InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

For a high-volume seed fund that adds many portfolio companies every year (such as our friends at 500 Startups who invest in over 100 distinct companies annually), the cost of a bad affirmative decision (a false positive) is quite low, since it accounts for a relatively small portion of their total fund.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 14, 2015

Good news, Fixed , the San Francisco app that helps drivers fight tickets has just launched in Los Angeles after raising an additional $650,000 in seed funding last February. Apps & Software contest Fixed parking ticket' Fixed claims that 50% of tickets are dismissed when challenged. drivers might finally get break.

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Angel Software Review Seed Funding 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). You have a large number of startup customers (because when markets crash they have a funny way of going bankrupt quickly or cutting burn precipitously).

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There are too many deals to look at, too many seed funds or angels asking you to look at deals and weekly “demo days” with manicured and monocultural presentations crafted by experienced story tellers to help even the mundane idea sound like it will. .” For investors life is no different. Year in, year out.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

When you raise larger rounds there is more “due diligence,” which includes: calling customers, looking at financial metrics, doing cohort analysis (looking for trends like changes in churn rates), evaluating competitor positioning and understanding more of the competency of your executive team.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. We have also been very busy with our next release, which is due out by December 11th (but I’ll save that for a different post). Folksonomy.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I’m a software guy so I’m sure there are cases where building isn’t feasible. release out the door and get some customers using it, or friendly people piloting it then at least there is some validation to the product and some people to speak to about their experiences. But for most businesses it is.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. If you want to understand the details of why this is, I covered it in detail in this post, Understanding Changes in the Software Industry.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers. But in these years I learned how to sell software – necessity is the mother of all invention. I learned how to integrate customers into our product development process. I never built Google.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Between this blog and reviewing applications to Capital Factory I see hundreds of pitches a year. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217