Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2015

If an entrepreneur can’t build a culture of excitement and commitment at a startup, the chances of long-term success are negligible. That’s why they insist on spending a day with your team as part of the due diligence process. As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked what you can do to build the right culture.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Training 102

InfoChachkie

MAY 6, 2013

This is due to a fundamental disconnect between the increased activity of high-volume seed investors (that fill out lots of Seed rounds) and the relatively small number of Series A investors, who only make 1 or 2 investments, per partner, per year.". A from a new outside lead. There are no villains in the current Series A drama.

Entrepreneur 246

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Capital 246

InfoChachkie

MAY 9, 2011

This series describes how entrepreneurs can craft company-changing agreements with BDCs, while avoiding Kiss of Death contract provisions. Entrepreneurs should never agree to the following provisions when negotiating with a BDC, no matter how lucrative the potential relationship. Relinquish Press Release Capabilities.

Outsource Development 170

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Press Technical Review 170

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

Entrepreneurs can still build big businesses on the outskirts.” David encourages entrepreneurs to stay away from the big tech firms (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) because they are hard to compete with. We once thought Microsoft was a monopoly on the Internet due to IE. Where David is Totally Right.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked for the magic that has made Amazon the world's most valuable brand , from a total unknown only twenty years ago. My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Customer Custom 123

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Even when you do sign-up initial customers it’s still not clear that your company will be a success and you’re still likely paying yourself under market rates. He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school. If you can and if you want to – you should.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

InfoChachkie

MAY 9, 2011

This series describes how entrepreneurs can craft company-changing agreements with BDCs, while avoiding Kiss of Death contract provisions. Entrepreneurs should never agree to the following provisions when negotiating with a BDC, no matter how lucrative the potential relationship. Relinquish Press Release Capabilities.

Outsource Development 124

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Press Technical Review 124

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. This benefits you, the entrepreneur. It takes options off of the table.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As noted in Entrepreneurs Shouldn't Pitch Their Ideas To Venture Capitalists , most sophisticated investors place their bets on people rather than opportunities.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Marketing is everything these days.

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2017

The insurance industry today is one of the last industries to fully jump into adopting technology for offering up their products, says Wayne Slavin , CEO and founder of SURE (www.sureapp.com), and just needs some help in getting there. We're here to serve, as a technology distribution platform, to help those insurance carriers become digital.

Southern California 244

Southern California Technical Review Startup Commerce 244

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get paid (well) for interesting people to come in and tell me how they want to change the world – Being an entrepreneur is like having blinders on. At least for the best entrepreneurs. Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. I love it.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Mentorship.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

InfoChachkie

MAY 5, 2011

Just as Batman repeatedly avoids Poison Ivy’s kiss of death, so too must entrepreneurs avoid the Kiss of Death provisions which BDCs attempt to include in their agreements. Relinquish Press Release Capabilities. If you allow your prospective partner or customer to milk the cow for free , they will resist paying for it.

Outsource Development 244

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Resource Press 244

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For our interview this morning, we caught up with Scot Lawrie , the President and technical Co-founder of Los Angeles-based Coverfly (www.coverfly.com), and John Rhodes , Coverfly's head of Marketing and Business Development, to learn a bit more about the early stage, bootstrapped startup focused on Hollywood script writers. What is Coverfly?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them?

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Even if you don’t have “direct&# sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale&# including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business development. This is probably because many founders are product or technology people. I only found out through customer meetings.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. Focus on your customers and don’t obsess about deals or keeping up with your competitors releases.&#. I’m doing due diligence on a company of another entrepreneur in LA whose company was apparently doing very well. I understand this.

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I attended events.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I attended events.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

InfoChachkie

JULY 18, 2012

The following guest post is from Eric Greenspan, Founder and CEO of MakeItWork, a consumer facing, in-home tech support service. Entrepreneurs are inundated with success stories, but far less is written about ventures that do not succeed. Most entrepreneurs do not have the guts to publicly discuss a venture gone awry.

RSS 170

RSS Technical Review Capital Email 170

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I suppose I should have imagined that this line would get more press than all other comments combined. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. I believe that. Fair enough.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

Here’s the thing: entrepreneurs who aren’t at all of our private meetings really didn’t know what do think about the situation. It sure wasn’t when I was a first-time entrepreneur. To entrepreneurs thinking about raising money now or in the future – I think there was a lot of signal. Same thing.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2010

Marc Friedmann: SciVee serves the STM - Science, Technical, Medical - market. It's a pretty established, mature market, which has existed since the beginning of the printing press, but has evolved forward for hundreds of years and has been going through a lot of changes in the last twenty years. How did you get involved in the company?

Journal 124

Journal Technical Review UCSD Web 124

InfoChachkie

APRIL 9, 2012

These entrepreneurs do not risk everything, work outrageous hours and put themselves under extreme pressure because they want to. If it were a decision to be an entrepreneur, then most right-minded individuals would decide to turn back when they encountered the first inevitable startup crises. Entrepreneurs want to matter.

Startup 243

Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Statistics 243

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. It’s worth a quick read. My argument is pretty simple. Link has a summary of his argument plus a great video).

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2017

Many business executives and entrepreneurs I know are convinced that business success is all about having the right solution for the right price. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. They see customer support as positive lessons to improve quality and processes.

Software Review 57

Software Review Technical Review Startup Press 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. If you use a publisher, they may add more visibility with press releases and book-signing events.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Just like the sky scraping investment banks of Wall Street, the technology industry tends to be a sausage party. pitch and technology competition at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, I couldn’t help but feel like it might be a hall of crickets with a few passionate women warming the front row. likely relate to.

Conference 77

Conference Startup Technical Review Software Review 77

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2019

If you listen primarily to the popular press, you could easily be convinced that all successful startup businesses are built by one smart person, such as Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, or Jeff Bezos at Amazon. Technology startups need experts more than collaboration. Technology alone doesn’t make a business.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Technical Review Ideas Tool 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. This article originally ran on TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

This sometimes frustrates entrepreneurs who just want to “get back to running the business.&# But if you understand it you’ll see that it is perfectly rational and it should also influence how you form relationships with investors. For this reason I tell entrepreneurs the following: Meet your potential investors early.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Many entrepreneurs let the early rejections get to them and it’s normal because when you hear “no” you think “what’s wrong with me!?” Founders read the tech press every day filled with stories about these $20 million fund-raisings by this firm and that firm and it sounds like everybody else is doing it except for you.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

Use the fact that you were on an anointed list to build credibility when you eventually approach journalists (and VC’s, customers, employees). But more broadly it got me thinking to one of the biggest mistakes tech executives get into in the first place. Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. Total waste. They’re human.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307