Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Ideas 275

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. In the original version of his post, Andy writes. “This essay is dedicated to the great VC’s on my board who I am lucky to work with: Sameer Gandhi from Accel, Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed, and Kirsten Green from Forerunner. . Their data looks at tech VCs. Because they know him or her.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should a VC invest? There are VCs who get a string of wins that is far from chance. Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. When should you start a company? All appears well.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

It’s what signals to existing investors how quickly their teams need to be fund raising and the level of risk the company is facing and also it signals to potentially new investors both how quickly you need to raise (ie you have less leverage if you’re in a rush) as well as how much cash you’ll need if they fund you.

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Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

In that article I talked about how PR drives: recruiting, employee retention, biz dev deals, funding and even M&A and that often “attribution” to your PR activities is unknown. But of course it’s hard to advise people that they should do PR without a guide to how to do it on the cheap or how to do it at all.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? That’s less interesting for me as a VC.

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Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? I am a VC. I hand out money. How differentiated is that?

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Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 26, 2013

Here’s how to write an executive summary with impact: 1. Just as I don’t recommend you outsourcing the writing of your business plan, I wouldn’t pass on this task. You are asking for money, so be upfront about how much funding you are seeking. This is a great guiding principle. Do it yourself. Keep it short and simple.

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Summary Tips Startup Writing 76

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. Oh, yeah.

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Startup Venture Capital Web Ideas 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. Over the past 4 years LA’s tech fundings have growing at a 30% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) which is > 4 times the US average VC CAGR (7%). and are guiding LA 2.0. But Is This Really That Surprising?

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Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Last week, Santa Monica-based Revolution Prep announced its first, institutional round of funding, worth $15M, from Kennet Partners. It was us, funding ourselves from credit cards, literally, to a company that is now on par with Kaplan and Princeton Review. How did you manage the growth you have, without outside funding?

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. But this isn’t likely to be a VC-backable business (which to be clear is totally ok). Marketing with long payback is precisely what requires venture capital. Market Size.

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Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. Topics we discussed in the first 45 minutes of the video include: What is VC like in NY? We discussed NY vs. Silicon Valley and NY vs. Boston.

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Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

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. That led us to venture capital as opposed to trying to bootstrap ourselves. The ‘Santa Barbara effect’ has been interesting–we all have cute VC stories around that.

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Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

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. You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. tip: write it down when asked / parked).

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Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

We write and create our own content for the game. Start Engine offers a team of mentors who have proven themselves as successful entrepreneurs – not professional investors – ensuring that its startups are guided by the right people for the right reasons. Tech Coast Angels is actively seeking great startups to fund.

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CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 28, 2012

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: On Sunday we presented to a panel of judges consisting of entrepreneurs and a VC investor. If we successfully execute this company and this happened after launch, during funding or before acquisition, the recourse and options would have been limited at the least, and detrimental at the worst.

Startup 100

Startup Ideas San Diego Mentor 100

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

All of that are in this week’s episode of This Week in VC. It was a pleasure to write them myself. He had the idea that people would want city guides to tell them where to eat and what to do. And when I say this I don’t mean they funded billion dollar companies – they literally created them.

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Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

It should be your guide for what to avoid. This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever. You can write this as a narrative in 3–5 key bullet points. But what are the KEY ISSUES management is grappling with.

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Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. They have to sell themselves, more than their product, to close on every alternative source of funding. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Capital Startup Funding 101

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

If you live somewhere where this is the case you’re better off discussing with your employer that you may from time-to-time work on private projects outside of work hours and you want their clearance in writing that this is OK. Register a company. This is advice that I give people all the time. Starting with 25% is even harder.

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Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2013

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. They have to sell themselves, more than their product, to close on every alternative source of funding. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing.

Startup 97

Startup Entrepreneur Equity Examples 97

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. - First Principles.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. In reality, crowdfunding has become a major startup funding vehicle, expected to reach $3.62

Startup 100

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. He points out that the word crowd precedes funding in crowdfunding. Startup revenues come later.

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Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2016

Your customers are all on this product so not trying to grok this platform gives you a few big handicaps: Some VCs on on Snapchat and interacting with them daily on Snapchat and you’re not. That’s like you saying you don’t want to go to cocktail parties and network anymore while every 25-35 year-old VC steals your customers.

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Snapchat Screening Venture Capital Guide 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Boy wearing Oculus Rift via Wikipedia As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. He points out that the word crowd precedes funding in crowdfunding.

Startup 53

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 53