Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based].

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

The best entrepreneurs in our industry focus on it year-round as opposed to just once every 18 months. Let’s say you have built a SaaS company where a large part of the early revenue comes from a few big customers or a large part of the revenue is services based vs. software based. Let me give you an example. Remind me why I love you?

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. You can sense when it is a “mission” for this entrepreneur to succeed and she will continue the journey even if success isn’t easy or immediate.

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

We discussed why in Q4 you will see large renegotiations of SaaS contracts and increased churn rates. There are large sums of money to be invested and if investors can get comfortable with “downside protections” they’ll still write checks. Not anywhere nearly as hard as being an entrepreneur. It’s hard being a VC right now.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

InfoChachkie

MARCH 4, 2013

Entrepreneurs can learn a great deal from the manner in which Pink Floyd created DSOTM. Pink Floyd recorded DSOTM after a year of writing and performing the material in front of live audiences. Entrepreneurs should always err on the side of long-term gain. Pay To Play.

Startup 269

Startup Cloud Computing RSS Writing 269

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Traditional software vs. SaaS. Most entrepreneurs I encounter seem to make their decisions more on perceived brand, past successes and ability to intro. Most VCs are book smart. Think of web vs. mobile. It’s not you.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. So I send Byron any SaaS investment I do at the earliest stage where I know we’ve nailed product / market fit. PHONE CALLS. Enter phone calls.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The mistake entrepreneurs make is either writing a lengthy email (everybody has too much email so it will get skimmed / not digested) or not having a deck which means the VC can’t quickly determine his or her fit as a potential investor. The key is WHAT you send.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We take a really friendly, Shark Tank approach that promotes young entrepreneurs, and lets them pitch to a group of seasoned investors and venture capitalists on a panel, and where they not only get an actual investment, but also go through a retail challenge, to get consumer feedback. How did you get involved with angel investing, initially?

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Competition 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

One of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs make when they start a company and raise outside capital is figuring out what an acceptable “burn rate” is. I know as an entrepreneur you prefer as long of a runway as possible — I’ve never heard an entrepreneur argue for the opposite. Each investor would need to write $1–1.5

Startup 212

Startup Venture Capital .Net Capital 212

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

My initial blogging inspiration was actually Brad Feld because as an entrepreneur I always wanted to work with Brad after reading his advice on term sheets and the like. In stead of just writing operating and funding advice Fred also talks about industries. I remember writing about online video nearly 5 years ago.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Steve Reich

JUNE 6, 2012

The stories are everywhere…VCs and Angel groups are passe’–the cool kids are raising money from “Super Angels” Just go talk to a friendly millionaire, and he/she will simply write a check to finance your “A” round. The ones that can (and will) write a seven-figure check are rare.

Angel 55

Angel Writing SaaS Startup 55

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. When I started my second company I was a serial entrepreneur. I introduced myself as a serial entrepreneur. I was a serial entrepreneur. I could become the SaaS guy.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

The value that is being “added” is often at arms length or via a specialist who interacts with the entrepreneur. But like a Darwinian experiment, the extent to which these gifts are utilized remains entirely up to each individual entrepreneur. Unwinding at an Amplify party.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

socalTECH

JULY 27, 2009

For SharePoint, we'll provide additional features--like the ability to upload and modify documents while offline, and synchronize with a SharePoint site, with both read and write community in the Pro version. Tags: entrepreneur access offline service software saas mobophiles startup interview chow william. more) READ MORE>>.

SaaS 127

SaaS Web Google Sites 127

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

I’m often asked the question about why there aren’t more women who are entrepreneurs. The truth is I have been thinking a lot about the topic, I just haven’t been writing about it. My inspiration to become an entrepreneur came from my mom, not my dad. million to launch a SaaS software company and we took $2.5

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

We’ve had just one market since then and it could confuse one into thinking: every deal finds downstream investors, every company good or bad finds a home, you know anything at all about brazil, india, china or even saas sales, ecommerce or analytics (you know all these in a bull market). why do I write p.s.’s sometimes?

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2017

Andrew Peterson: We've been really lucky to have a lot of investors who have great experience in working with both SaaS companies, and especially, security. Not to plug myself, but I've done some writing and published a book with O'Reilly, talking about security misconceptions. Let's talk about your funding.

Web 138

Web Startup Southern California Software 138

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

There have been a lot of entrepreneurs here in software and other industries, and interestingly enough there seem to be more self-funded, bootstrapped firms here, rather than those looking for venture capital to get off the group. The traditional way to handle that is to write code.

Networking 214

Networking IBM IBM Pacific Palisades 214

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

8 ) SocialStay is effectively a B-to-B, SaaS product that requires you to simultaneously speak to several audiences (hotels, travelers, travel sites, etc.). Do you have any advice for emerging entrepreneurs regarding how they can be frugal without compromising their company’s value prop? Write it down….

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 31, 2011

9) In Competing From The Fringe , I caution entrepreneurs to not alert their competitors when they are making mistakes. What are the primary differences between being a Founder, versus an early Executive, and which role would you recommend to an emerging entrepreneur? Ideally we’d like to work with other B2B SAAS businesses.

MyLife 160

MyLife CitySearch Web Technical Review 160

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 31, 2011

9) In Competing From The Fringe , I caution entrepreneurs to not alert their competitors when they are making mistakes. What are the primary differences between being a Founder, versus an early Executive, and which role would you recommend to an emerging entrepreneur? Ideally we’d like to work with other B2B SAAS businesses.

MyLife 157

MyLife CitySearch Web Technical Review 157

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs, We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. We'll even write a half a million check. That as unhealthy. That's what I'm hoping to do.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

If you've taken a course, and need an application to do chemistry or math analysis, there's a store where you can write, share, sell, or buy those applications. After that, I was involved in a lot of angel investing, starting companies, and helping entrepreneurs to get going. The other part of this is an app store.

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

The value that is being “added” is often at arms length or via a specialist who interacts with the entrepreneur. But like a Darwinian experiment, the extent to which these gifts are utilized remains entirely up to each individual entrepreneur. Unwinding at an Amplify party.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. This is why investors really like SaaS software companies where you have recurring revenue and your largest customer accounts for < 5% of your revenue and your renewals rates are > 90%.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. Or “I’m a new entrepreneur, why would I offer advice on how to run a startup?&#. By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Those were the early days of SaaS and you might remember that even Salesforce.com has major outage problems. The process in and of itself was pretty lengthy and at some point I’d like to write about it in more detail. Scaling a business is often about the boring stuff that doesn’t excite the early-stage entrepreneurs.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2. When you began your teaching career, did you plan on eventually being an entrepreneur? What guidance can you give to anyone in a financially safe career who longs for the exciting life of an entrepreneur?

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When an entrepreneur takes on investors who take equity (i.e. I was a SaaS company and he had been on the Executive Board and the Strategy Council for Larry Ellison at Oracle and he taught me some key lessons about sales and he served as a useful buffer between my investors and me. But if they could even write $2,500?—?money

Startup 187

Startup Writing Venture Capital Oracle 187

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Vice versa is it’s a SaaS platform company where I spent nearly 10 years running companies. tip: write it down when asked / parked). Congratulations.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

. - Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Sales & Marketing Advice Social Media Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000. ” “This will be great for VCs and bad for entrepreneurs.” What is the True Sentiment of VCs? ” “Sure, prices are dropping.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

Sales 150

Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

SaaS 101: 7 Simple Lessons From Inside HubSpot - OnStartups , July 19, 2010 It’s been a little over 4 years since I officially launched my internet marketing software company , HubSpot. So, I’ve had about 4 years on the “inside” of a fast-growing, venture-backed B2B SaaS startup. I got a taste of that within my first weeks on the job.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217