2015

article thumbnail

Framework Benchmarks Round 10

TechEmpower

'Round 10 of the Framework Benchmarks project is now available! It has been a little less than a year since the previous round and in that time, approximately 133 contributors have made 2,835 git commits. These contributions have improved the project''s toolset and added many new framework test implementations. We retired our in-house i7-2600K hardware environment for Round 10, and we changed our Amazon EC2 environment to c3.large instances.

Framework 392
article thumbnail

What I’ve Learned About Venture Funding

Both Sides of the Table

VC funding. Our perspectives on the topic wax and wane with market cycles. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser.

Funding 329
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

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

article thumbnail

The best advice startups will never follow

Berkonomics

Let me tell you a few short hair-raising stories of entrepreneurs who have raised money and regretted it later. Here are some rules that entrepreneurs almost always ignore to their future peril. Don’t take money from relatives who can’t afford to walk away without remorse. Do take money from experienced family members only after you ask them if they are sure three or more separate times.

Startup 241
article thumbnail

Announcing The socalTECH 50, 2015 Edition

socalTECH

Who are the top 50 people to watch in Southern California? We've attempted to do that for the last three years, trying to ferret out exactly who the people--not companies--are to watch in the region's technology industry. It's a thankless, unforgiving, made more difficult in that there are no repeats on this list from our prior two years (many were nominated), and our specific exclusion of serial entrepreneurs (who make up a big chunk of Southern California's startup activity), and our exclusion

SoCalTech 216
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

What The Heck Are My Startup Options Worth?

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. When joining a startup, there are seven important questions you should ask in order to answer the question: “What the heck are my stock options worth?”. You just received a job offer from a startup which includes 50,000 stock options. That is wonderful…or is it? I reviewed and approved hundreds of employment offer letters at my various startups, all of which included stock option grants.

Startup 216
article thumbnail

6 Startup Strategies That Turn Off Most Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding.

Startup 118

More Trending

article thumbnail

Why Successful People Focus on the Bottom End of the Funnel

Both Sides of the Table

Business leaders have many tasks to accomplish and prioritizing stuff can be hard. Yesterday I wrote about the need to “ do fewer things, more often ” in which I described that frenzied world we live in and why the shiny objects and distractions stop us from living up to our true potential. Today I’d like to give that advice in more tangible terms and with a framework to think about your tasks – the funnel.

Startup 329
article thumbnail

Here Are the Details About Upfront Ventures’ Newest EIR – @Chamillionaire

Both Sides of the Table

'Five-and-a-half years ago I first met Chamillionaire at a tech conference in LA. I saw him on stage at the event talking about how he used social media to engage audiences. This was 2009 and his understanding of audience engagement was far beyond anything I was hearing from most people at that time. I reached out after the event to learn more. We started hanging out a bit and discussing technology and entrepreneurship.

article thumbnail

Do Less. More.

Both Sides of the Table

We are experiencing a frenetic time. I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. One would think entrepreneurs would never want less available cash – until such time as their competitors ridiculously and unnecessarily all raise $50 million in the name of a “land grab” thus mak

article thumbnail

What Everyone Should Take Away from Twitter’s 8% Staff Reductions

Both Sides of the Table

Today Twitter announced it had laid off around 336 jobs or 8% of its workforce. Nobody should celebrate, cheer or shout, “it’s about time.” This is about 336 people whose lives are altered and need to begin looking for work, saying goodbye to friends & colleagues and go on that journey of transition that most people dread. I wish all of them well and feel confident that anybody employed at one of the most innovative companies of the past 10 years will land on his or her fe

article thumbnail

The Loneliness of Success that Nobody Talks About

Both Sides of the Table

Yesterday I saw two biopic films: “ Amy ” about the life of Jazz sensation Amy Winehouse who died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 and “ Montage of Heck ” about the life of Kurt Cobain , the grunge-rock generational voice who died of an overdose of heroin and valium at the age of … 27. It was a heavy day, for sure.

Press 305
article thumbnail

One Simple Paragraph Every Entrepreneur Should Add to Their Convertible Notes

Both Sides of the Table

I’m so tired of seeing young entrepreneurs get screwed by their angel investors on convertible notes and I know I can’t convince you not to do it so I’d like to offer one simple bit of advice to help you avoid getting screwed (at least on one part of your note). When you do a convertible note with a cap that converts into the next round of funding one of the unintended consequences is that if you’re successful and raise at a larger price than your cap the early angels oft

article thumbnail

What Makes a Great Business Partner?

Both Sides of the Table

A while back when I was reading the press I saw a quote from Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins that was simple, yet profound. He was quoted as saying, “Being a great partner is as important as being smart or being right.”. I liked it so much I wrote it down and tried to think about what it meant to me and I promised myself I would write about that one day.

Startup 301
article thumbnail

What To Do When Your Competitor Gets Funded?

Both Sides of the Table

This morning Clutter.io announced they raised $9 million from Sequoia , arguably the best venture capital firm that exists. Congratulations. Sincerely. Conventional wisdom says I shouldn’t tell you this because I invested in their main competitor, MakeSpace. I know my MakeSpace friends will forgive me because I just don’t believe the conventional wisdom is right.

Funding 298
article thumbnail

What to Make of Amazon’s Work Practices?

Both Sides of the Table

There is much discussion about this weekend’s article in the NY Times regarding Amazon’s work practices. People seem polarized between, “that’s what it takes to succeed” to “I can’t believe what a heartless, intolerant and misogynistic company culture they’ve built.” I’ve heard the gamut from reading opinions online and even hearing the debate in circles of my close friends and family.

Startup 298
article thumbnail

Why @UpfrontVC invested in Disruptive Rental Car Startup @Skurt

Both Sides of the Table

Rental cars. I have never met a person who loved their rental car company or the experience of turning up at an airport, waiting in line, paying a huge fee and then dealing with returns, airport shuttle buses and so forth not to mention half-washed and smelly cars. I think the closest parallel I have is the feeling I had for taxi cabs (inconvenient, smelly, expensive) before Uber.

Invest 297
article thumbnail

Founders from MIT With a Plan to Change How We Grow and Eat Food

Both Sides of the Table

In our industry we always talk about funding big ideas or funding things with more meaning. It’s something Yves Sisteron & I have been talking about for years at Upfront Ventures. Today we’re proud to talk more about Grove Labs – we really hope you’ll quickly check out this innovative product and we think many of you will be as impressed with Grove as we have been.

article thumbnail

What is it Like to Negotiate a VC Round?

Both Sides of the Table

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. The truth is that I’ve been warning about convertible notes since 2010 it was first declared that “convertible notes have won.” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note.

article thumbnail

The Most Important Advice I Could Give You About Unicorns

Both Sides of the Table

*. Unicorns. The most overused word in the technology industry today. And they aren’t even f **g real. That is how absurd thing have gotten. No, I take that back. THIS is how absurd things have gotten: “I have to raise at a billion-dollar valuation” “Why? You don’t have the revenue or profit to support that valuation.” “But if I don’t I won’t be able to recruit the best people in the market.

Startup 290
article thumbnail

The Most Misunderstood Facts About Building a Business on YouTube

Both Sides of the Table

'Any reader of this blog for a period of time will know that I’ve been long YouTube for years. Along with Greycroft, I was the first institutional investor in Maker Studios (sold to Disney for nearly $1 billion) and am still the largest investor in Mitu Network , the largest online video producer of Latino content. We have made 5 online video investments in total – some we will talk about later this year.

SEM 288
article thumbnail

What You Can Learn from a Scorpion

Both Sides of the Table

The hardest thing about starting a company is that from day one you emerge as this completely vulnerable entity trying its hardest to project success, power, trajectory and inevitability while you secretly know that you’re one knock-out blow from extinction. Think about it: You start with nearly no money, you bring on some co-founders and if they quit it could completely derail your mission, you talk to journalists who if they decide to be cranky can ruin your reputation, you pitch investo

Startup 286
article thumbnail

What Can You Do if a VC Pulls Their Term Sheet?

Both Sides of the Table

What Can You Do if a VC Pulls Their Term Sheet? I was asked to answer this exact question on Quora and I did so some time ago. The beauty of evergreen content is that it resurfaces all the time and it is as relevant today as it was years ago when I answered it. One of my favorite ways to resurface content is when I see people on Twitter put out a Tweet linking to an old post.

article thumbnail

How the Seed-Stage VC Trend Began, The Downsides of Unicorns & Much More

Both Sides of the Table

'*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon. Let me take you back just 10 years ago to 2005 in Silicon Valley where I returned after 11 years of living in Europe. I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000.

article thumbnail

Understanding Your True Character as an Entrepreneur

Both Sides of the Table

'Why do we do all that we do? Is it for the money? The recognition? Is work a part of life and life a part of work? Is it just the next rung in the ladder after we finish college and join the next grouping of people we’re tied to for a brief period in time? These aren’t generally the thoughts of 20-year-olds. That is the age where you do more than think. “Of course I work!

article thumbnail

Taking My Hat Off to @Shervin and His Hyperloop Ambitions

Both Sides of the Table

'*. Shervin Pishevar. Many of the articles I’ve read about him over the last several years have a listing of his biggest successes – mostly Uber – and a tinge of cynicism about his close connections with celebrities or self promotion. Not this one. I’m going to write a pure admiration piece. A “hats off” (see what I did there?

Startup 281
article thumbnail

Making Sense of the Stock Market Drops in Relation to Venture Financing

Both Sides of the Table

If you didn’t notice that the stock markets in the US dropped nearly 4% today (after falling last Thursday and Friday) then you were probably completely off-the-grid and on vacation. It was a nerve racking morning. My favorite Tweet of the morning came from Hunter Walk. You thought media twitter was bad… You thought tech twitter was bad… — Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) August 24, 2015.

Marketing 279
article thumbnail

Fighting Back Against Mobile Phones in the Bedroom

Both Sides of the Table

Technology. It has been a hobby of mine since 1981 when I fell in love with programming, applications and online games. My brain is wired for logic and for problem solving and computers have always helped me fill this compulsion. And since I was 13 years old I have been accustomed to the debate about the limitations of technology or rather the downsides of being overly obsessed with gadgets, devices, software or applications.

Mobile 278
article thumbnail

Does a VCs Culture Really Matter? The Upfront Story

Both Sides of the Table

I’m often asked about the differences between being at a VC and being an entrepreneur and whether I prefer one or the other. The biggest difference I cite is that Venture Capital often feels like an “individual sport” while startups are a “team sport.” The reason is that at a VC you have a group of partners who often have different focus areas of excellence, each pursues deals in their respective field, each makes investments and sits on boards and each spends their

article thumbnail

What is The Best Way to Explain Your Startup?

Both Sides of the Table

Anybody who reads the blog regularly will know that I’m long video. I’ve made 5 investments in the sector and I hope to make 5 more. Between the US & Europe alone the video sector is worth around $500 billion. And TV / Film / Video Games / Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality and frankly the Internet will all merge. Western countries watch > 5 hours of TV per day.

Startup 276
article thumbnail

How Great, Operationally-Focused CFO’s Can Transform Your Business

Both Sides of the Table

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing.

article thumbnail

Be Careful About Being a Meddling Startup CEO

Both Sides of the Table

'*. I recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. Fred Wilson also wrote on a similar topic in his usual more succinct manner , with a great quote being: “One thing I know for sure is that those who advise and invest in startups cannot and should not meddle in the day to day decision making.

Startup 276
article thumbnail

Why I Look for High Conviction, not Consensus, in Venture Capital Decisions

Both Sides of the Table

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. The truth is that each firm is different and there isn’t one standard but over the years I’ve talked with enough of my peers to get sense of how many firms work. Often if it’s a bigger firm (say 4 partners or more) and it’s a super small investment for their fund size (let’s say $250-500k when they normally invest $5-7 million) t

article thumbnail

Some Career Advice for Aspiring Tech CEOs

Both Sides of the Table

'A shortened, better edited and with nicer pictures version of this post first appeared on TechCrunch. But if you want it in it’s full V1 glory read on … You’ve never been a CEO but might like to be one some day. But how? Nobody sees you as a CEO since you’ve never been one? I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” If you don’t create the message about your

article thumbnail

What Should You Make of the Web Summit Controversy? A View Behind the Scenes

Both Sides of the Table

Like many of you I read the Is Web Summit a Scam article making the rounds this week. I have attended Web Summits three times – it is not a scam. Let me get that out of the way. It’s a big conference and all big conferences charge money, make money and serve a diverse set of needs. I even wrote about my experiences attending Web Summit , something I rarely ever write about.

Web 272
article thumbnail

How to Build Online Relationships into Meaningful Networks

Both Sides of the Table

'I was waiting for my son’s basketball game to start this morning and with the morning’s emails all drained I turned to Twitter and saw this Tweet from Marshall Kirkpatick. Test: open your twitter stream, look at the 1st item in it, think of something to say in response, say it. Theory: it’s really that simple. — Marshall Kirkpatrick (@marshallk) January 24, 2015.

article thumbnail

Fauxmentum

Both Sides of the Table

__. faux·men·tum. fōˈmen(t)əm,fəˈmen(t)əm/. noun. when a technology startup, its investors or the market believe in robust growth rates writ large. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __.

Startup 270