TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

The funding, a Series C, will be used to continue expanding Boulevard’s product and engineering teams and to build out more tools targeting an ever-wider set of users in the bigger wellness and beauty sector (those product additions are typically big — it most recently added a whole new payments feature). Focusing on the U.S.

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Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. My first startup was no different. This is why I tell startups that most seasoned sales execs aren’t right for startups. Here’s what I learned in running my first startup. Startups are the art of the possible.

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Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Congratulations!

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Funding Startup Ideas Equity 125

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. The crowd gets the satisfaction of helping, with minimal risk, and no expectation of any high return. Startup equity model. Product pre-order model. In the U.S.,

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Funding Startup Outsource Development Satisfaction 141

StartUp Beat

APRIL 16, 2024

Pitbull Ventures, the early-stage venture capital firm founded by prominent investor Brad Zions, today announced the close of its $5M Fund I. The fund, which is looking to fuel the growth of pioneering startups in the region and take LA’s tech scene to new heights, invests in pre-seed AI-enabled vertical SAAS startups with early traction.

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SaaS Help Funding Company 52

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 15, 2021

The trio came up with a unique “co-warehousing” model that provides space for small businesses and e-commerce merchants to operate as well as store and ship goods, all under one roof. There are no leases and tenants have the flexibility to scale up or down based on their needs.

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Commerce Help Startup Los Angeles 237

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

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Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

As an angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and assume no strings attached. Angel and venture capital money always comes with ownership and management implications, starting with the obvious ones outlined in the term sheet for the deal.

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Funding Startup Entrepreneur Report 173

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item. Trade equity or services for startup help.

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Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item. Trade equity or services for startup help.

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Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2021

An edtech startup called Entity Academy — which provides women with training, in areas like data science and software development; mentoring; and ultimately job coaching — has raised $100 million on the heels of strong growth of its business, and an ambition to improve that ratio.

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Mentor Training Startup Course 297

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2023

After you have heard a few startup success stories, like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, you may be tempted to invest some money yourself, maybe by pooling your funds with other investors who claim to have a great track record. My advice is to leave the investing in startups to the professionals (or friends and fools).

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Startup Funding Offshore Invest 92

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2022

One of the myths I often hear as an advisor to many entrepreneurs is that their lifestyle would somehow be better if they could more easily find other people’s money to build their startup. Usually it pays to move a startup slower rather than risk relationships. Many times friends and family have been broken by failed investments.

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Funding Startup Satisfaction Venture Capital 107

socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2019

The USC Viterbi Startup Garage , the startup accelerator that is part of the University of Southern California, has scored backing from the Amazon Alexa Fund , the venture investment arm of Amazon that invests in startups using Amazon Alexa. Financial details of the investment by the Amazon Alexa Fund were not announced.

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Marina Del Rey USC Southern California Funding 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2023

None normally work for or provide funds for early-stage startups. Typically, their service is to help you invest in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, much like independent financial advisors. Many investment banks even call themselves “boutiques.” Commercial banking is also known as business banking.

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Funding Startup Invest Venture Capital 72

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Draw up a list of the best prospects, and put together your best story for follow-up. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

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Funding Tips Startup Statistics 173

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

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Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Raising capital for a female-led startup can be very diffiult--which is what Justine Lassoff and Melinda Moore found out when they started their own company, LovingEco, in Los Angeles. Justine Lassoff: Melinda and I founded TuesdayNights to help women connect and to impact change through networking events and infinite gatherings.

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Help Entrepreneur Capital Startup 224

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I paid up for the diploma but can’t say that I saw better results. So back to MBAs.

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Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

For today's interview, we spoke to Dave Eastman, the Director of the Viterbi Startup Garage, a startup incubator that is run by the University of Southern California, out of its location in Marina Del Rey. What is Viterbi Startup Garage? The Startup Garage is located physically in Marina Del Rey, in the twin tower on Admiralty.

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Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. If you need funding for these early stage activities, I have some suggestions on better strategies to follow. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage. Commercial product prototypes.

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Help Research Startup Funding 165

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 19, 2021

When you move around a city, you often end up farther away from some of your favorite restaurants and bakeries. To keep up the pace, Locale secured a $2 million seed round led by Decent Capital, the family office of Tencent co-founder Jason Zeng. Europe’s quick-commerce startups are overhyped: Lessons from China.

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Help Startup Los Angeles Customer 192

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

The Los Angeles ecosystem is $76 million stronger today as Fika Ventures , a seed-stage venture capital firm, announces its sophomore investment fund. Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies.

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Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2019

Los Angeles-based eTailPet , a new startup which helps pet store owners create online e-commerce sites, has received a round of seed funding, the company said this week. The seed funding was worth $800K, and led by Moonshots Capital, and also included individual angels from the pet industry. READ MORE>>.

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Seed Funding Funding Template Southern California 222

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2013

Are you involved with a nonprofit or social enterprise, wishing you had better tools to raise funding for your important causes, but not able to shell out the thousands of dollars necessary to purchase those tools from software vendors? READ MORE>>.

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Funding Help SaaS Tool 197

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. We spoke with Michael Chasin, the company''s co-founder, about the startup. How the website works, is the client goes to the website, and indicates what they need help with.

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Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2021

Los Angeles-based Perch, a startup which operates a service that lets users build their credit by paying for Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, and other services on credit, has scored an investment from financial giant Citi, via Citi's new Citi Impact Fund. Size of the investment was not announced. Citi announced the investment this morning.

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Funding Netflix Hulu Los Angeles 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy). Funding or rollout stage.

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Resource Startup Organization Incubator 171

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2021

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. Most of these are easy to avoid if you do your homework up front, but can cost you dearly if you get sucked in. Phantom fund investors.

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Technical Review Tips Funding Startup 148

socalTECH

JUNE 15, 2020

Recently, A new, nonprofit organization, Gift A Plate (www.giftaplate,org), launched effrts in Los Angeles, to allow people to donate to help both restaurants and families in need. The organization said it is looking to help aid restaurants and families who have been greatly impacted by COVID-19 in LA. So explain what Gift a Plate is?

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Help Startup Platform Southern California 173

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2021

As I work with aspiring you new venture leaders, I always wish I had a definitive checklist of all the right attributes that I could share with you, encourage you to develop and highlight in your efforts with potential investors, and guide your own actions in starting the next billion dollar company.

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Funding Startup Ideas Resource 152

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. It didn’t add up to me. We’re all scared that the next round of funding won’t come. Bad morale is the enemy of any company let alone a start up.&#.

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Startup Press Customer Custom 331

Tech.Co

JANUARY 3, 2022

Well, another year has come and gone, and while we're yet to leave the pandemic behind, it has led to a record number of small businesses starting up. SoLo Funds. A startup for startups! Having built our own startups we know that startup models are usually wrong from day one.

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Startup Invest FAQ Examples 203

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2022

The way to start is with a sample financial model, available from many sources on the Internet, such as over 200 downloadable free from the Corporate Finance Institute website. For maximum value with the least effort, focus on only the “what ifs” that are the highest priority in your mind for your own startup. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Pricing Sample Customer 147

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. Wait, didn’t you just raise a fund? Was it hard to raise the fund?

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Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

San Diego-based Gretel has raised a seed round of funding, to go towards its development of software which helps developers and engineers access and share anonymized data for developing applications. The funding was led by Moonshots Capital, and also included Greylock Partners and Village Capital.

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Seed Funding Artificial Inteligence Funding Startup 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2023

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” A long list of everyday expenses is not helpful here.

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Tips Funding Startup Invest 91