Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2016

A question I often get as an adviser is whether or not to join a business incubator or accelerator as a way to move forward faster and smarter and increase the odds of business success. Most incubators start their program with some aptitude and business acumen tests. Costs, returns in equity and funding access.

Incubator 58

Incubator Startup Seed Funding Equity 58

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage.

Resource 102

Resource Ideas Funding Research 102

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage.

Develop 102

Develop Development Product Funding 102

socalTECH

MAY 15, 2013

to develop all of the infrastructure for buildling your own, commercial drone, from Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. According to the company, its Series A financing will go towards expanding its team, meeting customer demand, and scaling for growth. A new, Newport Beach-based startup, Airware , has raised $10.7M

Google 174

Google Downey Incubator Technology 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 A Different Kind of Incubator - The Hive I recently met with The Hive a new incubator in Orange County. What I really liked in my conversations with The Hive is that they are willing to work with and fund ventures that would never get VC dollars.

Incubator 150

Incubator CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2018

As an advisor to new business owners, and an occasional angel investor, I see new business proposals daily, many seeking investors to fund early research and development (R&D) of a new product idea. Funding new product research and development is just too risky, with a large time delay before any return is likely.

Research 57

Research Develop Development Funding 57

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

Funding 104

Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage.

Help 165

Help Research Startup Funding 165

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

socalTECH

AUGUST 21, 2018

Los Angeles-based Arensis , a developer of distributed energy systems, announced that it has raised approximately $17M in debt funding from UK-based Hadrian's Wall Secured Investments Limited (HWSIL). According to Arensis, the new funding will go to fund the development of renewable energy facilities in the UK.

Funding 100

Funding Incubator Los Angeles Technology 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2012

And it is one of the reasons that NYC is developing a vibrant technology community. I’ve been meeting with LPs (those who invest in VC funds) over the past year and discussing trends I see in the market and where I think we need to be as a firm to be near to and meet the needs of our customers. Our lease runs out in 2013.

Technology 313

Technology Rustic Canyon Cloud Computing Beverly Hills 313

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2011

This site aggregates and filters content from thought leaders who talk about topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others.

Content 175

Content Startup Social Media IP 175

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Chris Dixon , September 12, 2010 My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. I applied to hundreds of jobs: low-level VC roles, startups jobs, even to big tech companies. We discussed (for ~1hr) how to approach getting the first set of enterprise customers.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Join a startup incubator or accelerator. Solicit venture capital investors.

Startup 106

Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

socalTECH

MARCH 4, 2021

I think, now more than ever, Flippy meets the distinct challenges and can help our customers spur new growth. How did you go from running a venture fund to starting Miso? Buck Jordan: The story is, I was at the tail end of my last fund, Canyon Creek Capital, and I wanted to try something different. What is Miso Robotics?

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Capital Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Join a startup incubator or accelerator. Solicit venture capital investors.

Funding 174

Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2014

There seems to a perpetual shortage of local venture capital investors in the region, despite the huge growth in startup activity here, particularly along Silicon Beach. However, we''ve developed a formula of what, and how we look at deals, and have built out our own advisory network, where we use domain experts to vet deals out.

Seed Funding 220

Seed Funding Santa Monica Funding Startup 220

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

All of that are in this week’s episode of This Week in VC. He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards. So when he saw the browser it instantly dawned on him that this would be the greatest customer development tool ever.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Related sources include local business development agencies. Startup incubators. Venture capital. An investment from a venture capital firm is usually expensive, in equity and control. Loans or line-of-credit.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Equity Incubator Venture Capital 103

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Tech Coast Venture Network

APRIL 22, 2010

Virgina Lorimor There are several options for financing a start-up business that tend to follow a natural course in a business’ development: Personal Investment. With rare exception, you will need to finance personally (or with friends and family to the point of revenue and/or significant customer pre-order or commitment).

Startup 124

Startup Tech Coast Angels TCVN Incubator 124

Steve Reich

MARCH 30, 2012

As you may have gathered from my blog, I’ve spent the last couple of months visiting with companies and incubators. Three full time developers and no marketing spend. One of the founders wrote a Python script that sent out custom emails to a list they had developed. Get Angel capital and build a prototype.

Incubator 91

Incubator Web Entrepreneur Santa Barbara 91

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Divshot, a tool for web designers and developers, won a national pitch competition and one of it’s founders Michael Bleigh created a popular open source library now included in Ruby on Rails. Less Neglect helps companies reduce churn, upsell users, and increase customer acquisition rates.

GRP Partners 96

GRP Partners Startup Tech Coast Angels Bertelsmann 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Commit to a major customer.

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

We caught up with Mickie Rosen , the firm's CEO, about the company, its links to Best Buy, and how it was incubated out of Fuse Capital. Rosen--in addition to being CEO of Tecca, also is Partner at Fuse Capital. Ross Levinsohn of Fuse Capital also is involved in incubating Tecca. What was behind that decision?

Incubator 239

Incubator Startup Web Technical Review 239

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 10, 2010

We caught Rahul in a more serious conversation, and spoke to him about his venture funded, location-based information startup and what it's up to, as well as got the story behind the firm's incubation at Clearstone Ventures. Rahul Sonnad: Geodelic develops a system that lets you publish location-based information.

Clearstone 124

Clearstone Incubator HTML Twiistup 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Related sources include local business development agencies. Startup incubators. Venture capital. An investment from a venture capital firm is usually expensive, in equity and control. Loans or line-of-credit.

Startup 93

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 93

TechCrunch LA

MAY 19, 2018

Seeking roommates and venture capital. The early developers of the U.S. Highly funded startups in this niche include Industrious , a provider of flexible-term, high-end office spaces, Knotel , a provider of customized workplaces, and Breather , which provides meeting and work rooms on demand.

Startup 272

Startup Los Angeles Demand Social Network 272

socalTECH

JANUARY 11, 2017

In the startup world, one of the most difficult journeys to market is by companies who are taking basic scientific advances and technologies originally developed at universities, and taking them all the way to use in the commercial world. During our past two years, we created our first product, which are Carbon on Silicon wafers.

Startup 100

Startup Southern California UCLA Incubator 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2015

So it behooves every aspiring entrepreneur to understand their own DNA before picking a project to bet their life on, and to facilitate effective communication with all constituents, including partners, investors, team members and customers. Venture capital investors have the resources to travel to entrepreneurs with high potential.

Startup 106

Startup Incubator Entrepreneur Metrics 106