Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

The AngelSoft Deal Funnel from the last 12 months indicates is that 70% of the interested companies never make it past the initial screening process. That’s why this item is so important, and is probably the biggest stumbling block I see in getting through the initial angel screening. Build an investor presentation and summary.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. “My Brad on blogging.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

When I described to people why I initially invested my calls went something like this, “He’s taken kicks to the face for nearly 2 years and is still standing. That said, a summary below is available for those who prefer to read the notes version. It soon became difficult to manage the many new investment leads.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2013

But safely seeking equity investments from the crowd via the Jobs Act of 2012 is problematic and has still not been defined. In reality, a few thousand dollars to a few winners, is tantalizing but probably not a return on the investment required. Multiple micro-investments are not manageable.

Funding 106

Funding Equity Entrepreneur Sample 106

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

Executive Summary. Partners make investment decisions. If you want to watch the video version summary of my advice on fund raising it’s here. ” In VC terms that means the key questions you need to answer are, is this investor: Geographically focused and have they invested in my geography before? Tell a friend!

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2011

Crowd-pitching is an offline event, but logically similar, which give several candidates an opportunity to pitch to a crowd of interested people for a couple of minutes, after which the crowd “votes” with some play-money to pick the best candidate, who then wins some nominal investment amount or services. Intellectual property is jeopardized.

Funding 92

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 92

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I shifted my thinking a few years ago after I read Tim Ferris’s book The Four Hour Workweek (link is to a short summary I wrote). I had a pre breakfast with a CEO of a company in which I invested talking about his next fund raising round. I didn’t expect an investment out of this breakfast – I was going to give back.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This is a long post, so I put an executive summary here if you want to get the point without reading all the detail. If you plan to read the post you can skip the summary if you want. Just as in this post, I thought about the structure before letting the words flow out of my head and on to the screen.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Why Invest? And while my relationship with Chuck was critical to my investment, so too was the leadership of Trevor Templar , the Chief Revenue Officer. In all my time investing I have never seen such a senior revenue officer join a company at this stage. Why Invest?

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

We had an excellent opening panel on early-stage investing with Dave McClure (Founders Fund – NorCal), Brad Feld (Foundry Group, Boulder) and Andy Sack (Founders Co-Op, Seattle). Anyway, to close my Twiistup 6 Summary post I will borrow from the wisdom of my forefathers, “next year in … Santa Monica.”

Twiistup 228

Twiistup SoCal Southern California Yammer 228

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2010

Crowd-pitching is an offline event, but logically similar, which give several candidates an opportunity to pitch to a crowd of interested people for a couple of minutes, after which the crowd “votes” with some play-money to pick the best candidate, who then wins some nominal investment amount or services. Intellectual property is jeopardized.

Funding 59

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 59

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. The conversation moves from consuming images on a screen in lean back mode, to active engagement. That notes only told part of the story.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

Stay on the radar – You need to find a very polite way to persistently be on the top of the radar screen of your VC. A polite follow up email saying, “just wanted to follow up with a quick summary of some exciting news.&# Yes, I know only 2 weeks has passed. You’re just trying to stay on the radar screen.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Speakers listed: Brock Pierce – Digital currency pioneer investing in Bitcoin, games, and online gambling businesses; Clearstone Global Gaming Fund. Summary of Topics. The company hopes to prepare advertisers for varying screen sizes. Some quick numbers: In 2013, $100M was invested into Bitcoin-related ventures.

Startup 95

Startup Google Education Venture Capital 95

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2011

This version has some additional details on a portfolio company I’ve invested in, which are disclosed below. It was about freeing up content to be displayed on big screens regardless of the source or content type. An edited version of this post originally ran on TechCrunch. Ultimately a small percentage of his total opportunity.

Google 325

Google Press Marketing Content 325

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Summary Version. I first wanted to invest in this trend by backing a company called Filmaka. I didn’t end up investing but I always loved the concept. With our second screen we suddenly have … participation. 200 million views. Suck it traditional TV. And that of my two boys. Watching only is so one-way.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

There are probably 30 or so funds in the US that have similar backgrounds so while we feel great about our track record, our team and our performance but it’s hardly enough to say why you MUST invest in Upfront. We have a great screening process. I think that’s where many startups and even VC funds go wrong.

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

They’re also good at screening candidates. I have investment money at stake so I’m a principal in the negotiation, too. Summary : In dealing with middle men you get the huge expertise they bring to bear by doing their task on a repeated basis and dealing with the same sets of end customers. It happens. Why do I care?

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319