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If You Don’t Define Your Personal Brand the Market Will

Both Sides of the Table

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. For 1991 I was very technical and also had a lot of practical business implementation experience in technology. ” F**k.

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Three Words Entrepreneurs (and VC’s) Should Take to Heart

Both Sides of the Table

But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. Some areas were easy because they were technical and the answer was knowable or estimate-able. And I encourage entrepreneurs to triangulate as well.

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How to Handle a VC Presentation with No Deck

Both Sides of the Table

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

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What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI

Both Sides of the Table

(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.

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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. In these kinds of businesses I’m on the record as advising “ Ring the Freakin Cash Register.” Valuation. You really need to subtract the final month.

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Interview with Erik Rannala, MuckerLab

socalTECH

One of the biggest complaints you hear from both entrepreneurs and investors in Los Angeles, is the lack of a credible, visible startup accelerator in the Los Angeles area. You were most recently in venture capital, what drove you to move down here to Los Angeles and start this up?

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Time is the Enemy of All Deals

Both Sides of the Table

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t close. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A. Especially in VC. Any deal.