Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

The reality is that as a result of two major trends the costs of starting a technology startup went down massively. So What Impact Did the Drop in Tech Founding Costs Have on VC? Traditional VCs have raised larger funds that allow them to pay slightly higher prices and still hit preferred ownership sizes.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. ” Climate resiliency . Given the steady drumbeat of climate disasters that hit the U.S.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies. Mostly kidding. Another firm funded them.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy. It's the same as when I've created financial models and then have it reviewed by a hard-core CFO, sophisticated investor or similar kind of expert. You likely are writing your first one of these. Go find a new technical resource. Founder : Umm. I know how it feels.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

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. For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%).

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.” Many pension funds are simply too large to write small checks and favor the ability to write $50-100 million checks to funds. From a technology perspective our journey is nowhere near over. Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

I pointed to several Economist articles I had read that mapped historical prices of real estate for 400 years and how on average property values grow at no more 1.5% above inflation yet in many markets in the US & Europe prices were rising at 10-25% per year. And it’s driving up prices beyond their inherent value.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Thus founders seeking funding for a good cause or a new technology often seize on grants from universities, government agencies and philanthropic organizations as free money to solve their problems. After months of preparation, you should expect another six to nine months for reviews and funding cycles. Technology is not enough.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

After some review of available resources, I’m convinced that problem solving is a learnable trait, rather than just a birthright. If you can explain the problem to a mentor, or even write it down, you will more likely get to the root cause quickly, and avoid emotional and blame-infused responses. Work with a partner you can trust.

Startup 135

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Technical Review 135

InfoChachkie

MARCH 18, 2013

Ideally, such early-stage investors should have the experiences and motivation to help their ventures establish a sustainable business model, rather than simply writing a check before moving on to their next investment. In such instances, take their money and work diligently to convert them into a disengaged investor.

Angel 217

Angel Technical Review RSS Entrepreneur 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. ” Therefore one goal of Y Combinator appears to be “get the highest price and best terms.” What kind of deals should I be doing?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Tech.Co

MAY 26, 2020

Jeff Bezos didn't get to be the world's richest man by writing a lot of checks, and one recent way to keep Amazon's profits healthy has been to cut its affiliate commissions scheme. A host of bloggers and publishers are seeing their revenues massively dented, from tiny BBQ grill review sites to the hugest media organizations around.

Technical Review 130

Technical Review Buzzfeed News Networking 130

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. ” Therefore one goal of Y Combinator appears to be “get the highest price and best terms.” What kind of deals should I be doing?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. If you know, VCs end up writing sizable checks into their own funds, which is important in better aligning interests. They will have to negotiate price and terms. million round I might write $1.8 – 2.2

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. Sales people will often blame your pricing. They lost the deal because your competitors dropped price.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 27, 2014

Your finance professional should support you with day-to-day budgeting to lower your cash flow, helping you refine your accounts receivable and accounts payable systems, and maximizing your pricing strategy—to name just a few tasks that greatly impact your cash flow. How can I minimize my income tax burden?

Venture Capital 93

Venture Capital Outsource Help Writing 93

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

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. Rational people can disagree and some may argue that today’s prices are rational and under-pinned by economic drivers. I believe that. That’s fine.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I have been meaning to write this for a while as I’ve noticed that much of my board time is involved in trying to be an independent referee for founders who themselves are trying to resolve their own conflicts. I saw this first hand with a CEO who tried to get into numerous company-betting lawsuits that we knew weren’t in his best interest.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

I recall being impressed with Jeff, but I was concerned that he was creating a platform, which often requires a significant amount of capital, takes an extended amount of time to establish and can be subject to margin pressure as the enabling technologies become commoditized. Tech Diligence - Consider The Source.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. Should entrepreneurs have convertible debt or priced equity?

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. Some dreams sound great, but may not yet be viable or proven with today’s technology. Writing down key parameters will force you solidify the specifics, and mentally commit to them.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

I even wrote about my experiences attending Web Summit , something I rarely ever write about. ” So how should you feel about Web Summit, DreamForce, TechCrunch Disrupt, CES, SxSW or any of the myriad of tech events that are put on every year? It’s why I really try to focus on smaller events.

Web 150

Web Conference Technical Review Class 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

We All Know That Dollars into Venture Have Gone Up … As a starting point, we know that the dollars into venture have steadily rebounded to pre great-recession levels, with just under $30 billion committed to US technology venture capital in 2015. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2019

Image via Flickr by Phil Gyford Starting a new venture still costs real money, even though the entry price has come down dramatically in last few decades. Unanticipated pivots, quality write-offs, and shrinkage. It helps to also have your plan reviewed and critiqued by an experienced advisor in the same industry.

Startup 105

Startup Software Review Technical Review Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. We short-handed this marketing mix as “ the four P’s ” – product, price, promotion and place (distribution) – this was devised in 1960 and while a little bit dated is still a useful framework. Simply write a great book?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. Existing tech or industry executives - Do you have strong relationships in your industry? That’s OK.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. So don’t raise money at a cheap price, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself either. Pricing high also takes exit options off the table. But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

China is indelibly an important part of the future of the global technology system. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. We in the tech world extol the virtues of lots of product releases and rapid innovation.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

China is indelibly an important part of the future of the global technology system. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. We in the tech world extol the virtues of lots of product releases and rapid innovation.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

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. On the SAT/ACT side, in classroom tutoring, we have used our technology to automate the back office.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? A few reasons. You should read this post. Deep pockets.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2019

After some review of available resources, I’m convinced that problem solving is a learnable trait, rather than just a birthright. If you can explain the problem to a mentor, or even write it down, you will more likely get to the root cause quickly, and avoid emotional and blame-infused responses. Work with a partner you can trust.

Mentor 85

Mentor Entrepreneur Technical Review Summary 85

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Bill Gates once famously said that people tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the 1-year timeframe and underestimate its impact in the 10-year timeframe. I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets. And the starting price for WW is $18 / month … DailyBurn is free.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

Value is created through diligent hard work. Once you prove that a substantial, addressible market segment is willing to pay a price for your solution that exceeds your costs, you can consider a licensing strategy. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. Thus, I will let my Big Dumb Company (BDC) partner write our agreement.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2015

After some review of available resources, I’m convinced that problem solving is a learnable trait, rather than just a birthright. If you can explain the problem to a mentor, or even write it down, you will more likely get to the root cause quickly, and avoid emotional and blame-infused responses. Work with a partner you can trust.

Mentor 105

Mentor Entrepreneur Technical Review Satisfaction 105