June, 2011

article thumbnail

The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get

Both Sides of the Table

Overnight success. It’s one of the biggest myths in the tech industry. It’s a ongoing struggle to overcome this bias. I say “struggle to overcome&# because I care about young people entering our industry with a set of realistic expectations about what “normal&# is. If you take a snapshot during an extraordinary surge in valuations, M&A activity, IPOs and thus wealth creation you’d echo John Doerr’s famous quote from 1999 that, “The Internet is the gr

Startup 391
article thumbnail

Branchout an Example of Viral Spread Opportunity for Startups

SoCal CTO

Branchout , often called LinkedIn meets Facebook, has done a lot in their application to provide users motivation and opportunity to spread the word about the service. The purpose of Branchout is helping people to network their way to jobs. However, funny enough, I don't see the job search and showing you who you know at the company as being particularly well done.

Examples 331
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Savings.com: The California Internet Tax Law and Unintended Consequences

socalTECH

Last night, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill which taxes Internet retailers if they have California affiliates, a move which looks to have major impact on local companies who use Internet affiliate marketing. As part of that, Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and a large number of e-commerce retailers have cut off their California affiliates, saying that they will immediately stop paying them for referrals due to the move.

CPC 279
article thumbnail

Interview: Arnie Gullov-Singh, CEO of Ad.ly

InfoChachkie

Value Prop Twitter Style : Ad.ly helps brands start conversations with target audiences on Twitter. Our celebrity influencers drive awareness and inspire engagement. You can watch the video below or on YouTube here: [link]. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Arnie’s responses. For exact quotes, watch the videos. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

article thumbnail

Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

article thumbnail

Create equity value with every step.

Berkonomics

You may be an architect or doctor or other professional managing your business, knowing that the end game value of your client or patient list is small and not easily transferred to any buyer without attrition. In such a case, there is little advice here unless you think outside of your day-to-day profession and create a valuable leave-behind encasing your knowledge and experience that can be replicated and scaled to a large business – even if by others.

Equity 209
article thumbnail

Ten Action Items to Reduce Entrepreneur Stress

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the most common complaints I hear from entrepreneurs is that they are overwhelmed by the workload and stress of starting their company. Then there are the additional challenges of balancing the demands of family and friends. Having too much on your plate can turn your dream into a nightmare. Some people will tell you to just get a bigger plate, meaning hire some help.

More Trending

article thumbnail

Choosing a Programming Language and Framework for Your Startup

SoCal CTO

We had an interesting presentation at the LA CTO Forum by the CTO of a startup who chose Groovy / Grails as the framework for their startup. t prompted a good discussion around how CTOs go about choosing the programming language and framework for their startup. Some common themes from the discussion: Know Where You Are Going Before you can possibly make a choice around language and framework you need to ask all the important questions that are talked about in Startup Software Development – Do Yo

Framework 330
article thumbnail

Interview with Jimmy Hendricks, Deal Current

socalTECH

In the rush toward the daily deals space, it seems like there is at least one, new, daily deals site created every day. It's an incredibly crowded industry, which not only includes giants like Groupon and LivingSocial, but countless smaller sites, newspapers, and others all looking for a piece of the action. However, San Diego-based Deal Current (www.dealcurrent.com) appears to have found a sustainable niche in the industry--not providing daily deals, but powering those multiplying deal sites, i

Platform 263
article thumbnail

Why You Should Hire A Gaggle Of Interns At Your Startup - And It’s Not For An In-house Wait Staff Or Free Labor…

InfoChachkie

“If I had to, I could clean out my desk in five minutes… and nobody would ever know I’d ever been here. And I’d forget too.”. Ryan Howard, the fictional Intern on the TV comedy, The Office. Michael Scott, the fictional head of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton office, hires an Intern for all the wrong reasons. Driven by low self-esteem, the hapless Mr.

Startup 244
article thumbnail

Faster is sometimes more valuable than better.

Berkonomics

And d oing both well usually wins the day. This is one of those arguable insights, where both sides win. Dell is a great example of emphasis upon fast, creating a customized computer in 48 hours or less, bringing in assemblies and components just-in-time to make the assembly line. However, if Dell quality were poor and returns high, the company surely would not have survived on speed of response alone.

article thumbnail

How You Can be Viewed as a Fundable Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

Investors are people too. They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. What are your credentials? What have you done that would convince me that my money is safe in your hands? Only after they see you as fundable, do they want to assess your plan for fundability, not the other way around. Even with great credentials, it is all too possible for an entrepreneur to come across as a high risk investment.

article thumbnail

Why Startups Should Raise Money at the Top End of Normal

Both Sides of the Table

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. 2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I acknowledged this in the article. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices.

Startup 336
article thumbnail

Branchout an Example of Viral Spread Opportunity for Startups

SoCal CTO

Branchout , often called LinkedIn meets Facebook, has done a lot in their application to provide users motivation and opportunity to spread the word about the service. The purpose of Branchout is helping people to network their way to jobs. However, funny enough, I don't see the job search and showing you who you know at the company as being particularly well done.

Examples 323
article thumbnail

BLANKSPACES Set To Bring New Coworking Space To Santa Monica

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based BLANKSPACES , the coworking space run by Jerome Chang, is getting set to open up a second location in Santa Monica in the next week, along 2nd street. The coworking operator said it will have over 20 offices and 65 workstations in its new location near the 3rd Street Promenade, located in an area populated by a number of early stage startups, venture capitalists, and others in the high tech business.

article thumbnail

Interview: Benjamin Satterfield, Co-Founder & CEO TestFlight

InfoChachkie

Messenger : Benjamin Satterfield , Co-Founder & CEO TestFlight , Founder Rootdown and Twiddla. Value Prop Twitter Style : TestFlight helps developers build better apps. You can watch the videos below or on YouTube here: PART I and PART II: What follows is a summary which paraphrases Ben’s responses. For his exact quotes, watch the videos. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

article thumbnail

Bet the farm only when the crops are on fire!

Berkonomics

This insight addresses the amount of risk you and your company are willing and able to tolerate over time. Most people believe that early stage companies should take risks aggressively because there is less to lose and much more to gain with each risky bet or decision. Common thinking goes on to address large, public corporations by expressing that the relative tolerance to risk is decreased, in favor of protecting the brand or financial health of the enterprise.

Resource 197
article thumbnail

The Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

Jason Nazar

I eat out almost every meal. I’ll spend time on Citysearch and Yelp trying to find good new spots to try, but my preference is still to get great recommendation from friends. Enter Leslie Wade, who put this list together for me below in an email (including the cute commentary), and I feel compelled to share it with the world since she’s not yet doing her own blogging.

article thumbnail

Understanding Changes in the Software & Venture Capital Industries

Both Sides of the Table

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. Specifically, Amazon has changed our entire industry in profound ways often not attributed strongly enough to them. I believe the changes to the industry will be lasting rather than temporal change.

article thumbnail

Six Things Entrepreneurs Know That Are Dead Wrong

Startup Professionals Musings

All true entrepreneurs operate off a set of tenets that are built into their psyche, or drilled into them from training and mentors. These are represented by sayings like “You never get anywhere unless you take a chance” and “Passion and persistence are the keys to success,” Unfortunately, there are still other old, reliable tenets that don’t work anymore.

article thumbnail

Interview with Jonathan Lehmann and James Chung, KarmaGoat

socalTECH

Have you ever wondered what to do with that last generation iPhone you have in the closet, or those shoes you bought and never wore, or other unwanted items you might have--but didn't want to bother selling on Craiglist, because it just wasn't worth it for the money you would earn? Well, Los Angeles-based KarmaGoat (www.karmagoat.com) has figured out a way to help people get rid of those unwanted items they have--and provide those proceeds to charity.

UCLA 256
article thumbnail

Interview: Isaac Garcia of Central Desktop

InfoChachkie

Article first published as Isaac Garcia – Taking Down Microsoft on Technorati. Messenger : Isaac Garcia , Co-Founder and CEO of Central Desktop, former Co-Founder of Upgradebase. Central Desktop was founded in 2005 to provide an easy-to-use, SaaS collaboration solution to the SMB market. The company initially focused on self-serve users who purchased the solution online, competing with the likes of Basecamp and GoPlan.

article thumbnail

There is always a bottleneck. Sometimes it is you.

Berkonomics

At many board meetings, I can be counted upon to ask, “Where’s the bottleneck this month?” Senior management is usually prepared with an answer, and a good discussion of resource availability and application follows. Sometimes, the bottleneck is not so visible to the CEO. In those instances, I follow with: “Do you notice people waiting at your door, telling you that they were waiting for your response or decision, even if you were unaware of this?

Resource 179
article thumbnail

Spotlight: LA Tech Summer Judges Includes BetterWorks, CallFire, Idealab, and Tech Coast Angeles

Tech Zulu Event

The Spotlight: LA Tech Summer event is turning to be the best one yet! Excellent companies being submitted and most of which I wish could all be part of this amazing night. To help curate and show off the best that LA has to offer we called in a few friends. So with out further ado I present the Spotlight: LA Tech Summer 2011 Judges! Zao Yang, COO at BetterWorks Inc ,/ Co-Creator of Farmville.

article thumbnail

On Bubbles … And Why We’ll Be Just Fine

Both Sides of the Table

This post originally ran on TechCrunch. I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I asked what the audience most needed to hear. He said, “They need an unbiased view of the fund raising environment because there is too much misinformation and everything seems to be changing fast.&#. This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs.

Pricing 309
article thumbnail

These 10 Steps Will Make Your Startup Fundable

Startup Professionals Musings

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have been working 20 hours a day, and spent your last dollar, but have no results to show, investors will be sympathetic, but will probably tell you that your dream doesn’t have wheels. Traction means forward progress. I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start.

Startup 101
article thumbnail

Amazon Threatens To Pull California Affiliates

socalTECH

Online retail giant Amazon.com is threatening to pull its California affiliates, as efforts to tax online purchases in the state gains steam. In an email to Amazon Associates who are located in California, Amazon said that it will terminate the associates program for California-based participants, as of the date of any law on the issue becomes effective.

article thumbnail

Interview: Jason Lehmbeck, Co-Founder and CEO of DataPop

InfoChachkie

Messenger : Jason Lehmbeck , Co-Founder and CEO of DataPop , former VP of Emerging Ad Products at Overture Services and Yahoo! Value Prop Twitter Style : DataPop simplifies the lives of marketers and gives them the tools they need to build ads that people love to click on. You can watch the video below or on YouTube here: [link]. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Jason’s responses.

Yahoo 210
article thumbnail

Angel / VC Funding in A Frothy Market

Both Sides of the Table

I had the privilege of keynoting at the Founder Showcase tonight in San Francisco. Adeo asked me to speak about fund raising. I generally don’t like to speak about fund raising in a frothy market. If you’re bullish you seem like a Cramer-esque cheerleader and if you’re bearish you sound like a party pooper. But Adeo asked so I obliged.

article thumbnail

Why Twitter Favorites Aren’t Really Your Favorite Tweets

Both Sides of the Table

Twitter is an ephemeral service. It’s what I love about Twitter. When I’m in the mood to consume what my world is telling me right now I can “tune in&# to Twitter and digest the rapid stream. I don’t really worry about missing stuff. If somebody wanted me to see something they’d @ message me, which I always read. And as I’ve written about in the past, I truly believe that Twitter networks are significantly different from other social networks.

Email 296
article thumbnail

The Coming Brick Wall in Venture Capital & Why This is Good for US Innovation

Both Sides of the Table

This is the final part of a 3-part series on the major changes in the structure of the software & the venture capital industries. The series started here if you want to read from the start. Or the Cliff Note’s version: Open Source & Cloud Computing (led by Amazon) drove down tech startup costs by 90%. The result was a massive increase in startups & a whole group of new funding sources: both angels & “micro VCs&#.

article thumbnail

Report: Solar Power Set To Challenge Fossil Fuels In Next 10 Years

socalTECH

A report this week from the IEEE , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, says that photovoltaic power has the potential to become the most, economical form of generating electricity, compared to even traditional, fossil fuels, within the next 10 years. According to the industry group, the cost parity will come from improved efficiency of solar PV cell technologies, and economies of scale in manufacturing.

Report 239
article thumbnail

Data.com Domain Goes For More than $1.5M

socalTECH

Proving that the market for the right domain name continues to be strong, Moniker and SnapNames , the domain name auction sites owned by Los Angeles-based Oversee.net , reported that they sold the domain Data.com for more than $1.5M on Friday. The firm said it sold the domain for an amount that "significantly exceeds" the $1.5M reserve that had been placed on the domain.

article thumbnail

W4 Scores $10M In Funding

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based W4 , an online advertising marketplace founded by former Hydra Network executives, said this morning that it has raised $10M in debt funding. The firm said the funding came from Silicon Valley Bank. W4 is headed by Jason Durant Walker. W4's co-founders include three former Hydra Network founders. READ MORE>>.

Funding 229
article thumbnail

Getty Gets Google Goggles

socalTECH

Those visitors you see wandering around the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles with their smartphones? They might not checking Facebook or surfing the web--they might be just be getting a smart phone tour of the art. Google said Monday afternoon that the museum has just gone high tech with its displays, with a new link to Google's "Google Goggles" mobile app.

Google 225
article thumbnail

SoCal's Next Big Online Publisher: Breitbart.com?

socalTECH

Southern California is already establishing a reputation as the home of one of the biggest online publishers, Demand Media. However, what will Southern California's next big, online publishing empire be? Based on events in recent days, it might be Los Angeles-based Breitbart.com , the controversial online publishing venture of Andrew Brietbart. Breitbart.com runs the site Big Government , which broke the story of U.S.

article thumbnail

Interview with Ryan Scott, CauseCast

socalTECH

One trend in the Southern California high tech startup market has been an increasing number of startups--and executives--who have been looking to combine their interests in business with their enthusiasm for giving back through nonprofits and causes. One of the firms which has been active in that area is Los Angeles-based CauseCast (www.causecast.com), run by Ryan Scott , who talked us about the company's relationship with the Huffington Post, its new efforts to provide its technology to compani

Causecast 222