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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

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. Unfortunately, those providers decided the gold leads were expensive, and decided to use a Chinese vendor which would provide them at half price.

Startup 262

Startup Competition Software Review UCLA 262

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

As I have pointed out in previous posts , 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding will take longer than it has in the past. Remember those party rounds that became so popular over the past few years because they allowed higher prices and more favorable terms for entrepreneurs?

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

Tech Diligence - Consider The Source. Rather, we value entrepreneurs' time and thus our diligence generally includes introducing them to potential customers and partners. Although the expert’s startup and Twilio never formed a partnership, our collaborative approach to diligence did benefit Jeff and his team.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

This is why investors really like SaaS software companies where you have recurring revenue and your largest customer accounts for < 5% of your revenue and your renewals rates are > 90%. Many software companies have > 80% gross margins which is why they are more valuable than say traditional retailers or consumer product companies.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 19, 2012

“The object is to exploit the convergence of people, information, products, services and places with today’s smartphones and tablets, which drive online orders in addition to purchases from brick-and-mortar stores.”. Due to the combination of these factors, marketers began to more heavily fund digital platforms.

Mobile 85

Mobile Software Review Statistics Technical Review 85

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. We made lots of assertions about what features we thought people would want, how to price them and how to overcome the objections that people have to managing data in the cloud. He’s a star.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

We've basically taken advantage of all the new technology out there--especially, the web-based service model. It's started with managing courses and grades, on to a whole array of other services. I worked as a software and hardware engineer, and did lots of software development for networking and telecom firms, mainly networking.

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

If you have the proper mechanisms to accurately calculate your Cost Per Customer / Lifetime Value Equation, you will happily purchase as many customers from affiliates as your cash flow constraints will allow, as long as the average acquisition price is less than the customers’ average lifetime value.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. We have been using LinkedIn for both sourcing recruits and reviewing backgrounds for recruits. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Jamie’s ethos led him to price at just $3 / user / camera / month at a time when traditional home security companies’ monthly fees were so unaffordable.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

In no expert in Seattle but when I look around I see: enterprise software (Microsoft), the market leader in cloud services (Amazon AWS), games (Xbox), some of the most innovative retailers in the country (CostCo, Starbucks, REI) and what is left of Boeing (HQ moved to Chicago). I don’t write about LA but I write from LA.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

mobile, locations, layering of services, data management, portability & more]. We were on services called CompuServe and Prodigy. The Bridge Between Online Services & The Internet: AOL. AOL controlled the services, taxed companies to access users and decided what was good or bad. The Past (1985-2002).

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285