Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. Your deck should be so good that a VC asks you for permission to show it to his or her portfolio companies. A deck is a deck. Just send it.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

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 23, 2014

The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.”

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2015

If you don’t have the time to write things down, or your writing skills leave something to be desired, don’t be afraid to get some help. No executive I know writes all his own contracts, but every smart one owns every one that is written for him, and understands every element.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Most people will be engaged by a single-page double-sided glossy executive summary, and offer support or the right people to move forward. Remember, investors or interested in acquiring a piece of your company, so keep the focus on the attractiveness of the company, rather than the product.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

It’s building a product that is substantially differentiated, and, as Bill Gross, one of the most prolific tech entrepreneurs of our era says, “ It needs to be 10x better than the competition ” (because if you shoot for that then in competitive markets you might achieve 3x. Look at Viddy & SocialCast.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

Paige is a gifted communicator and my summary does not do him justice. He offers a number of worthwhile tips and tricks that I was not able to capture in the textual summary, so the 14-minute audio file is well worth your time. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Paige’s responses. Click here to listen to the Audio File.

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

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. He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years. I’ve also found him to not be dogmatic either. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

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. It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. In Summary.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2010

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Startup 91

Startup Funding Sample Writing 91

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

His talk was especially intriguing, as he attended UCSB, but dropped out to start a clothing design company. The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. This is a lead up into an executive summary. Competition – which competitors will prove to be the most formidable? How much money can I make?

Ideas 266

Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

No summary of what we did, no easy way for me to recommend my trainer to my friends, and no way for me to easily book the next appointment. Sergey’s past experience includes development of enterprise solutions for companies including: Harley-Davidson, Nokia, Blue Cross / Blue Shield, Wellpoint, Aetna, and Navteq. Any competition in LA?

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Or read the quick, informative summary below the image! Don’t and you might make one catastrophic mistake that leaves you in the annals of Effed Companies. He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. Here’s a summary of our interview.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs have been feeling great about venture capital due to holding valuable paper positions in companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Dropbox, all of which they feel confident will drive large cash distributions in the future. dollars going directly into portfolio companies vs. the funds themselves).

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

So that we’re speaking the same language I would define “exclusive” as a period in which your company is prohibited from doing business with certain customers or business partners, which is why many incorrectly assume this is necessarily bad. I need to give credit for the topic to PR Malloy who Tweeted me this question.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. 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. That notes only told part of the story. Mobile app?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 8, 2018

His talk was especially intriguing, as he attended UCSB, but dropped out to start a clothing design company. The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. This is a lead up into an executive summary. Competition – which competitors will prove to be the most formidable? Chaos By Design .

Ideas 69

Ideas Startup Technical Review Santa Barbara 69

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Summary Version. It means the “ torso TV ” consumption patterns will be more important than the head or the long tail for the next era of media companies. You should only worry about this if you’re a large, traditional media company with fat margins. 200 million views. Suck it traditional TV. Harlem Shake.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The VC assumes you’ll have an option pool.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. an investment in your company. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Summary notes, as always, provide below. It was a pleasure to write them myself. He was a life-long entrepreneur and the first business he created out of college (actually, he founded it while he was at Caltech) was a company that manufactured high quality audio speakers. So he launched a company with exclusively paid search.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

When you are selected you share the stage with 49 other companies (in the case of TechCrunch50. Most people pay attention to the first 5 companies. By company 22 it’s hard to remember what any of them did. Many other great companies are not. - It’s no wonder many companies don’t get good coverage.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Watch the 30-minute interview to hear why but summary notes below. In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. We also spoke about technology systems in the perspective of global competition. New company in Boston with a model called “royalty capital.”

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

If you don’t want to read that post, the summary is: Open source computing drove computing costs down 90%, which spurred innovation in technology. With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

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

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

. ► November (1) 2 Ears and 1 Mouth: There's a Reason ► October (2) Be Best at Something Tear Down Your Firewalls ► September (3) Elements of Sustainable Companies We're Not Saving Lives. Web Development & Marketing Technology) Exit: evolved into L90 (next company) Lesson: What you dont know cant stop you.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40