Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2012

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 98

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Training 98

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2010

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. I see too many executive summaries that are simply heavy-duty customer pitches, or lightweight visions of the future.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). We feature a prominent speaker at every event.

Venture Capital 241

Venture Capital Technical Review Southern California Company 241

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

You company is the product and you’re selling an equity ownership in your company but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of each other’s lives.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2022

He found that the return was far greater than the cost of donated shoes, and his team became intensely loyal, due to the opportunity to travel and deliver shoes in other countries. These authors reference real cases and real business leaders, based on their decades of experience in building companies and executive coaching.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Coach Mentor Customer 143

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2013

Southern California's Most Popular Tech Stories. LaunchpadLA Opens Up Spring Applications. Broadcom Powering New Mac Wireless. Surf Air Gets First Aircraft. In our features section: Interview with Blair Harrison of Frequency. 9 Ways socalTECH Can Help You With Your New Year's Resolutions. How to find a startup mentor.

Southern California 168

Southern California Technical Review SoCal San Diego 168

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As such, the primary goal of your executive summary is to open the door to an in-person meeting. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Of course you could start your own company. As I talked about in “ Is it Time to Learn or Time to Earn ” – overwhelmingly the best economics go to those that start successful companies. Of course I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t start a company. For many people that’s the right answer.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

We will have to build (or buy) technology in this area.” The thing is … what I see many sales execs do is burn up countless hours on mid-level campaigns that get torpedoed when the go up the organization due to lack of budget, a desire to own that core IP or other more pressing organization priorities.

Sales 375

Sales Technical Review Organization Case Study 375

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Round sizes of > $100 million or more now account for 47% of all VC dollars (62% if you count rounds > $50 million) This has made venture capital significantly more valuable for VCs and LPs who invest in the best companies As part of our study we noticed a trend many have spotted but few have explained?—?why

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Here is a summary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends, family, or even fools: Don’t be afraid to ask, carefully. If they are going to put cash into your company, chances are that they will expect to spend a fair amount of time together, either helping you or certainly discussing progress.

Invest 135

Invest Technical Review Startup Ideas 135

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 7, 2019

Due to the overwhelming demand to pitch at our last event in Orange County, we're throwing an exclusive PitchFest speed dating event where you will be pitching to over 20 investors one-on-one! As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. We're doing it again!

Orange County 100

Orange County Venture Capital Angel Tech Coast Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

This was certainly the case when I invested in a small YouTube video production company called Maker Studios that recently sold to Disney for just shy of $1 billion. Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. We look at stage, geography and of course sector. 6SensorLabs.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. I think you’ll really enjoy this video , but as always I have summary notes for those with less time. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. And as long as private-market capital is available these companies would rather remain private for longer before going public. We all have one-click purchase power (Apple, Google, Amazon, eBay). 2007 was the watershed year.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

Big company powerhouses, like IBM and Xerox, took fifty years to make the cycle, but new companies today, in the age of the Internet, often make the cycle in five to ten years, or even less. Lewis explore these cultural issues, both national and international, that can make or break your company strategy. Product-line expansion.

Startup 142

Startup Web 2.0 IBM IBM 142

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. Valuations were enormous relative to progress in companies. Companies with less than $2 million in revenue were asking for $50-60 million valuations and getting them. tl;dr summary. tl;dr summary.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? What are related products/companies?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? What are related products/companies?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2014

Sometimes entrepreneurs are so focused on making change happen for others, that they forget that continually changing themselves and their company is equally important. Everyone and every company needs to continually learn from their experience and adapt to a changing world to thrive. Ignore the voices of dissent again.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Summary 105

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

Due to the overwhelming demand to pitch at our last event in San Diego, we're throwing an exclusive PitchFest speed dating event where you will be pitching to over 20 investors one-on-one! As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. We're doing it again!

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2021

In the past, if your startup had a website presence, the company was credible by definition. Until the company name is a famous brand, you are the brand. Publish a regular blog, contribute to relevant social networks, and highlight several videos, podcasts, or eBooks of you and your technology. Put yourself on the site.

Web 117

Web Search Engine Optimization eBook Advertising 117

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. Anybody who has worked in venture can tell you that if you took every intro that came your way you’d simply spend all of your time in meetings reviewing new deals sent to you.

Startup 317

Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

Burstly, a Santa Monica based company, provides an open and free ad management platform that helps mobile application developers better monetize their inventory. As I naturally get asked all the time why we invested in Company A or Company B, I thought I’d just put forth my thesis in writing. What does it do?

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. But issues do arise as your company grows. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact).

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2013

Big company powerhouses, like IBM and Xerox, took fifty years to make the cycle, but new companies today, in the age of the Internet, often make the cycle in five to ten years, or even less. Lewis explore these culture issues, both national and international, that can make or break your company strategy. Product-line expansion.

Company 75

Company Companies Startup Web 2.0 75

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

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. Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Partially due to the economy, but also due to longer, healthier lives and changes in job tenure, 60% of working Boomers are now expected to stay in the labor force, with real power and influence, for at least seven more years, to 2020. These trends seem likely to persist.

Entrepreneur 118

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Technical Support 118

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

One example is that they introduced a program where their founders can pool together shares from their company and exchange them for a small portfolio of other First Round Capital companies. I think you'll enjoy hearing him, but if you're in a rush check out the summary notes below. I'm a huge fan of this innovation.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

Investor in Twitter, Foursquare, DISQUS, and (by Naval’s own admission) “a lot of other companies you have never heard of”. I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

The app, dubbed HomeHero Connect, supports phone timesheet tracking, daily activity summaries, emergency alerts and automated payments between a user and an independent home caregiver. Careseekers can view caregivers by location on an inbuilt map, HD videos, social references and reviews. LinkedIn for Caregivers.

Software Review 77

Software Review Technical Review Southern California Summary 77

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. If you raise millions of dollars from professional investors it is no longer “your” company but a shared company that you control. Reviewing financial & operational performance.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 6, 2011

DueToDos, is a full featured web based utility where users can also assign and track tasks, manage users on their team, receive web notifications, and daily activity summaries. The real question is whether or not it’s really that simple to use. After I received my invite and log in I try it out.

Email 102

Email Platform Web Summary 102

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2012

Partially due to the economy, but also due to longer, healthier lives and changes in job tenure, 62% of working Boomers are now expected to stay in the labor force, with real power and influence, for at least nine more years, to 2020. These trends seem likely to persist.

Startup 112

Startup Technical Review Technical Support Study 112