Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that you found most interesting in 2018? I continue to be intensely interested in the growing integration of AI across multiple products and industries, from simple applications on up to highly sophisticated software and services.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). We want to have startups we can get productive or generating revenue pretty quickly. It's all about leverage.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Since its 2017 inception, SpotOn has been focused on providing software and payments technology to SMBs with an emphasis on restaurants and retail businesses.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. 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.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

This is why I loved Brad Feld’s recent post about the “ illusion of product / market fit.” Are our users addicted to our product? But if users don’t come back to your product directly and often I question whether you have a sustainable product / company. Are we making their lives better?

Product 150

Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

Your product demo crushed. 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. But the real product being bought or sold is “trust.” You had an amazing meeting with an investor.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Xconomy

DECEMBER 18, 2018

The Bristol, UK-based startup, founded in 2016, has now secured a total of more than $300 million in financing from venture capital firms and other investors including Microsoft and the corporate venture arms of BMW and Dell Technologies.

Technical Review 65

Technical Review Product Venture Capital Software Review 65

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. 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%. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today. As a simple example, the Wal-Mart website now shows shoppers more products that they may like, based on previous purchases.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. We only want software revenue.” We prefer to sell software, not get involved with client systems.”

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. In all of these new product and cost-focused new trends, a big problem has emerged that all of these movements have not addressed.

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2020

Kleiner Perkins , one of the most storied franchises in venture capital, has already invested much of the $600 million it raised last year and is now going back out to the market to raise its 19th fund, according to multiple sources. Mamoon Hamid is heading from Social Capital to Kleiner Perkins. We went out to market to LPs.

IBM 164

IBM IBM Venture Capital Invest 164

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. 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. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Southern California venture totals for Q3 totaled around $1.0 billion in investments, according to the Q3 analysis of venture capital deals by socalTECH.com. in investments, followed by Retail Products, at $140M, and Software, at $77.8M. billion invested in Q2.

Southern California 196

Southern California Invest Westlake Village SoCal 196

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

Frame.io , which develops a video review and collaboration product used for content management, has raised $50M in a funding, and plans to set up an office in Los Angeles, the company said today. The company's founders have a background in post production. READ MORE>>.

Funding 113

Funding Hollywood Software Review Content 113

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million. Is it one product line or multiple? ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Southern California's technology community--despite all of the recent excitement around Silicon Beach--continues to be underserved in terms of capital, with a lack of venture capital funds (with money), and other private technology investors. Jeb Spencer: We consider ourselves a private equity firm.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Our interview today is with Andrew Schydlowsky , the CEO and founder of Santa Barbara-based TrackStreet (www.trackstreet.com), a startup which is backed by Okapi Capital, The Cove Fund, Early Light Ventures, SaaS Venture Capital, and Stage Venture Partners. What is TrackStreet? We evolved and expanded from there.

Artificial Inteligence 140

Artificial Inteligence Startup Commerce Sales 140

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. Reviewing financial & operational performance. In the Early Days.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The vast majority of those are nowhere up to modern codes. “From the invention of the semiconductor to the creation of the Internet, new engines of economic growth have emerged due to public investments that support research, commercialization, and strong supply chains,” the White House wrote. ” Climate resiliency .

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

An external consultant helping the procurement team overturned the decision and got the company to select a small software company owned by the consultancy. Or frankly, maybe they just believe that your competitor has a better product. Tags: Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

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

JUNE 4, 2018

com) recently , announced a new healthcare focused venture capital fund, worth $25M. There are now a number of products, technology, and services which are being brought to market, which a few years ago had no way for an entrepreneur to generate money. We're also looking at companies with products.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Review Software Review Artificial Inteligence 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. As an early-stage VC I love this phase. How profitable is my product or service?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2018

San Diego-based Mitchell International , a provider of technology and information products for the property and casualty and collision repair industries, has scored a private equity funding from Stone Point Capital. Size of the investment was not announced. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co.

Equity 113

Equity Funding Technical Review San Diego 113

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2013

Kevin Hell: We''re going all the way down to the chip design and production, which is coming out of Asia. We also operate the network software than runs and manages the entire network layer, from access point to end point. It''s very resistant to interference, due to the way the technology was designed.

Technical Review 213

Technical Review Software Review Networking Technology 213

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2019

We slowly realized that Microsoft’s value went far beyond his technical contributions, due to his connections with key software developers and relationships with hardware manufacturers who could make the PC revolution universal. For example, I grew up in IBM when Bill Gates was helping us deliver the first IBM PC.

IBM 87

IBM IBM Ideas Technical Review 87

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

Kind of like a law firm (or VC firm) with four partners but shortened to just two, people dropped off his second two words. But on the other hand if you have a product with a very high gross margin (software, virtual goods, etc.) I believe in integrated products. I love using Yelp’s mobile product.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

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. We do deep research on every single product we advocate for, using the criteria and condition that they create a healthy child and a healthy world. They had a store, but weren't selling much.

Software Review 200

Software Review Commerce Startup Sites 200

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. Two weeks after winning the deal and well into implementation planning we released a new version of our software. Quite the opposite. I move on.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333