Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I know that they really impacted an entire cohort of startups because every company that was coming to pitch me businesses was (is) saying, “I’m a ‘mobile first’ company.” The power of large screen real estate. Here’s my view: I support a “mobile first” strategy for many companies.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole notion that you even need a Powerpoint deck anymore. First, if it’s an early stage company, I don’t need to see a powerpoint deck. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

I’ve had many startup founders tell me that their startup literally has no competition,” said Frank Gruber, Cofounder of Tech.Co, Startup of the Year , and Established. “In What startup teams don’t realize is that having competition is good. Also be careful about exaggerating when it comes to your company’s traction. “If

Tips 70

Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

The partner you saw is probably sitting on 5-6 boards which means he or she will be busy helping existing portfolio companies. They have probably seen 4-5 new companies this week minimum. This is not unlike a major biz dev deal you’re trying to sign or a big sales campaign into the VP of a major company.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Many companies, including Patagonia and Zappos, have used their social focus to enhance their business, but highlight financial return when talking to investors. Sales projections are less than one percent market penetration. Smart entrepreneurs highlight their own positives in competitive positioning, rather than competitor negatives.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2016

Hiring requirements must be anticipated and implemented with the same precision and tracking as manufacturing volumes, sales leads, and customer service. Trying to save costs by seeking resumes on the Internet will result in poor quality candidates, more time required for screening and interviews, and high turnover.

Organization 57

Organization Entrepreneur Satisfaction Screening 57

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Through advertising or direct sales, these sites harvest intent. He started targeting the ad by location and interest, and the number of potential people he was reaching began decreasing on screen (Facebook tells you dynamically). " In fact, 3 of the 10 selected companies from the past two years has followed this business model.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

A recurring entrepreneurial challenge is to determine the optimal price of a new product, especially absent a directly competitive alternative. Even sales reps will invoke a cost plus logic when negotiating with me on behalf of their customers. How Much For A Rib? > The Customer Is Not Always King.

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces. But having different funds available for different stages of one’s company is actually a really good thing. DEAL OF THE WEEK: Gilt Groupe – We both admired this company.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2013

This is a term indicating the use of “crowd appeal” to get money from interested people on the Internet for a share of your company. Sites like KickStarter have for years offered rewards and pre-sales for crowd investments, but real equity won’t be legalized until sometime this year for people other than accredited investors.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Startup Web Equity 109

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Start-up Lessons that I learned from founding two companies. I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. I later learned one of my biggest lesson in sales.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 8, 2013

A two-day event that showcased the best indie games from more than 100 different companies and over 150 playable games. Nintendo, Sony, Ouya, Oculus VR, and other companies have stopped by to show off what indie developers can do. IndieCade wasn’t all about the consoles and TV screens.

Screening 79

Screening Competition Develop Development 79

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. Assume competition and assume within the buying organization you have enemies. Why Buy Me?

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

I''ve grown from driving part of the technology within the company, to driving all of the product development side, and also picking up product management and business development, around traffic acquisition and third party products. We''re now figuring out to take that to market and driving it through our sales channel. READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 223

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

I''ve grown from driving part of the technology within the company, to driving all of the product development side, and also picking up product management and business development, around traffic acquisition and third party products. We''re now figuring out to take that to market and driving it through our sales channel. READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 211

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 211

socalTECH

DECEMBER 13, 2012

Josh Hartwell: We officially incorporate in 2003, though we started laying groundwork for the company in 2002. It was just a matter of process to add iOS, and later, Android to the output, and start designing games for the larger screens, later bringing those games down to run on BREW and Java after that.

Mobile 168

Mobile Java Google Startup 168

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2009

Cliff Rees: We're a software as a solutions company. One of the other things we do very well, and where we have engineering expertise, is we provide one-off, interactive IVR solutions for media companies in the Los Angeles Area. Los Angeles-based XCast Labs (www.xcastlabs.com) announced earlier this month that it has raised a $2.7M

IP 165

IP Pasadena Angels Pasadena Los Angeles 165

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 10, 2012

The company has experienced substantial user growth since their launch early this year. Park had a screen-printing business in 2004, starting with his own $4,000 investment. His company was one of the first in the industry that made it easy for anyone to start their own clothing line all from a website.

Startup 98

Startup Customer Custom Pricing 98

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. Create scarcity.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

He spent nearly five years at each of Salesforce.com and Oracle and was an Area VP at Salesforce leading sales efforts at some of the largest clients that Salesforce.com has. In all my time investing I have never seen such a senior revenue officer join a company at this stage. Why Invest? The reason is simple. The reason is simple.

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Once this new service became popular then the media companies could control the rules of distribution & advertising. The philosophy of OPEC has been that if they can limit the amount of oil supplied to the world they can maintain high prices in a world where demand and competition should naturally have downward pressure on oil prices.

Hulu 292

Hulu Technical Review Content Advertising 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I think how hard it is for me to be hands-on with a handful of portfolio companies. I’ve had to do this with 2 companies at the same time. Through this process he raised $2 million. So I thought, WTF?

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 6, 2016

I love both of my parents equally but my mom was definitely the go-getter who took charge, challenged others, started businesses, restarted her career post kids by becoming a pharmaceutical sales leader and did public service. I told this story at our screening of the must-see movie —  Code: Debugging the Gender Gap.

Startup 150

Startup Los Angeles Help Screening 150