Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. This is the first business process that every startup needs, that I wouldn’t expect to find for a hobby. Technologists building cool new platforms, just because they can, won’t find investor interest.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

The new funding came from Subtraction Capital, FF Angel, 500 Startups, and other investors. The startup--which is led by PayPal veteran Erik M. CapLinked develops an online, cloud-based platform used to manage due diligence and deal documents, and which competes against deal room management software. READ MORE>>.

Software Review 235

Software Review Funding Draper SaaS 235

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2012

Los Angeles-based CapLinked , which operates an online platform for managing fundraising by startups, has linked with the Startup America Partnership. According to CapLinked, it will make its premium capital raising and investor reporting tools available to the more than 8,500 startups enrolled with Startup America.

Technical Review 153

Technical Review Software Review Startup Yammer 153

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Start talking immediately about your project and background. Good initial conversations should never be turned into debates or political platforms. Smart entrepreneurs learn how to smile and maintain eye contact, make transitions positively and proactively follow-up to solidify their impact, rather than lose it.

Startup 135

Startup Entrepreneur Content Platform 135

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. This is the first business process that every startup needs, that I wouldn’t expect to find for a hobby. Technologists building cool new platforms, just because they can, won’t find investor interest.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

socalTECH

JANUARY 30, 2014

Los Angeles-based Glip , the startup developing cloud-based tools to help teams manage projects, plans, documents, and other more, said today that it has integrated its service with Google Drive and Dropbox. The company has been offering up the service since October. The company charges $5 per user per month for the service.

Google 170

Google SaaS Los Angeles Tool 170

socalTECH

JULY 1, 2019

The Cedars-Sinai Accelerator , the startup accelerator associated with Cedars-Sinai, has announced its next class, saying it has added 11 new health-tech companies into its newest accelerator class.

Class 113

Class Hawthorne Training Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Thus I often recommend that before you kick off your own business, you join another startup or existing business to see how things really work. It starts with documenting and communicating a real purpose and mission in terms everyone can get excited about. Even the best college degree is not a substitute.

Entrepreneur 173

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 10, 2012

For newly launched start up, Readitfor.me 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? Cunnigham talks of the ups and downs, but more about the serendipity of the project becoming a business.

Startup 76

Startup Social Media Content Web 2.0 76

socalTECH

AUGUST 15, 2013

in a Series A funding round, to build out its cloud-based platform for enhancing proposals, sales decks, reports, and other materials. The startup said the funding was led by Sigma West, and will go towards fortifying its team and to expand its product for the financial services and insurance markets. Seismic is led by Douglas Winter.

Tool 147

Tool Report Platform Software 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

Start talking immediately about your project and background. Good initial conversations should never be turned into debates or political platforms. Smart entrepreneurs learn how to smile and maintain eye contact, make transitions positively and proactively follow-up to solidify their impact, rather than lose it.

Entrepreneur 128

Entrepreneur Startup Content Platform 128

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2013

She recommends phone interviews by you, by appointment, with structured questions, and you document results. Don’t start from how you want to sell. All of these processes should be documented, and should explicitly include the customer buying process and perceptions as the base. Their perception is your reality.

Startup 105

Startup Search Engine Optimization Summary Customer 105

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2023

As a business owner or key professional, your challenge is to keep up with and stay ahead of the rapid market change today, or lose your livelihood tomorrow. Start early to envision the future landscape. Addressing problems as they come up fosters more trust than you might think. Strive to recognize power shifts in society.

Tips 116

Tips FAQ Startup Social Media 116

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team. Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans take too much time, are inaccurate, and rarely add value. The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. We spoke with Michael Chasin, the company''s co-founder, about the startup. You put your project up, and shortly thereafter, you get price quotes from lawyers.

Help 240

Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kaufmann Foundation , the numbers are finally here to show it. The number of startups rose in 2015 for the first time in five years, with the largest year-over-year increase in two decades. Fundraising through online platforms and crowdfunding.

Startup 61

Startup Social Media News Tool 61

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. By definition?—?I’m two founders in a garage?—?(HP

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2013

According to Glip, its platform helps teams share documents, track tasks, share calendars, and more via a team conversation stream. management project work startup service collaboration team glip' Glip offers its service at $5 per user per month, or $50 per year. READ MORE>>.

Services 138

Services Los Angeles Platform Sites 138

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

A frequent concern I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is “I have invented a great product, but I have no idea where to start in setting up a company, to avoid all the tax and legal problems I hear about on the news.” I recommend starting with the simplest, quickest, and the least expensive – the LLC.

Startup 84

Startup Outsource Development Entrepreneur News 84

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Today’s startup innovators come from about six hours south of Silicon Valley. Fun Fact: One of the most prominent figures from their firm, Mark Suster t, runs a blog startups follow religiously. Their Behavioral Marketing Platform even broke new ground at ad:tech 2011 winning an innovation award. Silicon Valley?

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. There’s also a space station resupply mission coming up that it’s getting ready for, and signs ( this time literally ) continue to suggest that its first human spaceflight mission is imminent. New platform headed to the ISS in March. Farewell to a legend.

SpaceX 153

SpaceX Sample Study Newsletter 153

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Yucca Valley-based FundaGeek , a new startup headed by Daniel Gutierrez, said over the holiday that it has launched its crowdfunding platform, aimed at startups and scientific researchers. There area number of crowdfunding sites which focus on the arts and creative projects, as well as education.

Sites 180

Sites Technical Review Research Education 180

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

But for startups with limited resources and experience, I always recommend a soft launch or toe-in-the-water approach in a local market -- and scale up later. In fact, for startups, it usually makes sense to announce your solution on social media and blogs even before you have built the first one.

Startup 63

Startup Social Media Resource Training 63

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. This blog post ended up on Valleywag (which had much bigger presence back then). Anyway, the starting point for this blog entry is a cartoon I remember reading in the New Yorker.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2015

We caught up with Miles, to learn more about his new startup, Silversheet (www.silversheet.com), and the big opportunity to streamline paperwork in the medical field for doctors seeking credentialing at hospitals. How exactly did you end up--after EQAL--creating a healthcare related startup? Explain how that works?

Startup 100

Startup Content Technical Review Product 100

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 22, 2011

About a month back I sat down with Scribd’s CEO, Trip Adler for a casual lunch to catch up. They were receiving 90 million unique monthly visitors and becoming a household name in tech start-up. According to CNET’s Lance Whitney , Bing has increased their market share by 75% up to 17% from 9.7%. Isn’t the end goal users?

Google 82

Google Platform Startup Study 82

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. This is the first business process that every startup needs, that I wouldn’t expect to find for a hobby. Technologists building cool new platforms, just because they can, won’t find investor interest.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 19, 2019

“Whether it be a passion for an obscure manga or your favorite football team, Kik has shown an incredible ability to provide a platform for new friendships to be forged through your mobile phone.” The company filed registration documents in California in June 2018.

Social Network 153

Social Network Los Angeles Social Media Blogging 153

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

If you’ve done a good job in the sales process you’ve already written out a needs document in which your wrote out what you believe the customer problems are with specific examples. We used to call it a “burning platform” as in when your platform is burning you’re forced to take action. Startup Advice'

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2019

What new technology area, startup, service, or app did you find most interesting or useful this year, and why? What new technology area, startup, service, or app did you find most interesting or useful this year, and why? I organize everything from documents, media files to trip planning, and family calendars on Notion.

Dollar Shave Club 100

Dollar Shave Club Activity Organization News 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 26, 2010

According to the two, they are in a partnership where startups that are using MicroVentures' funding service can get access to CapLinked's platform. MicroVentures offers up an online, peer-to-peer marketplace for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses to find between $150K to $1M from accredited investors.

Los Angeles 145

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Platform Services 145

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2017

Innovative marketing starts with customer insights culled from painstaking research into who your customers are, and how they use digital media. Then it’s time to innovate through the channels or platforms that are relevant. That’s giving up control, with some risk, to get control. Don’t repurpose, re-imagine.

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Marketing Demand Startup Customer 82

socalTECH

JUNE 1, 2012

Los Angeles-based Gobbler , the online, cloud-based backup and collaboration startup headed by Chris Kantrowitz, said this week that it has tied together its platform with online storage provider Box. Gobbler's software is aimed at media creators, letting them store, collaborate, and share their projects via cloud-based storage.

Media 145

Media Venture Capital Los Angeles Tool 145

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2013

I think there is something very encouraging and sustaining about getting income from an investment, and participating in a loan, and where you''re paid immediately, rather than waiting for three to five years for a startup to hopefully exit, get to an IPO, or go raise more capital. How''d you come up with the idea for the site?

Startup 247

Startup Software Review Entrepreneur Equity 247

InfoChachkie

JUNE 24, 2013

The CEO of Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix) was born in Germany and grew up in South Africa. Although his English was impeccable, he was occasionally tripped up by colloquialisms. Startups must economically counteract the pervasive drone of large incumbents'' messaging.

Marketing 239

Marketing Conference Startup RSS 239

socalTECH

MARCH 11, 2014

Venice-based Zefr (www.zefr.com) got its start in the content world--licensing movie clips and posting them online--but soon, figured out there was a whole different opportunity in developing software tools to understand exactly what was happening on YouTube. Thanks for the time today. Why the rebranding?

Hollywood 159

Hollywood Help Media Content 159