Berkonomics

MAY 8, 2014

I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. Grant writing takes skill and immense amounts of time. .” . The company has been funded entirely by grants from the National Institute of Health, amounting to millions of non-dilutive dollars in all.

Company 166

Company Companies Writing Education 166

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2014

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Tie payments to your product or service revenue. Loans are a safer option than equity.

Funding 101

Funding Startup Equity Entrepreneur 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2018

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Tie payments to your product or service revenue. Loans are a safer option than equity.

Funding 59

Funding Startup Equity Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Tie payments to your product or service revenue. Loans are a safer option than equity.

Startup 97

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Venture Capital 97

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. He’s thoughtful about markets, investors, products and is always very well reasoned in his arguments. The firm focuses on early stage companies in the Northeast but occasionally invests in California startups.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

The traditional way that this type of financing is offered is what is known as “convertible debt.&# This means that the investment does not have a valuation placed on it. a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. Should entrepreneurs have convertible debt or priced equity?

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Providing your product or service free to customers may sound attractive in marketing materials, but you need revenue sources to survive. Professional investors look for the right people, more than the right product. Project revenues, costs and investment needs. Provide details on the business model and cash flow.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. A dysfunctional team, or even one naysayer in a critical position can stall your investment.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Startup Writing Competition 94

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. What is the investment focus for this fund?

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

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. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2013

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. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Course Patents 109

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Jackson , “This financing round, coupled with hiring Adam Sroka as our head of technology, puts CapLinked in a position to further enhance our enterprise product offerings.”. Yesterdays’ equity round of $1.6 25 Years of Writing Code. According to CEO Eric M. million Raised. The post CapLinked Raise $1.6m

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. I spoke about the need of the CEO, CTO and head of Products to be in the same location. Google’s investment in Zynga. I’m going to make this a regular part of the show since it was really fun. Great exit. - Beyond The Rack.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2010

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. A dysfunctional team, or even one naysayer in a critical position can stall your investment.

Technical Review 90

Technical Review Writing Competition Tips 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2012

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. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Course Patents 117

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Each of your angels or seed investors may have 20-30 investments. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. Should VC’s really be impacted by public market valuations when the money that they’re investing today should be for returns in 7-10 years?

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” But if you’re the Director or Product or VP of Marketing – you don’t get to make that decision. At Upfront we invested in such a company.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

We want to invest in early-stage technology enabled startup businesses – upfront in the funding cycle. In fact, 90% of our investments are either Seed or A-round investments (10% are B-round). We’re a national venture capital investment firm but with our roots firmly in Los Angeles. That’s healthy.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). So people sell or at least don’t invest.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get to do a deep dive on their business model, product roadmap and competitive positioning. I’m not saying I don’t spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. The upside for entrepreneurs is the equity in their business.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

agreeing whether or not to top up a founder’s equity. negotiating with other VCs over who gets to invest how much. As a result I’ve really resisted writing about negotiations. If I forget to write, “Don’t Negotiation Piecemeal” after that then remind me. submitting term sheets.

Pricing 305

Pricing Startup Examples Writing 305

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2010

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. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Angel Technical Review Course 96

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

Los Angeles-based Maple Media (maplemedia.io) recently announced a big, $30M funding from Shamrock Capital, to assemble a collection of mobile applications in the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. Traffic Marketplace, Adconian, TheTradeDesk)--what is it that you look for in investing in a startup?

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Custom 104

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2011

That's important, because it allows marketers to re-invest and give credit to that marketing event, so they can buy more of it and get more customers. It worked so well, in fact, that venture capitalists actually came to visit us, looked at what we had, and wanted to invest because of that technology. Jeff Zwelling. I grew up here.

Startup 210

Startup Marketing Custom Customer 210

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Most advisors will tell you to write the business plan first (20-30 pages), then distill the key points into a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides for standup presentations to potential investors. Solution product & technology. Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. Exit strategy.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Custom 101

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

The recent firing of Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason is a cautionary tale of the increased scrutiny and heightened expectations that come from accessing increasingly larger amounts of investment capital. Thirteen months after raising more than $10 billion in the public markets the board forced Mason out after another dismal financial quarter.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175