socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions from Southern California's technology industry. Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that you found most interesting in 2018? I remain VERY bullish on SoCal's tech community.

Capital 113

Capital Southern California Technical Review SaaS 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back. . That’s money that fuels our startup ecosystems.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

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.” He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school. I saved my main point for last.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Very few people fund individuals. I know you’re not a tech guy and haven’t done anything other than an HTML course you once took, but if you’re inspirational and a leader you’ll find somebody to moonlight for free to get your prototype built. It is also the best thing to send in advance see here.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. You need to say “no” faster to things you know you’re not going to fund based on fit, focus, geography, quality of concept, conflicts with portfolio.

Startup 317

Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Whether you’re fund raising from angels, seed investors and VCs?—?as I mention this because it’s critical that you not let the fund raising process psyche you out. While I tell founders not to let the lemons get to them I also have to remind people that “It only takes one yes to have a successful fund-raising round!”

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

For a high-volume seed fund that adds many portfolio companies every year (such as our friends at 500 Startups who invest in over 100 distinct companies annually), the cost of a bad affirmative decision (a false positive) is quite low, since it accounts for a relatively small portion of their total fund. Unicornless. billion).

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

They’re not in search of price fixing or collusion, they’re in search of diligence information about the company. When I was fund raising for my second company we had agreed a company-wide deal with Salesforce.com to use our product. My advice: Do not mention the other VC firms, angels, seed funds, etc.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. People like Fred Wilson who say let all the small companies fund and bloom, create more jobs, etc. Minutes 8 – 10.

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” And even the venerable Fred Wilson weighed in with how people “ leading vs. following ” in funding rounds play different roles and have different skills. AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. So there you have it. Must be doing something right!

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2014

Initial funding. Many incubators do provide seed funding for entrepreneurs selected, usually in small amounts like $10,000 to $20,000, and usually taking 5% to 15% of your equity in return. Follow-on funding and connections. Why spend years struggling and all your money if entrepreneurship is just not your thing?

Incubator 103

Incubator Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2013

Initial funding. Many incubators do provide seed funding for entrepreneurs selected, usually in small amounts like $10,000 to $20,000, and usually taking 5% to 15% of your equity in return. Follow-on funding and connections. Why spend years struggling and all your money if entrepreneurship is just not your thing?

Incubator 115

Incubator Help Startup Technical Review 115

InfoChachkie

APRIL 14, 2014

It performs "due diligence" before it makes "investments" and it measures results as a "return on its investment.". ABC has even created an incubator-style program in which startup non-profits compete for $100,000 in seed funding. What are the key factors you look when assessing to fund a non-profit? JG: I love it!

Organization 199

Organization Startup Technical Review Invest 199

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

So I agreed to offer my current thinking on the economy and what it portends for the VC industry & fund raising for entrepreneurs. I heard an entrepreneur last Friday tell me that after he appeared on AngelList he had a funding frenzy with one investor whom he had never met offering to fund him after just 15 minutes on the phone.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. How to raise money with no lead - Venture Hacks , July 31, 2010 Paul Graham says “The future [of funding] is no fixed amount, no fixed closing date, and no lead.”

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2013

The startup--which is part of MuckerLab--landed a seed funding round last week, so we thought we''d catch up with founder and CEO Farbod Shoraka to dig deeper into the company''s goals and service. I have such respect for other platforms and technology. What is BloomNation? What''s the biggest lesson you''ve learned so far?

Beverly Hills 157

Beverly Hills Technical Review Design Startup 157

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2015

With top-ranked accelerators Lauchpad LA closing its doors and Y Combinator rebranding itself as a seed fund, it seems fair to ask the question, “Are Accelerators Dead?”. Good news: a quick review of TechCrunch’s March 2015 List of Top 20 U.S. A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes.

Startup 100

Startup Class LAMP Santa Barbara 100

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.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

An investor called the founder, spoke for 30 minutes on the phone and committed to funding having never met the team. If Nivi ever sent me a deal I’d meet the team without any question or pre-review. Most VCs fund companies with a degree of traction. I’m sorry, but that’s dumb. Isolated incident?

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2013

What are the details on your seed funding? round changes things for us, and will let us invest in infrastructure, build our team, invest in media, and also invest in technology to better leverage our spend on media. It''s completely customizable. John Tabis: The announcement today is a $1.1 million round. Closing this $1.1M

Services 215

Services Technical Review Startup Pricing 215

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 14, 2015

Good news, Fixed , the San Francisco app that helps drivers fight tickets has just launched in Los Angeles after raising an additional $650,000 in seed funding last February. Yeah, purposefully vague. Fixed claims that 50% of tickets are dismissed when challenged. You know it is bad when the mayor has to refund fake parking tickets.

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Angel Software Review Seed Funding 40

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Fariborz Masseh: The idea of funding a business plan competition is not a new idea. The reason for that, is in my opinion, the majority of the innovations that have improved our nation in the past 150 years have been due to technology and engineering innovations. Now, I run a hedge fund and finance firm in Southern California.

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There’s too much PR and too many tech blogs and too many newsletters and aggregators and Twitter summarizers to even try to catch everything that’s going on and equally there’s so much noise that it becomes harder to be heard. ” A startup company’s success that is funded by other VCs isn’t missing out.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Yet 2013 is still projected by The Fiscal Times as a difficult IPO opportunity for startups, due to choppy markets, continuing fiscal uncertainty, and the Facebook fiasco. Sure, there will always some seed funding (10% of overall deal flow), but you can bet that this money goes to entrepreneurs who have been there before and won.

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 15, 2013

We have numerous candidates in various stages of the interview process including a number reviewing offers. Bootstrapping or seed funded? For some companies the delay is unavoidable as senior positions require candidates to undergo significant due diligence. How many hires and bounties so far?

Startup 71

Startup Incubator Marketing Seed Funding 71

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Some of the big milestones we did, include a seed round of financing in the fall of 2015, which was led by Upfront Ventures. They were interested in the foot traffic that represented, and we provided the technology and training. The model of the Return Bar, and working with companies like Paper Source, made sense.

Training 100

Training Custom Customer Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had intended to talk about how bad the process could become, not to name-and-shame anybody (and The Funded was not yet around). We have also been very busy with our next release, which is due out by December 11th (but I’ll save that for a different post). The managing partner of the firm called me the next day.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I learned how to establish a technology center in India and how to manage disparate development teams (and this has drive my thoughts also about what does NOT work.). I learned how to do a pipeline review with sales people without getting bullshitted to. I learned about revenue recognition. Think about me as an example.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285