Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

It’s the first EIR that we’ve had in the years that I’ve been with the firm and I hope will be the start of our investment in this program. We’re excited to continue to grow our investment professional staff and will continue to do so over the course of 2013 & 2014 with our new fund.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2023

Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free. Both ends of this spectrum fail to bring long-term satisfaction or success. Then take ownership and make it happen.

Framework 95

Framework Custom Customer Tips 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2014

With the estimated 510 million live websites at last year-end, and 280,000 new ones being added every day, the biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. The biggest excuse most startup founders mention is too much to do building a product, mapping strategy, investors, etc.

Startup 101

Startup Blogging Writing Google 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

if you listen you’ll pick up much more than my quick notes below). We talked about what startup CEOs should do in these situations and how to think about these renegotiations. A seed deal hasn’t already been “priced up” to a range where a new investor might be concerned about the valuation relative to performance.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. But today I want to give you advice on how to decrease your odds of failure in a startup. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free. Both ends of this spectrum fail to bring long-term satisfaction or success. Then take ownership and make it happen.

Tips 174

Tips Framework Custom Customer 174

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Don’t blog about what you think would be “cool.&# I don’t think that most startup blogs should be about how to build a startup. The new stuff: How do I get started? First, you’ll need a platform. The advantage of the hosted version is that it’s easier to get started.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 10, 2012

For newly launched start up, Readitfor.me He thought, ‘of course they haven’t read them, when would they get time?’ Cunningham walked into his office one day and thought, why wouldn’t I make content with the information from my favorite business books, but speed it up and make it visual? Readitfor.me

Startup 76

Startup Social Media Content Web 2.0 76

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

The space for startups is more crowded than ever. First of all, it’s now international, so you have startups from every country in the world competing for your customer’s attention and their business. Even the Google search engine crawlers may take up to two weeks to find you. Using the platform to expand your reach.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. Of course that’s not disputable.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Startups are hard. You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. We tell startup stories. Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. You’ve heard that a million times. Those that we survive with become family.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. ” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

I have started thinking about what the future might look like and I’ve started imagining what I call, “MMOV” or massive multiplayer online video. Of course you know Gangnam Style , which is now the most viewed video in history at 1.3 Maker’s talent started commenting on it and sharing it.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to. And of course we had, TheMan. The goal of Launchpad LA is to be significantly more than a series of cocktail parties. Now begins the 6-month journey.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

TechEmpower

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Platforms eschew threading and then re-invent threading anew. We work with clients to get them off the ground with a platform to build their business. You're in the thick of it and about to write a small chunk of server-side code. Curiously, the same sense doesn't necessarily apply to tuning and platform selection.

Web 200

Web Platform Technology JavaScript 200

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2013

million new pages added to the Internet every day, the biggest challenge for every entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. The biggest excuse most startup founders mention is too much to do building a product, mapping strategy, investors, etc. Your Google ranking will go up dramatically.

Blogging 104

Blogging Product Startup Writing 104

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Teams usually start with terminology that is very insular and less relevant to customers. You’ll need it so that you can work on “objection handling” when prospects naturally bring up these areas. Startup Advice' This obviously doesn’t scale once the founder can’t be in every sales meeting.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Custom 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. You’ve built a successful startup before, and plan to use the same investors.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. How does one come up with the right idea to start a company? We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures.

Design 150

Design Ideas Startup Writing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2019

It’s never too early to start marketing to define your brand. Thus I recommend that every business publish a website and start a blog even before they have a product to sell, enabling the following benefits: Get Google to work for you in highlighting your site. Hone your writing style for all communication.

Blogging 85

Blogging Search Engine Optimization Writing SEO 85

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2016

Twitter was the most unique social sharing platform that had emerged in my experience because it unintentionally innovated on a constraint of 140 characters (initially so that it could send messages as SMS, which it self had a size constraint). Of course there was good and bad to this also. Neither caricature of course was correct.

Social Media 240

Social Media Snapchat Media Blogging 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 8, 2020

Up to 90 million people are now listening into podcasts, and we have been lucky enough to find a series of producers, directors, talent, and hosts, that are truly high quality and impassioned on their subject matter. It ends up being good for both. Bill Curtis: It's by far the most exciting platform right now. Why podcasting?

Media 150

Media Report Advertising Content 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

If you are looking for funding and customers for your new business, you need to identify your “unique selling proposition” (USP) right up front, in 30 seconds or less, to differentiate yourself in today’s information overload. Investor and customer attention spans are short, and both will write you off quickly.

.Net 73

.Net Examples Custom Customer 73

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

We remain confident in the long-term trend that software enables and the value accrued to disruptive startups; we also recognized that in a strong market it is important to ring the cash register and this doesn’t come without a concentrated effort to do so. What do you do with a $650 million platform? The answer is: not much.

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

The platform enhances the process of turning ideas into entrepreneurial ventures and growing startups through social collaboration. How did you come up with the idea? Coming up with an idea is relatively, easy. How did you come up with the name Miigle? What does that refer to exactly? Tell me about Miigle.

Startup 101

Startup Ideas Platform Entrepreneur 101

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Aspiring creators learn by connecting with top web filmmakers and YouTubers on a topics specific to the web: developing a web series, producing web series, writing for genres like comedy & sci-fi, directing, editing, camera, Kickstarter funding, show hosting, distribution, and marketing. When was it launched and where? What inspired you?

Web 93

Web USC Course Guide 93

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

Tom tells us how he went from running Intuit's Tax Group--which is behind the popular TurboTax tax software--to his own startup, which allows non-technical, business users to create their own business forms and processes. How did the company start? So you ended up here in San Diego because of Intuit? What is PerfectForms?

Startup 150

Startup San Diego Entrepreneur Tool 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

With the an estimated 150K new websites and 7M new pages added to the Internet every day, the biggest challenge for every entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. The biggest roadblock is that startup founders already have too much to do building a product, mapping strategy, courting investors, etc.

Blogging 93

Blogging Invest Startup Writing 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Shahidi’s inspiration for building Shots was that he was picked on growing up. It was sort of an anti Secret or YikYak that become bullying platforms due to their anonymity and cruel crowd-enraged mob behavior. And of course comments are used to call people fat or ugly or stupid. So he did away with it. Make it great.

Social Media 150

Social Media Media Technical Review Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

I sat standing 1 foot away from somebody who’s been in prison for 15 years of his life and I had 60 seconds to open up to him about something that causes me pain in my life while he stairs into my eyes I found myself going deeper than I would with even friends or family. She was smart (she started her career in private equity!)

Writing 150

Writing Startup Design Training 150

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 1, 2011

In this interview, we catch up with an amazing TechZulu Spotlight alumnus, Joey Flores, CEO of Earbits , a hand-curated music discovery engine that allows its bands and artists to advertise and promote their own material, events, announcements, contests, whatever. When I started, I was one of the only people signing up affiliates.

Startup 80

Startup Design Advertising Search Engine Optimization 80

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. They have done 3 startups in the customer support space and one that wasn’t.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2016

Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free. Both ends of this spectrum fail to bring long-term satisfaction or success. Then take ownership and make it happen.

Entrepreneur 54

Entrepreneur Framework Custom Customer 54

Tech.Co

MARCH 9, 2020

In fact, if you don't have a regular meeting on the books, preferably over video, you could end up not seeing your employees at all. According to a study from the Harvard Business Review , remote workers have a tendency to feel left out and even ganged up on when check-ins aren't part of the typical work schedule.

Tips 157

Tips Software Review Study Email 157

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

In fact, the focus on social networking platforms, starting with Facebook, has destroyed the meaning of the word friend and even changed it from a noun to a verb. In the world of entrepreneurs and startups, professional relationships are critical. You can’t start a business with friends alone.

Entrepreneur 66

Entrepreneur Social Network Technical Review Social Media 66