Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

More than ever before, people want to buy from, work for, and invest in companies that matter. It is no longer enough to just have a great product or service. Your company and team members have to be seen as going above and beyond to solve the problems of internal and external customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2023

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan.

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socalTECH

APRIL 3, 2015

San Diego-based Qualcomm said Thursday that it is doubling the size of its QPrize annual investment funding competition, and will now award $250,000 in convertible note financing to regional winners, with an additional $250,000 to grand prize winners. This will be the fifth year of the competition. READ MORE>>.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2023

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. Even top big-company executives are considered high-risk in a startup environment. Products requiring changes to government regulations. You need a big differentiator in these arenas.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2023

Indeed, while the rules and technologies for lead generation have changed, Forrester and other experts still see it as the most effective way for businesses with limited budgets to maximize their return on marketing investment (ROI). One of these experts, David T. Cold calling. Trade shows.

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 28, 2020

There’s a new company that’s sitting on top of some of the fastest growing consumer-facing businesses in the world — liquor and marijuana delivery — and its name is Pacific Consolidated Holdings Group. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. .”

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2020

Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Start today. Marty Zwilling.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Kevin sold his last company, Santa Barbara-based Graphiq, in July of 2017 to Amazon, but has a long history of successful companies, including founding DoubleClick.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I had invested in myself for years.

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Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point.

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Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. It could be that a larger competitor has met with its customers, promising to extend its product line into this very niche.

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Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds. Better yet, the valuation of your enterprise is often higher than if the same investment were taken from a professional investor.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Naturally I’m excited about this investment or I wouldn’t have done it.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

But what IS the right amount of burn for a company? Burn rate in case you don’t know is the amount of money a company is either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. (it Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 22, 2011

Feature, not a company. Whether something is a feature or a company is clearly subjective. And sometimes features (say, Twitter) turn into companies. It’s intended in a discussion with an entrepreneur to get them to question whether there is really amazing underlying value in the product or service they’re offering.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 20, 2018

Why are you so strongly sold on royalty licensing as the most effective way to finance a tech-based early stage company? So here goes: How would I find companies willing to license my intellectual property or to invest in a royalty stream from licenses? Investment banker? I have the weeks to follow to make mine.

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TechCrunch LA

APRIL 26, 2022

We first met the Chicago-based company and its founder and CEO Vitaly Alexandrov last year when we reported that Food Rocket launched in the Bay Area , going up against the likes of Amazon Fresh, DoorDash, Instacart and Gopuff, which is no easy feat given each of the company’s footprint.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Portfolio company support & analysis. Associates often shadow partners at board meetings so that they can help follow up with the company on important initiatives between board meetings. Most associates need some entrepreneurial experience before actually making investments. Portfolio community building. Industry reviews.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Mark Zuckerberg seems to be me to be one of the most talented young technology professionals of his generation and seems to have an amazing vision for technology and product. Competitiveness - One attribute that I believe most VCs look for in entrepreneurs is competitiveness. Nobody can be super human all all fronts.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 20, 2018

Why are you so strongly sold on royalty licensing as the most effective way to finance a tech-based early stage company? So here goes: How would I find companies willing to license my intellectual property or to invest in a royalty stream from licenses? Investment banker? I have the weeks to follow to make mine.

IP 120

IP Product Equity Tool 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

When do you sell your company? Companies sometime run out of cash in the midst of their increasing success, and often find that sources of loans or investment are not freely flowing at the moment of need. Not so long ago, Basil Peters wrote his book, “Early Exits,” after analyzing 150 young companies and their exits.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos.

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Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2016

We believe that it is incrementally harder to differentiate on simple Internet products or mobile apps and while great companies are built doing this, our goal as a fund is to try and fund things that can be 100x returns if they work. We’re not Pollyannaish about this. In short, we’re after venture returns.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and Kara said “no” because she wanted to start her own company, which she did and I backed. Marketing, recruiting, building data products & tools, event management, analyzing the portfolio, etc. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?—?leadership,

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Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

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Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 122

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2017

Wallach on investments out of a new fund, Inevitable Ventures. How did you end up here in Los Angeles doing investments? Coincidentally, that was the exact same time in 2009 when I moved out, when Ashton Kutcher started first investing. Ron chose me to manage those investments. We brought in a third partner, Guy Oseary.

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socalTECH

MAY 28, 2013

To bring that ability to name your own price on products, Los Angeles-based Greentoe (www.greentoe.com) recently launched, allowing consumers to name their own price to retailers of everything from electronics to baby products. Joe Marrapodi: GreenToe is a name your own price marketplace for products. What is Greentoe?

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SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

Bob is heavily focused on ROI (and team/product). What if you believe you have a company that will be a profitable $10M company with obvious exits? Can you raise $750K - $1M with no future investments planned? I’m a regular reader/listener of the Frank Peters Show that talks about Angel Investing.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. dot-com bonanza. Seed has become an option factory for many.

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TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 19, 2019

The startup has raised $1 million in seed funding from RXBAR founders Peter Rahal and Jared Smith, CXT Investments, and Lean Luxe founder M. The initial lineup includes body wash ($14), face wash ($14) and face lotion ($15), with plans for more products soon. Paul Munford.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos.

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Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Fresh customer base. Economies of scale. New management skills.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2022

Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Start today. Marty Zwilling.

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Examples Mentor Activity Product 145

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

San Diego-based Radicle Growth , a new, seed-stage investor focused on the agtech and food technology sector, said this morning that it has invested $250,000 in Leaf Agriculture , a pre-seed company developing application programming interfaces (APIs) between agtech products. Bailey Stockdale is CEO of Leaf Agriculture.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Either of these qualms can ultimately sidetrack your startup as not worthy of investment, so it pays to do your homework on what you say and how to communicate effectively. Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2019

Is your marketing focus product-centric or customer-centric ? If you only sell products, it’s time to realize that times have changed. With a wealth of products now available, customers look for the most memorable experience , not just the best product. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 02/19/2019.

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