Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 22, 2012
Intros.They’re the lifeblood of networking – the currency of mavens. They are your route to angel money. Your entrée to sales meetings. We couldn’t live without them. But when misused, overused or abused they can diminish your personal brand, consume your valuable time and waste that of the relationships you value the most. I would like to make the case for being judicious with your introductions.
Berkonomics
MARCH 25, 2012
For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point. Many formulas then discount those projections according to some set percentage or by assigning weight to elements of the enterprise.
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InfoChachkie
MARCH 5, 2012
In 1961, after 70-years, professional baseball created its first expansion teams – the Angels and Twins. Naysayers harshly criticized the growth of the league, fearing that new teams would dilute the talent pool and ultimately lower the quality of game play. Since 1961, professional baseball has grown from 18-teams to 30. Over the same period, professional football and basketball leagues also expanded dramatically.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2012
Are you the sort of person who relies on your friends to help you figure out the best places to explore on the web? Wish you could lean on your friends to get insights into the great new services you ought to try? That's the idea behind HypeMarks (www.hypemarks.com), a new startup looking to tap into your social graph to guide you to the web. We thought we'd get the pitch from Tim Sae Koo , the founder of the company, on how he took the idea from his business class at USC and turned it into a co
Advertiser: Aggregage
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.
SoCal CTO
MARCH 12, 2012
I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. I promised I would write this post with some thoughts and ideas on the topic. Here's an example of that kind of email. "I'm looking for a partner / cofounder who can not only head the technical aspects and build a working model of the site, but someone with the connections to put a great development team together when we need it.
Technology Council
MARCH 19, 2012
By Richard E. Neff There is so much in the news about cyber-security. Much of the focus is on cyber war as a new and inevitable weapon, Stuxnet and the vulnerability of our national infrastructure. Some of the news is about use of computers to steal US technology and trade secrets, with culprits—if traceable—often located in China or [.].
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Berkonomics
MARCH 15, 2012
In the creation of a new enterprise, there are five principal risks to be addressed by the entrepreneur. Professional investors will probe these five risk areas and make the decision to invest based upon comfort with each. So it is important for the entrepreneur to identify, address and mitigate each of these in order to increase valuation and decrease the risk of ultimate loss of the business.
InfoChachkie
MARCH 14, 2012
While working, I often listen to YouTube videos in the background, much like a podcast. Depending on what I am working on and the degree to which the video is compelling, my focus on the video’s content fades in and out. Occasionally a video compels me to take a break and devote all of my attention to it. This occurred while I was listening to the embedded video below.
socalTECH
MARCH 1, 2012
Last week, Pasadena-based Punchcard (www.punchcard.com) launched its mobile apps, which help local retailers provide rewards to loyal customers. The firm is backed by Idealab, and is headed by Internet veteran Andy Steuer. We caught up with Andy, whose executive experience ranges from ZeroDegrees, NBC Internet/Xoom.com, Infoseek / Go Network, to CNET and Snap.com, and whose last firm was MerchEngines, which he sold last year, to hear more about his new startup.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 18, 2012
I’ve noticed that some entrepreneurs seem to have no trouble attracting investors, while others with a great business plan struggle with it. The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. On the top line, angel investors look to invest in entrepreneurs that have an almost unwavering passion and sense of urgency.
Technology Council
MARCH 20, 2012
By Greg Sikes If you have watched TV in the last two years, or walked through an airport, you have likely seen an IBM Smarter Planet advertisement. At the core of this message is the idea that the world is becoming more Instrumented, Interconnected, and Intelligent. Just take a look around your house, or at [.].
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 10, 2012
When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. Like most first-timers, I learned the hard way. Negotiating was a subset of every activity in a startup – it really was a way of life.
Berkonomics
MARCH 30, 2012
Guest post by Sara Mackey. Dave’s Note: This is the first time we’ve had a guest author on the BERKONOMICS site. Sara focuses upon another side of small business financing not typically considered in the angel and venture world, financing from sources for companies that will probably never be attractive to those niches. . So, you’ve been thinking about starting your own firm for the past ten years.
Tech Zulu Event
MARCH 26, 2012
“The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities,” writes Swedish documentary filmmakers, David Dworsky and Victor Köhler, when describing their 2011 SXSW debut film Press, Pause, Play ; documenting the technological shift recently allowing a creative democracy in music.
socalTECH
MARCH 15, 2012
Last week, Santa Monica-based Docstoc (www.docstoc.com), the online business documents site headed by Jason Nazar, launched a new website, called License123 (www.license123.com). The new site is a separate brand, offering up help to businesses trying to make sure their companies are properly licensed in whatever city and state they are operating in.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 29, 2012
In sports, mental toughness is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity. If anyone in business ever needed mental toughness, it’s an entrepreneur. Investors tell me that startup success is all about execution, all while facing determined competitors and overcoming customers’ resistance to change. Dr.
Technology Council
MARCH 12, 2012
By Barry Lieberman A “lead” means many things to many people. To some it’s a list of contacts based upon a specific location, industry, age group or other demographic. While to others it’s the contact that has completed an online form or responded to an advertisement. Yet to many sales people it’s a person who [.].
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 31, 2012
Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple , you should. It takes on many of the lessons MBA programs and Corporate America have been teaching about business for the past 50+ years and questions whether lessons from Apple might be more applicable in thinking about the future.
Berkonomics
MARCH 8, 2012
When you seek professional investors, whether organized angels or venture capitalists, one of the early questions you are asked is “How have you financed the business so far?” Investors love to see entrepreneurs who have used their own money to ignite their businesses. But often, entrepreneurs turn to others for initial capital. Describing that capital using the phrase “friends, family and fools,” or “FFF,” has become as common as to be trite.
Tech Zulu Event
MARCH 16, 2012
This week during SXSW we learned of all sorts of the new startup scenes around the country, even the world. One in particular we talked with was startup accelerator The Gig Tank out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga has recently begun to blossom in the world of design, startups, and tech. So here’s an infographic breaking down some of the exciting things to come summer 2012.
socalTECH
MARCH 27, 2012
Los Angeles-based Mogreet , the provider of video-based, mobile marketing services, is in the midst of and expansion, including the hiring of two executives to its sales and marketing team. The company, which is headed by James Citron, said today that it has hired Serena Ehrlich as Director of Marketing, and Anthony Ward as Director of Sales for the firm.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 31, 2012
As an entrepreneur, your personal integrity is critical for getting and keeping the support of investors and team members, and your company’s integrity is critical for getting and keeping customers and vendors. But in a practical sense, what does that really mean? Most definitions of integrity include something like “the quality of being honest and morally upright.
Steve Reich
MARCH 30, 2012
New companies are being created at stunning speed by today’s founders. If you can’t keep up, you are dead. As you may have gathered from my blog, I’ve spent the last couple of months visiting with companies and incubators. My key takeaway–companies are being created faster and more cheaply than I would have believed possible.
Alon Schwartz
MARCH 30, 2012
Credit: Fotolia. Like most people who have lead teams and companies for many years, I have interviewed hundreds of people. It always amazes me to see the same mistakes repeated time and time again. Sometimes I just want to tell the person sitting in front of me what to say, or what not to say so that I can end the interview. But I don’t, because I want to give the interviewee a chance.
Berkonomics
MARCH 1, 2012
Starting and running a small or growing business can be a challenge to the most confident and optimistic entrepreneur. And the process of borrowing money or financing asset purchases can be an eye-opener for those who are not used to today’s lender and seller aversion to granting easy credit. Most any entrepreneur with a clean credit record can obtain a bank card with a $50,000 limit, if s/he is willing to give a personal guarantee and has enough assets to back the promise it contains.
Tech Zulu Event
MARCH 1, 2012
Apps are quickly becoming a ubiquitous part of life. From the phone in your pocket to the television hanging on your wall, apps have penetrated technology and they aren’t going anywhere. Smart technology doesn’t work without clever software to make it useful. But where do you start? Do you need to wait until you have an idea that’s never been done before?
socalTECH
MARCH 13, 2012
Los Angeles-based HypeMarks , a new startup aimed at social discovery, launched into beta this week, looking to help users and their friends discover the web through each other. The startup--one of the firms which is part of the StartEngine accelerator in Westwood--offers up a collection of websites and web links, all tied into a user's Facebook profile.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 4, 2012
One of the big advantages of being an entrepreneur and starting your company from scratch is that you get to set the culture, which is much easier than changing the culture of an existing business. The challenge is how to do it, and how to do it right. Why not learn what you can from companies like Apple, who are leading the way with great growth and a great culture?
Frank Addante
MARCH 26, 2012
Merging a business into your own is like rebuilding a plane while in flight. Here’s how to keep flying. Acquiring other companies can be a great strategy to grow your company. It can help expand your product, team, market share, revenue, or geographic presence. Having overseen a number of acquisitions in my career, I’ve learned that it’s just as much art as it is science, and the devil is in the details.
Alon Schwartz
MARCH 25, 2012
Like all of us, I’ve been using Microsoft Windows forever, thank to Bill Gates, Windows became a fact of life. We know that a computer is built from parts like a CPU, memory and a Hard disk, which you must have in order for the computer to work, that’s hardware. Microsoft made sure that you also must have its Windows operating system for it to operate.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 17, 2012
I’ve started a series on negotiations in startups. In it I list some books and also link to some of my previous posts. It’s the first functional series I’ve done since sales & marketing. The very first time I ever negotiated a term sheet (and then legal docs for closing the round) I found the experience very frustrating. I was desperate to get my funding finalized to derisk my business as well as to get capital in the bank to meet our growing cash needs.
Tech Zulu Event
MARCH 21, 2012
Recently we talked with Grocery Coupon Network about the future of couponing and the push towards mobile solutions. Now we bring in the Chief Marketing Officer, Jeffrey Hudson to talk about the new application Grocery Coupon Network engineered to allow the entire coupon printing process to happen from inside Facebook. Enhancing the user experience to be faster and easier so that a user never has to leave their Facebook page.
socalTECH
MARCH 12, 2012
Los Angeles-based Invested.in , the developer of web-based software for managing crowd funding efforts, has connected its service into the popular AngelList service, saying last week that it is launching Crowdcelerator.com , a new service which uses AngelList's API to help startup companies raise funds and close their fundraising rounds. The new service, which is in private beta, uses AngelLists's API and Invested.in's social fundraising platform to drive angel investment deals.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 25, 2012
You have probably heard plenty of times that being an entrepreneur is a risky business, and investors talk all the time about reducing the risk. Yet everyone seems to have their own view of key risk drivers for startups, and I’m no exception. I don’t agree, for example, that the first priority is to avoid startups with a high attrition rate, like trendy restaurants and entertainment.
Frank Addante
MARCH 22, 2012
Here is a video of my keynote at the Rubicon Project Real Time Trading Summit 2012. I give an overview of the state of the online advertising industry and how a disproportionate amount of the ad spend is going to the Top 10 publishers. The comScore 500 publishers stand to level the playing field and get their fair share from the benefits of increased automation and easier access for buyer.
Alon Schwartz
MARCH 21, 2012
Let me start by saying that I owned an iPad from the very beginning. I had the first iPad and currently have the iPad 2 and I love it! My wife loves it and my kids love it. The iPad is on a very short list of technologies that changed the world as well as changed us, and probably for the better. I’m sure that we’ve seen only the beginning of that the iPad/Widows8/Android type devices will do in the future.
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