socalTECH

MAY 24, 2010

is backed by GRP Partners, Greycroft Ventures, and LowerMyBills founder Matt Coffin. The move does not seem to affect the fortunes of Pasadena-based TweetUp , the new startup headed by Idealab's Bill Gross, as that firm's model does not rely on in-stream ads.

Idealab 173

Idealab GRP Partners Advertising Pasadena 173

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

side note: our last fund at GRP Partners is currently ranked as the 5th best performing fund of the year 2000. Many funds have not performed and will start to disappear. PEHub followed up their analysis with this. He then profiled his portfolio company FourSquare who started with a very small investment.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch. You’ve got to hear all of the doubters, and the world is FILLED with doubters, and still not give up.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners Venture Capital 298

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

This led to an explosion in startups. With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. I would put my firm, GRP Partners in with the group working with teams in different ways. That’s wise.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

socalTECH

JUNE 20, 2012

There is a large menu of startup accelerators in the Los Angeles, but one of more established efforts in the area is LaunchpadLA ([link] The effort actually started as an informal mentoring program, but has grown and expanded to follow the accelerator model. We were founded in 2009 by Mark Suster from GRP Partners.

Class 261

Class Mentor Startup Santa Monica 261

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2011

I am a big believer in VC pitches that the bio slide should come up front. The short answer is that by knowing the key members of the management team the VC firm can quickly identify strengths on your time and know whether you have some competitive advantage in your chose field relative to other people with whom you will compete.

Slides 296

Slides GRP Partners Venture Capital Writing 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

socalTECH

JUNE 19, 2013

Burstly is headed by Evan Rifkin, and backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, SoftBank Capital, and Founder Collective. You get an email, tap on a link, a notification pops up, and the app installs on your phone. The way we go about that is different than the competition. What is Burstly?

Startup 262

Startup Mobile Outsource Development Tool 262

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit. Founded in 2007.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

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). In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. Let me not bury the lede. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

I talked to one startup CEO who told me, “you have young engineers who want to make $200,000 or more to work for me. It’s hard to get people to take a risk at a startup or for a reasonable salary with all this competition. And many of the ones that do want to do startups are plotting their one YCombinator company.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# When I was running startups I felt like a horse with blinders on because I was super focused on the content management market and ignored many other markets. Then I spent many years as a startup CEO.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

But, when it comes to tracking what ad placement or publisher was responsible for getting a consumer to pick up the phone and call, that’s pretty difficult. In my experience a big part of building a winning team is recognizing who the MVPs are from the start. Why aren’t there a half-dozen well-funded startups running up your tailpipe?

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

People get too worked up over the word. But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). Vultures will start circling looking for deals. And well they should be.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

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 ). I don’t intend either, Burstly has respectable and strong competition.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

Today I’m announcing that GRP Partners is doubling down on the Twitter ecosystem by investing in DataSift , a company who provides a real-time data platform and tools to third-party developers and corporations. But that’s not the deal they made with us when we signed up. The Importance of Twitter.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly Facebook popularized the short-form “status update&# and this initially is called the “feed&# but over time starts to become known as the “ stream.&# Twitter then popularizes the idea of having only a stream (e.g. Why do you believe Ad.ly

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

SoCal Delicious

MARCH 1, 2010

RSS ); Why You Should Start a Company in. Los Angeles By: Laura Rich February 26, 2010 It used to be, if you were serious about starting a tech company, you went to Silicon Valley. But emerging entrepreneurial hubs around the country are giving startup aspirants options. startup scene so hot. a great place for startups?

Los Angeles 50

Los Angeles Company Companies Angel 50

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

We brought together Peter Cowen of Groundwork Equity , Mark Suster of GRP Partners , Rick Smith of Crosscut Ventures , and Richard Yen of Saban Ventures -- all of who will be on the judging panel for the Tech Coast Angel's Fast Pitch on February 24th, to give us a their hints and tips about pitching to venture capitalists.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Ideas Entrepreneur Invest 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

The problem with VC Seed Funding – Chris is right to raise the issue with entrepreneurs because there have been instances where large VC funds have set up seed programs where the investments have been used as “options.&# There are many problems with this. As always it comes down to competition. Let me explain: 1.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We will be bringing you some of the hottest startups around to give you a quick rundown about their companies and get to know the entrepreneur behind those companies. For those of you who may not know about StartupDemo, it is an event that TechZulu and Schmoozd have partnered up to bring you some of the hottest startups around.

Social Media 71

Social Media Technical Review Mixergy Tech Coast Angels 71

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

We would like give a huge thank you to Social Media Week and the supportive startup community here in Los Angeles. For those who ever said there is no startup community in Los Angeles I most certainly beg to differ. In attendance we had startups galore with VC's and Angle's mixing and mingling all through the night.

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Venture Capital 60