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). Because I knew that Ethan was on to a powerful idea and one in which he had developed huge competence and domain knowledge in.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

It's a huge development task to develop your own mobile application, connect into Facebook, and create an online ordering system--unless you use the software from ChowNow (www.chownow.com), one of the newest startups to get funding here in Los Angeles. What is ChowNow all about? How did you decide to tackle this market?

Mobile 197

Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Neither is very strategic nor in the best interest of either set of customers that VCs have (portfolio companies & LPs). I started working with David when I was an entrepreneur and he was an associate with a VC firmed called … wait for it … GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures)! Writing a book will be fun.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Messenger : Rob Duva , Co-Founder, COO RingRevenue, prior Director of Customer Acquisition, CallWave. At CallWave, Colin was CTO, Jason was CFO and I was in charge of product marketing and customer acquisition. We spend a lot of time listening to our customers and working with them to build the right solutions.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. Product Development: philosophie. Whether the end goal is a functional business app or a mobile-friendly website, philosophie’s modern, open-source approach to development is sure to get the job done.

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. Guide to Evaluating Startup Ideas - Tony Wright dot com , May 27, 2010 A great developer I once worked with was kvetching at lunch one day.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

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 ). He knows the ad management and ad network businesses. Enter Burstly. I like that.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

SoCal CTO

JUNE 14, 2008

A very interesting topic, especially for those of us involved in developing for start-ups. Level 1 & 2 Burden is still on the developers, you still have infrastructure. The promise is so great, but the reality is that if you aren't developing something that matches with the models they provide then it represents a challenge.

Platform 150

Platform EC2 Java S3 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Huge structural under-employment in much of the country and full employment in some niche tech markets where it’s impossible to hire developers, designers or sales professionals. customers who paid for services often get burned. So at GRP Partners we’re very active now. You know what I’m talking about.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Mark Suster , GRP Partners. enables developers to sell cross-platform web-apps that optimize to your mobile device. Bring your products to your Customers, their social network and their influencers with DoTogether Hosted Facebook Applications. Panel speakers: Paige Craig , aka. Adrenaline Fueled Angel.

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Venture Capital 60

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Mark Suster , GRP Partners. enables developers to sell cross-platform web-apps that optimize to your mobile device. Bring your products to your Customers, their social network and their influencers with DoTogether Hosted Facebook Applications. Panel speakers: Paige Craig , aka. Adrenaline Fueled Angel.

Social Media 71

Social Media Technical Review Mixergy Tech Coast Angels 71

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

Mark is a Partner at GRP Partners and authors one of the most widely read startup blogs, BothSidesOfTheTable. Mark implores the students to seek startup opportunities which allow them to develop what he believes to be the two most important startup skills, programming and selling. Business development is sales.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this. I’ll bet your customers, business partners or suppliers would love similar.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

Customers are harder to sign than you want. You’ve got to accept customer losses as learning experiences and see how you can improve next time. We were strong in the UK and they were strong in Germany and Israel (where they had a development office). Any customer not willing to commit we didn’t sign.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners Venture Capital 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Every developer, biz dev person, marketeer or sales rep on your team will be surrounded by scores of companies calling them like Sirens to switch teams. If you hit a groove on funding and customer growth it does become a challenge to ramp quickly. But we do have great technology developers. Now let’s think about retention.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

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. I believe this makes Twitter the perfect ecosystem for development. Let me quickly take these in turn.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307