Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. Tech Diligence - Consider The Source. However, they seldom acknowledge their mistakes.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions for 2019 from Southern California's technology industry. Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that you found most interesting in 2018?

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2014

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. Yes, the software patent process is a mess. I say this with conviction even after I survived the process, and have a software patent pending. Software technology changes rapidly.

Patents 100

Patents Software Review Software Technical Advisors 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Today, we share the thoughts of Kelly Perdew , the founder and Managing Director of Moonshots Capital (www.moonshotscapital.com).

Capital 100

Capital Technical Review Truecar Venture Capital 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. If you are outside internet software we are not going to invest.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 That died with waterfall software development. Why do VC’s care about these years? Don’t know what LTV is?

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

According to a Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with a majority of new ventures that don''t attract investors failing within the first three years. My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

These are industries where structural impediments to technology adoption have only recently been broken down by the advent of incredibly powerful mobile devices. As Fifth Wall’s newest partner Greg Smithies noted last year, there’s a massive opportunity in building retrofits and startup technologies to improve efficiency.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

Entrepreneurs can still build big businesses on the outskirts.” David encourages entrepreneurs to stay away from the big tech firms (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) because they are hard to compete with. We once thought Microsoft was a monopoly on the Internet due to IE. Where David is Totally Right.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

According to a classic Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with a majority of new ventures that don't attract investors failing within the first three years. My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain, such as online web sites and smart phone apps, that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

There is a common belief in the angel and venture capital community that you put your money on the best team, rather than the best idea. Thus the top priority of every entrepreneur who wants funding should be to build and highlight their “dream team” of co-founders, executives and advisers, to attract the biggest and best investors.

Startup 60

Startup Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Kira is the Innovation Program Executive at NASA HQ within the Office of the Space Technology Mission Directorate Office. She launched the iTech program within NASA to reach out to startups with innovative technology that have an Earth and space travel application. He has over a decade of portfolio management in capital markets.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

Xconomy

JULY 31, 2019

Levin built Millennium Pharmaceuticals—inspiring a generation of future executives/entrepreneurs along the way—and also helped reinvent the venture capital market for early stage biotechs by founding Third Rock, where his work has helped bring a slew of important new companies and new drugs to market.

Venture Capital 97

Venture Capital Capital Entrepreneur Help 97

socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2018

com) recently , announced a new healthcare focused venture capital fund, worth $25M. We know one thing, which is that entrepreneurs come out of a world where there is disruption. Wavemaker is a very established venture capital fund, a generalist fund run by Eric Manlunas. What's the story behind the fund?

Startup 113

Startup Technical Review Software Review Artificial Inteligence 113

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2017

Next week is the Montgomery Summit (www.montgomerysummit.com), one of the longest running technology conferences held in Los Angeles. The conference is run by Jamie Montgomery , one of the local industry's pioneers in venture capital and investment. What most excites you about the technology industry here today?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Conference Silver Lake Cornerstone OnDemand 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. This benefits you, the entrepreneur. This is total bullshit.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Tech.Co

MAY 25, 2018

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur, technology has served you well. The barriers to entry when it comes to launching a company require less tension and a lot less capital. Indiegogo is a platform for ground breaking technology and where you can find interesting products that haven’t hit the mainstream market.

Startup 140

Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capitalists) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

My starting line with every entrepreneur is that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned from F’ing it up on my first business. An external consultant helping the procurement team overturned the decision and got the company to select a small software company owned by the consultancy.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Los Angeles-based Signal Sciences (www.signalsciences.com), which develops web application firewall software, just inked a big, $35M series C funding round a few weeks ago, and now has plans to dramatically expand its hiring in Los Angeles. Tell us a little bit about this round? Were excited about both angles.

Startup 113

Startup Funding Technical Review Software Review 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The company was founded by Bong Koh, a former EIR at Prism VentureWorks and venture capitalist at Advanced Technology Ventures; he also co-founded ibeatyou. Also, we've got a few entrepreneurs, including Kevin Chou, who is at Kabam up north, and has raised $150M in funding, and Alex Bard, who was at Goowy, which he sold to AOL.

Startup 271

Startup CTO Coach Activity Software Review 271

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 7, 2013

Stained Glass Labs (SGL), the first Glass and wearable technologies accelerator has launched the world’s first comprehensive app directory and a self-service app publishing portal for Google Glass pre-launched applications. Entrepreneurs will also be able to communicate with the Bloggerati and showcase their products to the world.

Google 87

Google Technical Review Press Software Review 87

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. We only want software revenue.” We prefer to sell software, not get involved with client systems.”

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Southern California's technology community--despite all of the recent excitement around Silicon Beach--continues to be underserved in terms of capital, with a lack of venture capital funds (with money), and other private technology investors. Jeb Spencer: We consider ourselves a private equity firm.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 24, 2013

TechZulu & Gadget Review present REACH. A quarterly event series seeking to dive deep into what comes next in technology, and giving you the opportunity to experience it first hand with the gadgets on site. Scot has been an entrepreneur and executive responsible for the launch of several interactive entertainment ventures.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Technology Activision Entertainment 76

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Our interview today is with Andrew Schydlowsky , the CEO and founder of Santa Barbara-based TrackStreet (www.trackstreet.com), a startup which is backed by Okapi Capital, The Cove Fund, Early Light Ventures, SaaS Venture Capital, and Stage Venture Partners. Andrew Schydlowsky: I'm a serial entrepreneur.

Artificial Inteligence 140

Artificial Inteligence Startup Commerce Sales 140

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2014

The very mention of the word fundraising can illicit some powerful emotions among entrepreneurs. On one end, entrepreneurs who have (at minimum) built something customers love and are willing to pay for, and the other hand, investors who are looking for the very companies who fit that profile. 116,105,000.

Invest 100

Invest Startup Technical Review Software Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capitalists) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309