Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I As a starting point I have to believe the founder has the attributes of an entrepreneur that matter most to me : Tenacity, resiliency, inspiration, perspiration, attention-to-detail, competitiveness, decisiveness, risk tolerance and integrity.

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

Oh, and if you didn’t guess, the title, “if you don’t have a discrete hypothesis you are incapable of failing” is, of course, an Eric Ries quote. 3:35 The real entrepreneurs come out during a down economy. 19:30 A teachable moment for entrepreneurs: HAVE A HYPOTHESIS! 48:30 Vanity metrics.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2022

After many extended coaching sessions with entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’ve found myself wondering if my value-add was anything more than you could get by self-coaching. Track your progress with frequent milestones, metrics, and physically checking things off the list. Celebrate every step of progress.

Coach 105

Coach Help Satisfaction Metrics 105

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

In a funding round with 1 or 2 VCs and 15-20 angels or 4-6 seed funds if you gave every investor you financial information and performance metrics your proprietary information would increase in its probability of leaking out. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. You betcha.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Of course not. It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. They told you, “Yeah, man, I’ll gladly write the first $250,000. Of course you need to be open. Of course you shouldn’t f **g buy a house. CEO transparency. It was not.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2015

A common challenge faced by every entrepreneur is that they don’t have the bandwidth, interest or skills to do everything that is required to build their startup. Of course, they can outsource part of the work or hire employees, but that approach means more time and money to manage the work, which they don’t have.

Startup 105

Startup High Tech Entrepreneur Writing 105

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. And of course there are always outliers. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. Their writing style, even for a mainstream publication, is they write with lots of testosterone. They write about the transmission, the brakes, and the suspension, and that creeps into all of their evaluations of cars.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

Entrepreneurs could learn about loneliness of success: nobody talks about. Of course that’s true. The Yo-Yo Life of a Tech Entrepreneur. But needed to be seen. Mark Suster (@msuster) July 19, 2015. And the immediate reaction was obvious – that failure can be pretty lonely, too. Every founder knows this.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary. They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. That’s your metric to see if you have their attention. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Admittedly, that last part is an exaggeration but they were bad enough that I am writing this essay in the hopes that you will read it and not make these mistakes. So when we come across an entrepreneur who cannot resist using 20 words when 10 would suffice, it’s painful, really painful. We want hard data and metrics – we want proof.

Tips 70

Tips Startup Statistics Metrics 70

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? Of course, thats probably even more true in Silicon Valley. Product Manager Entrepreneur Mark Geller SEO for Startups Startup Version 1.0

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary. They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. That’s your metric to see if you have their attention. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 90

Summary Writing Competition Sample 90

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 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!” I have had this discussion with many a first-time entrepreneur. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!” ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary. They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. That’s your metric to see if you have their attention. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. Metrics availability. Not so bad. Performance.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

Tons of great conversations about new startups, hardware, and the entrepreneurs building them. To cap off our 6th year at SXSW and follow up on last year’s amazingly successful Trend Lounge , we knew this year had to be bigger, better, more engaging, and of course, even more fun. Founders, Entrepreneurs, and Celebrities, Oh My!

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Today’s higher education is responding by making more courses online and available to people outside of physical boundaries. In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. We talked about how business school historically hasn’t positioned entrepreneurs well for success.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. Jody didn’t exactly have an easy time fund raising because he’s not one of the prototypical Silicon Valley funded entrepreneurs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Not the successful companies themselves but the entire b t culture of swash-buckling startups who define themselves by hitting some magical $1 billion valuation number and the financiers who back them irrespective of metrics that justify it. For a fee, of course. 10 years from now people will be embarrassed to say unicorn.

Technical Advisors 150

Technical Advisors Startup Writing Blogging 150