TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Apple’s pivot to services has been a mixed bag, and the company is looking to expand the appeal of its Apple News service to a wider swath of free and paid subscribers. I’ve been writing quite a bit about crypto lately, and this week I dug into a particularly interesting facet of the industry called DAOs.

Marketing 246

Marketing Newsletter Technical Review News 246

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

We are in phase three of the influencer economy,” Bain Capital Ventures senior principal Jamison Hill, who led the firm’s investment in the influencer shoutout marketplace Cameo , tells TechCrunch. 2020 will be a watershed year for investment in businesses around the creator economy,” Neil Robertson tells TechCrunch.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

At Upfront, our partners have been fortunate enough to be part of 18 companies that have reached north of $1 billion and the average tenure of an investment that exits at this scale is more than 10 years. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2018

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services.

Funding 94

Funding Startup Organization Incubator 94

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

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

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services.

Organization 93

Organization Startup Incubator Ideas 93

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

Responding to Elizabeth Warren’s call to regulate and break up some of the nation’s largest technology companies, the venture capitalists that invest in technology companies are advising the presidential hopeful to move slowly and not break anything. As a whole, venture capitalists viewing the policy were underwhelmed.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

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. Chris then discussed his current approach to angel investing in that he tries to do everything through Founder Collective (FC), unless it is out of the purview of the firm’s investment thesis, then he’ll do it on his own.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2013

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Funding Incubator Startup 102

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. Project revenues, costs and investment needs. When sizing your funding request, be aware of the value of your startup today, since most investors expect an equity share for their contributions.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

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? All of that represents opportunity, as well.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. Thus, I will let my Big Dumb Company (BDC) partner write our agreement. In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. Rationale: My company is small, I am super busy and I am not a lawyer.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2012

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services.

Resource 94

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 94

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

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. In many instances, it is difficult to gain an adequate return on this time investment, as the knowledge transferred is lost once the consultant moves on to their next client. Fallacy: An entrepreneur’s two most precious assets are time and money. Fallacy: Yes.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

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

JUNE 22, 2011

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 will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. Exactly the opposite of what a rational investment strategy would advise. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. Later they became big business in Financial services lead-gen. Here’s a summary of our interview. And he said ok got it.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

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. So money spent should add equity value or create IP that eventually will. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2011

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services.

Startup 92

Startup Organization Incubator Ideas 92

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

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. Don’t get me wrong – I still feel the pressure to ensure that the companies I’ve invested in perform well. I get to choose what I write about.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

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

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.” At Upfront we invested in such a company. And one that you get to write. ” The punch line from this post was “angel yourself.”

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

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

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

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.

Startup 210

Startup Marketing Customer Custom 210

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. If you give away your product or service to the first 10 customers, that’s a good learning experience, but it’s not real traction. Show personal investment. Get a real customer and real revenue. Sell one.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

It’s usually a spreadsheet or PowerPoint (deck) of the upcoming changes to a product or service. We have customers from so many different industries like software, financial services, healthcare, and media. We both made personal investments in the company. We’re now used by thousands of product and IT teams all over the world.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

But then it's easy to transition into a conversation about another part of our business, which is the publishing and monetization service for these apps. Traffic Marketplace, Adconian, TheTradeDesk)--what is it that you look for in investing in a startup? I don't want to get rid of it, and I don't want to sell it.

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153

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. Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. What is the timeframe of return on investment?

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

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. Many service businesses or eTailers can quickly grow to five or ten million in revenues but struggle to expand further.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause. Starting small and nimble allows you to adjust and be flexible as you gain experience instead of being tied to a large concept by heavy investment in upfront costs. Customer service is free.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2016

Of course, you can’t predict everything, but writing down what you know will identify existing problems sooner, and allow other team members to help. One way to defer some of these costs, as outlined by ProOpinion , is to provide alternative compensation methods (equity or compensation based) to your new employees.

Startup 64

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 64