Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time. We hired IP specialists to review prior art. It was impressive.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. What do I do now? After my board meeting I had to do an interview with a CFO candidate that one of my portfolio companies asked me to speak with.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Jackson added, “FinTech has traditionally lagged behind the innovation that’s happening in other areas of enterprise software. 25 Years of Writing Code. He helped develop an airline tracking system for Homeland Security and is an organizer of the Agile Open SoCal conference. and Schlumberger. Founded in 2010 by Eric M.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

The end of the product lifecycle is where Murthy and Kaplan feel Ghost has “an enormous opportunity to help people be more efficient in that process,” Murthy added. to develop some sweet inventory-planning software. She went on to write, “Dee and Josh are the exact right team to tackle it. Syrup Tech bags $6.3M

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2019

For example, I come from a software background, and back in the early PC days, it could easily cost half a million dollars for a team of professionals to produce a commercial product. Now, with powerful high-level tools and open source software, winning smartphone apps can be built by a good hacker for a few thousand dollars.

Startup 105

Startup Software Review Technical Review Social Media 105

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Forget visits to random restaurants, myfab5 uses the power of the crowd to help you search for the best restaurant in town. Founded by Omeid Seirafi-Pour , Calvin Schemanski and John Gulbronson they aim to help users find fabulous restaurants in their cities. myfab5 is a platform that reinvents the restaurant review.

Software Review 79

Software Review Technical Review Writing Startup 79

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

If you have a software development background like mine, Im sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your secret sauce, you need to keep the work in-house. The same applies to manufacturing and almost any process these days.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 95

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For those not familiar with the writing process in Hollywood works, fill us in? We saw that there were a lot of talent discovery programs out there, such as screenwriting fellowships, labs, film festivals, workshops, and writing competitions. That's been our focus, on centralizing talent discovery on the platform.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2016

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your “secret sauce,” you need to keep the work in-house. The same applies to manufacturing and almost any process these days.

Outsource Development 53

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 53

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

My CIO had been ex-CIO at Herbalife, and was an EVP of Software for Disney. We hired the ex-CTO of Sears, and other senior executives out of Disney in software. It was a great software team, and although we were really a tech company, we looked like healthy lifestyle company. Execution is everything.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

Rufus Labs is one of a number of hardware startups which have started to proliferate in the community, due to low cost hardware, 3D printing, and crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Plus, they don't collect data, and use really old, limited software. What's your product, and what is it used for?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. Rather than blame the team that I thought should have chosen me, I became reflective. They had agreed!

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. Rather than blame the team that I thought should have chosen me, I became reflective. They had agreed!

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. Are we right in all of our assumptions and diligence? And I hope the skeptics will join in from a perspective of “how can we help?”

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

We help them identify products that are safe and health for them and their families, from organic baby food, to household items. To do that, we've gotten pedestrians, doctors, and eco-experts involved in the company and helping us to determine the criteria we have published on the site.

Software Review 200

Software Review Commerce Startup Sites 200

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2010

And to give credit where it’s due (in addition to the content that Fred producers) a lot of the discussion works well because of the Disqus commenting platform. Fred talks about it here – he beat me to the punch because I always wanted to write about how awesome this is. It’s an awesome implementation. Engagement.

Blogging 301

Blogging SEO Startup Writing 301

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. A deep dive into the Foundry Group investment philosophy including an interesting discussion of their investing Themes. “… our lens is: Internet Software Companies anywhere in the U.S. If you are outside internet software we are not going to invest. Is that when it became big?

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

I plan to write a whole separate blog post about this quote because it’s always stuck with me. An external consultant helping the procurement team overturned the decision and got the company to select a small software company owned by the consultancy. Good judgment comes from wisdom, but wisdom comes from bad judgment.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

socalTECH

APRIL 29, 2014

We were looking at it, and saw that if we could take all these off-the-shelf sensors, and put it all together, and write some code, and make a user interface, it''s basically done. We thought we could deliver that 3D image as a software-as-a-service. Unfortunately, UCLA''s money dried up due to legal issues.

Startup 262

Startup Competition Software Review UCLA 262

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. At the time he granted me permission to write about his story. We then moved our Chief Software Architect over.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. But on the other hand if you have a product with a very high gross margin (software, virtual goods, etc.) Try reading a bunch of reviews, checking 5 different restaurants to try and compare the differences.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

Most relevant to startups is the push to fund initiatives and technologies that can help prevent or protect against extreme wildfires; rising sea levels and hurricanes; new agriculture resource management; and “climate-smart” technologies. The vast majority of those are nowhere up to modern codes.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2012

Tech Reporters: These individuals will write and edit informative and practical articles on a range of topics including Startups/Entrepreneurs, Gadgets, Mobile Tech, Tech in Entertainment, Gaming, Apps & Software, productivity, and cover breaking tech news. Think you may be interested? Take a look below and give us a shout.

Technical Review 71

Technical Review Software Review Writing News 71

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

When you raise larger rounds there is more “due diligence,” which includes: calling customers, looking at financial metrics, doing cohort analysis (looking for trends like changes in churn rates), evaluating competitor positioning and understanding more of the competency of your executive team.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. My favorite new software tool is DailyBurn. Problem is – Weight Watchers software TOTALLY SUCKS. The other key is making your goals public – at least to someone else who can help keep you accountable.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

We helped the write out their requirements for a system. We felt this was a marquee account and one that would help us take our collaboration tool global as Thames owned assets all over the world. Two weeks after winning the deal and well into implementation planning we released a new version of our software.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

I was happy to see a real focus on preparing for tomorrow highlighted in a new book, “ Start a Successful Business ,” by Colleen DeBaise, who has made a career of studying and writing about entrepreneur challenges. Regularly follow reviews and influencers in your industry. Thus no amount of input will help, if you are not listening.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. Having a methodology instead of just going on random sales visits helped force a bit of rigor and honesty amongst team members about how well or not we thought we were doing. This article initially appeared on Inc. Click here.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2010

As of the last four months, we've had about 200,000 plus downloads, a bunch of great write ups, and a lot of mom bloggers who have been reviewing the app and writing stories on it. The second thing it allows them to do is save money, because the app helps them with couponing, through partnerships and local deals we have.

Mobile 168

Mobile .Net Pasadena Software Review 168

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Not too many people are aware of the success and story of Lynda.com (www.lynda.com), started by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin , and how the firm's now grown to a double-digit, multimillion dollar business which is known as THE source for online training on such things as web design, graphics software, animation, video editing, and much more.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2018

I have sold companies of my own, companies I have invested in, and helped companies I've run or invested in with corporate development partnerships to help their business. Steve agreed to give us some pre-released iMacs and engineering help, and we said we'd release our new subscription service on Windows and Mac at the same time.

Startup 147

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review 147

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

For parents, if you're interested in how your kids are doing, you can find out what their schedule is like, what homework is due when, what their grades are, and how they are progressing, plus you can communicate with their teachers. They were looking for someone to help and guide them. Talk about your background?

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124