Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

We all know about AngelGate by now. I thought I’d try to look at it from a different lens, that of the entrepreneur. Here’s what you need to know… As a funny coincidence I happend to have written about the topic of collusion 3 weeks prior to the fateful dinner. As an entrepreneur you should assume that.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

They actually lost about $175 million in cash in that quarter, FWIW. I know this seems obvious but I promise you that even smart people forget this when talking about profitability. I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two?

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Raising capital for a female-led startup can be very diffiult--which is what Justine Lassoff and Melinda Moore found out when they started their own company, LovingEco, in Los Angeles. Melinda Moore: If you think about it, guys have golf courses, and you have things like the PayPal Mafia, and poker games. How do your events work?

Help 224

Help Entrepreneur Capital Startup 224

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

More than ever before, people want to buy from, work for, and invest in companies that matter. Your company and team members have to be seen as going above and beyond to solve the problems of internal and external customers. Companies that matter focus beyond the buy/sell transaction view of the world.

Company 116

Company Companies Customer Custom 116

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 12, 2022

Deerman had watched other meal delivery companies, like Munchery and Sprig , close years earlier and had gotten creative with the company’s business model as a result. In January 2020, the company was in discussions with Whole Foods about launching a pilot of its meals in a few stores. Then the COVID pandemic hit.

Invest 175

Invest Los Angeles Startup Funding 175

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

With a background in management and technology, he gives us something to think about regarding today’s top-of-news subject. Advice to managers, entrepreneurs. Which companies are most at risk? Take a lesson from Ford Motor Company and their prescient CFO and President in 2006 and 2007. A lesson from the recent past.

News 156

News Competition Capital Entrepreneur 156

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2012

Entrepreneurs tend to remain in the business arena they came from. Some are alumni from companies that would be a competitor to the enterprise being created or joined. What is the rule about those pesky non-compete agreements signed upon discharge or sale of the previous company?

Company 136

Company Companies News Design 136

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

I actually really enjoyed many of the points Muhammad made about marketing in general and I found myself nodding through the entirety of the article except for it’s core premise. I believe growth hacking is about all of this. I’d like to make the case that the article is wrong. I’d strongly encourage you to read it.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 8, 2020

It is most often missed assumptions about the market, the competition, the speed of adoption, or other critical metrics you’ve researched, or selected, or even just guessed at to create your plan. But many decisions were made within my company walls, and surely by competitors, based upon those numbers. Sources for your data.

Company 156

Company Companies Metrics Resource 156

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Now, I’m pretty on the record that being an entrepreneur is about being great at The Do. But trust me when I say that my observations across many startups (and other companies, frankly) is that not enough time goes into thinking. I’ve talked in the past about how I manage my own creative process.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. I don’t think this is the job.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2022

Some people are not cut out to be entrepreneurs. So what about you? How do you know if you should be running your own company, or concentrating on that queue of work that someone else has built for you? I’ve hit this before, but I still hear from too many unhappy entrepreneurs. They are quick to learn from their failures.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Organization Ideas 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

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. Access to entrepreneurs-in-residence, business mentors. Access to intellectual property and current research.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Class Startup Resource 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2023

Technology is so key to every business these days that experienced business-smart but non-tech entrepreneurs are feeling deeper and deeper in the hole. Only one component of running a business is managing technology, but it is a critical component, so no entrepreneur can afford to ignore it or totally delegate it.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Technology High Tech Startup 104

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. What excites me about this space is that there’s so much low-hanging fruit.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Every business professional I know, or have met in my consulting role, has given serious thought to the alternative of switching to the entrepreneur lifestyle , pursuing a long-standing dream, and controlling their own destiny. Product-market fit (PMF) is all about value creation. To survive, you need to find a product-market fit.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Ideas Satisfaction Customer 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible. As an entrepreneur in a startup, how do you know if you have this potential, and what are the steps to get from an innovation to a revolution?

Entrepreneur 136

Entrepreneur Technology Examples Ideas 136

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle).

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 17, 2012

I’m fond of saying that I look for entrepreneurs that have a chip on their shoulder. ” I’ve written about similar topics: 1. Entrepreneurs Should be Respected, Not Loved. And this is the point of this post – be careful about your chip. I met an entrepreneur. I have always felt this way.

Startup 336

Startup Entrepreneur IP Venture Capital 336

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

As I look back over more than fifty years as an entrepreneur, I can think of the financial focus of my three entrepreneurial businesses as a prime driver in my life during the early stage of each. And yet, as I recall the greatest thrills, the memorable events, the best of memories, almost none are about the money.

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Coach Startup Organization Invest 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2021

Therefore, the least you can do is take advantage of some of the self-assessment tools and guides around, like the classic book “ The Entrepreneur Equation ,” by Carol Roth, which highlights personal characteristics and skills required. It helps to work in a similar company before you start your own. Take stock of whom you know.

Entrepreneur 169

Entrepreneur Startup Statistics Guide 169

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 8, 2020

Watt, who came to MoviePass as an entrepreneur in residence at True Ventures, previously founded the brand and product placement startup NextMedium and also spent time as a board partner at Upfront Ventures. Now, the serial entrepreneur and startup investor is combining his two career paths under the auspices of Share Ventures.

Company 249

Company Companies Idealab Tool 249

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 2, 2017

It is no secret that the IRS looks carefully below the surface for personal use of company assets (including cash) in its corporate income tax audits. The culture of a company is created from the sum of many parts, most all coming from the top.

Entertainment 120

Entertainment Email Entrepreneur Pricing 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

This weekend I was reading the NY Times online and I came across this excellent piece about ADHD written by Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry. ” The author talks about one of his patients who was bored and unsatisfied in his job and found his tasks too routine. Then she bought me a book that changed my life.

Startup 416

Startup Entrepreneur Writing Help 416

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. 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.

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. Most companies that are scaling have CFOs, heads of HR or talent. How hard could it be? You just assign out tasks to all of us. Startup life. What do you do?

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2023

I know that dates me a good bit, but it also shows that I have been hanging around startups and big companies for a long time. In retrospect, however, Bill Gates did a lot of things right as a startup that I still look for today in aspiring entrepreneurs and their companies: Build a strong team.

IBM 82

IBM IBM Company Companies 82

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

The road to becoming an entrepreneur is a journey , and it’s not a short trip. Every entrepreneur starts by accepting the reality that you have a rare mindset of joy of discovery, with an intense curiosity about how certain things or people work, or why a new technology hasn’t yet been accepted. The right culture is the key.

Entrepreneur 139

Entrepreneur Help Incubator Startup 139

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Many entrepreneurs forget that their success is more about helping other people than about personally becoming famous, or overcoming the odds and getting rich. This is a fictional story about how an aggressive young M&A executive comes to realize that his aggressive style is actually making it harder to reach his goals.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Mentor 102

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2010

Joe tells us why No One Cares About Your Company Logo. Are you about to test the waters as an entrepreneur? One of the most important first steps is to spend a lot of time, money, and energy designing your logo since that represents your company, right? How you use your logo is important, but (More.). READ MORE>>.

Company 124

Company Companies Entrepreneur Design 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2020

As an angel investor in startups, I’m a believer that smart investors invest more in you as the entrepreneur than the next billion dollar solution you are pitching. In my experience, building a business is more about getting results than having the right dream, or the right technical skills.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Examples Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). BuildOnline (the company I founded) has just announcement plans to be more aggressive in growing in the US. Let me not bury the lede.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

If one entered between 2009-2015 he or she is no doubt in the “hazard” phase where one need to be careful about thinking he know more about the industry than perhaps he do. Too much money too early often f s companies up. No – I’m not talking about YOU – everybody is doing it. ” Well.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business. This commitment to hire people who think like entrepreneurs, or instill an “owner’s mindset” in every employee, should be a high priority in every business. Employees will care only about work they create.”

Entrepreneur 97

Entrepreneur Training Sales Technical Review 97

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

The entrepreneur cannot wait to show me their product via a demo. Most entrepreneurs seem confused by my reaction and often say something like: “VCs love demos. Note: I invest almost exclusively in b-to-b software companies. GUI Fever – Entrepreneurs are often justifiably proud of their clever, clean user interfaces.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176