our responsibility to nurture them and help them achieve? Mine is writing this blog post, indirectly. The NHL thing didn’t work out, but the training, development and achievements along the way are deeply rooted within them, and this is helping them find something equally great, or maybe even better.

Writing 179

Writing Ideas Startup Coach 179

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities. Don’t forget business writing and communication. Get involved in startup-business incubator activities with peers at school.

Writing 111

Writing Coach Incubator Entrepreneur 111

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. You have to decide how hard to help with downstream marketing for your deals. A little Groucho Marx always helps. If an accelerator is writing you they’re also writing 25 other VCs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. In addition to helping manage the board Chris also helps represent the interests of the angel investors / common stock holders.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

So part of playing an effective coach is helping the team to see the answer for themselves. In stead of just writing operating and funding advice Fred also talks about industries. When I write about topics that are relevant suddenly anybody with a startup solution in that field will approach us. This works brilliantly.”

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Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

25 Years of Writing Code. Adam Sroka, an agile software innovator, is a self-taught programmer with 25 years of writing code and previously combined his coding skills with his knowledge of agile and lean management techniques as a coach and technical trainer. and Schlumberger. Make it Simple to Manage Business Or Close Deals.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

We try to hire deeply analytical associates to can help companies problem solve and who make us better investors. So we like to behave like we don’t know any better than you – we can just bring an outside perspective to help spar you and make you a better decision-maker through the process. That’s healthy.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. Through his research he helped bring ARPANET to Philadelphia in 1973. First Round Capital invests heavily in its own infrastructure to help add value to the portfolio companies. They have sixteen people on staff.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

I hired a sales coach named Kai Krickle who helped me figure out how to close more deals. He told me to stop responded to RFPs where I wasn’t the person who helped write the specs for the RFPs. He told me, “if you didn’t help shape the RFP somebody else did and you’ve already lost.”

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2022

After many extended coaching sessions with entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’ve found myself wondering if my value-add was anything more than you could get by self-coaching. It helps to partner with and coach others. Celebrate your wins, keep a flexible mindset, and raise your own bar often.

Coach 105

Coach Help Satisfaction Metrics 105

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

Well, Los Angeles-based KarmaGoat (www.karmagoat.com) has figured out a way to help people get rid of those unwanted items they have--and provide those proceeds to charity. That gift of livestock can help families out of extreme poverty. Did the experience at Anderson help you with starting the company?

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

By the time of my second company MySQL was a much more robust solution and worked well when you had to read a lot of information but was less performant on “write&# activities. As a content management system we had lots of write activities and went with Postgres. This is invaluable in helping the management team.

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Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2019

Write down the “ what” of your vision, but let go of “ how” it will be achieved; you can’t control the precise manner, form, or timing. Brian defines an effective Court of Support as one professional coach, one accountability partner, one mentor, and six to nine group members. Look for a mix of talent and balance in your support team.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction Mentor 91

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

"The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. This frugality was evidenced by the fact that everyone at Microsoft, even Gates, flew coach until well into the late 1990s. One Of The Most Important Startup Skills. "The " [Tweet this quote].

Tips 275

Tips Startup IP Santa Barbara 275

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

I got started in investment banking, focused on helping medical companies buy technology companies, and then later in the enterprise space and in the cloud. The last thing, is understanding how open and receptive all of these CEOs were to feedback, coaching, and improvement. You can't be the best at everything.

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. If they’re not running their business then perhaps the wrong person was picked as CEO or perhaps they need more mentorship / coaching to better allocate their time. It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. CEO’s run things.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

I’ve tried over the years to write many times about the realism of the downsides of being an entrepreneur because there is a complete cognitive dissidence between what you read about yourself in the press and what you feel internally about where you’re at in the journey. I have written some posts in the past that may be helpful.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Before I tell you the reasons I’m concerned about investment banking intros, I should start by saying I think bankers are enormously helpful for entrepreneurs in raising money. We are judging how well you are coached on stage. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. Big difference.].

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Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. You’re the coach, mentor, cheerleader. One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition.

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Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Before I tell you my reasons for never doing a deal that a banker intro’d I have to preface by where I think bankers are enormously helpful on VC deals. Recap: Our goal is to find investors who pay the highest price and to help make sure that investors can’t tell whether they’re getting a good deal or a bad deal.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. But the people whom I consider best in this industry are quite helpful indeed. And Coach Campbell. The best VCs know the buyers and can help guide and manage the process. They see how hard she does her job.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Frank Addante

JUNE 25, 2015

Be your best: John Wooden was one of the greatest coaches in American sports history. As head coach at UCLA he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period. My junior high school basketball coach never told us to win a game, and somehow we ended up in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Coach 40

Coach Startup Ideas UCLA 40

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. But you realize that you can be more helpful as a coach. And yes, I sleep better at night as a coach. So it is now publicly known that we have closed $150 million in our 4th fund. We have a little more to go until the finish line.

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Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420