Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Marc Andreessen kicked off another great debate on Twitter last night , one that I’ve been talking about incessantly in private circles for the past 2-3 years – what actually IS the definition of a seed vs. A-round. This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do.

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 21, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 -- Attracting Angel Capital: Tips from Frontline Experts. In the current economic and venture capital climate, angel investment is one of the most critical sources of start-up capital. Angel networks such are the source of the majority of this funding. See [link] (more).

Capital 100

Capital Angel Startup Tips 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk takers.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. I hear it right after people have decided to come by for a few days to “check out what all the fuss is about.” Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2019

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. Conscious Capitalism , a popular business movement which includes a large focus on culture and ethics, claims returns 10 times higher than the S&P 500. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review 77

Software Review Summary Examples Offshore 77

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2021

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). Here again, the entrepreneur will be the one hurt most, by having fewer funding sources to access.

Funding 144

Funding Startup .Net Invest 144

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

One of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs make when they start a company and raise outside capital is figuring out what an acceptable “burn rate” is. The Basics The starting point — the 101 — is knowing the difference between gross burn and net burn. GAAP Net Income, which at times isn’t a good reflection of cash burn).

Startup 212

Startup Venture Capital .Net Capital 212

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 27, 2014

Entrepreneurs typically embrace celebrity investments, while most sophisticated investors prefer to avoid famous entertainment or sports personalities on the cap table. Celebrity investors aside, I am a fan of high net worth individuals who are willing to allocate some of their risk capital to foster a startup''s success.

Entrepreneur 193

Entrepreneur Technical Review Hollywood Southern California 193

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. There is a lot to say about retaining control. For you who fit that description, nice work. For you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Funding 96

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2012

So, you’ve been thinking about starting your own firm for the past ten years. Factoring companies can help you with working capital needs when your business grows quickly by filling the money “gap” created between new billings and actual collections. Your business plan is ready. Your family is all for it.

Funding 192

Funding Entrepreneur Startup Invest 192

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2013

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. Conscious Capitalism , a new business movement which includes a large focus on culture and ethics, claims 3.2 entrepreneur culture startup ethics growth business'

Software Review 100

Software Review Summary Examples Offshore 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2022

In my experience as a mentor to entrepreneurs, I find that self-doubt and lack of confidence are the primary constraints people have to overcome to move ahead. He writes from first-hand experience, and is now a recognized business leader, motivational speaker, and mentor to many entrepreneurs.

Mentor 134

Mentor Slides .Net Writing 134

TechCrunch LA

MAY 19, 2020

But it made sense when you think about the amount of people who have garages, and if we got all of that junk out of our garage, we’d actually have about five things we actually need.”. Rather than wait for his investors to call him, Dietz approached Lightspeed and Alpha Edison, which led the round, about changing the terms of the deal.

Los Angeles 191

Los Angeles Startup Culver City .Net 191

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Each has met legal securities minimums for net worth and professionalism, to reduce the risk to entrepreneurs. Marty Zwilling.

Angel 126

Angel Funding Venture Capital Seed Funding 126

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 29, 2011

If the tech community believes that a certain area is the epicenter of a particular industry, motivated entrepreneurs will start their ventures in such locations, thus reinforcing the geography’s perceived advantageousness. I guess no one told him about the medical startups that were purchased by Medtronic, Linvatec, Storz, Mentor, etc.,

Venture Capital 233

Venture Capital Capital Funding Technical Review 233

Tech Coast Venture Network

MARCH 9, 2011

Investors and entrepreneurs who won at the fundraising game during and after the Great Recession offer advice on landing equity money. To help you get a jump-start with fundraising, I’ve gathered tips from active early-stage investors and entrepreneurs who managed to beat the odds by raising capital during and after the Great Recession.

Tips 100

Tips Capital Tech Coast Angels Screening 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. Will our strategy change now that we have 40% more capital? . We raised $280 million.

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Startup 113

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Equity 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2021

I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. But add another five years, and Google had made it, going public in 2004 with a market capitalization of $23B. He later changed the name to Facebook.

Yahoo 127

Yahoo IBM IBM Startup 127

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 18, 2019

Launched by the music and cultural impresario with more hustle than hustle and his business partner Jason Geder, the new collaborative investment strategy focused on tech startups will allow high net worth individuals to participate in deals. Live streaming studio, Culture Genesis, launches its first show, the quiz-based Trivia Mob.

Invest 187

Invest Los Angeles Resource Venture Capital 187

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you. Marty Zwilling.

Funding 174

Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on product direct costs, and underestimate marketing and sales costs, overhead costs, and support costs.

Sales 102

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

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. There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 Many of these businesses were what First Round Capital called FNACs (features, not companies – this acronym has always stuck with me).

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2014

Both have worked.Google reached $1 billion in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. Most are still confused about the right priority. The purest form of capitalism has always meant charging a fair price and making a fair profit. Traditionally, it was simple.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Organization Invest Customer 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2012

I was reading an article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. But add another five years, and Google had made it, going public in 2004 with a market capitalization of $23B. In 2005, Facebook still showed a yearly net loss of $3.63

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Yahoo IBM IBM 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I talk about failure a lot because I think it can be tremendously instructive and I think that success without failure often masks underlying lessons. I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

socalTECH

MARCH 16, 2017

Earlier this week, Derek Norton , a long time advisor to the media, Internet, and technology industry in Los Angeles, announced a brand new venture capital fund called Watertower Ventures (www.watertowerventures.com). We sat down with Derek to learn more about the new $5M fund and what it's all about. Tell us about the new fund?

Invest 145

Invest Funding Capital Startup 145

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 22, 2016

L-to-R: John Greathouse, unknown woman about to slap John, Reed Shaffner, Jerry Jao & Ara Mahdessian. We had a spirited discussion regarding a number of issues related to blowing past $10M in annual recurring SaaS revenue, in front of a sold-out crowd of about 400 entrepreneurs. The Most Important Metric.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Cornerstone OnDemand Metrics 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2015

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). billion collected in 2014. They will need more money.

Startup 106

Startup Angel Entrepreneur .Net 106

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Although I hear more and more about “global warming,” and the many ways we are destroying our environment, I still don’t see many global business winners in this space, comparable to Facebook and Amazon. The ideas are endless, but we need more smart entrepreneurs to implement them. The percentage is even lower in many other countries.

Artificial Inteligence 79

Artificial Inteligence Resource Examples Startup 79

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. We also talked about Elevation Partners who invested in Palm and how this deal really salvaged their investment, which was a VERY big bet on Palm.

Clearstone 236

Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2014

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). billion collected in 2012. They will need more money.

Invest 111

Invest Angel Funding Startup 111

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2017

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). Here again, the entrepreneur will be the one hurt most, by having fewer funding sources to access.

Startup 76

Startup Angel Funding .Net 76

InfoChachkie

APRIL 28, 2011

Many entrepreneurs encounter a similar dilemma. They often identify expeditious ways to make money in the early days of their adVentures, which allow them to reduce the amount of capital they must raise from outside investors. However, in the long run, entrepreneurs always benefit from delivering Maximum Utility for a fair price.

Entrepreneur 225

Entrepreneur SaaS Pricing Cloud Computing 225

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!” I know this seems obvious but I promise you that even smart people forget this when talking about profitability. Internet scale.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2019

I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. But add another five years, and Google had made it, going public in 2004 with a market capitalization of $23B. He later changed the name to Facebook.

Startup 111

Startup Yahoo IBM IBM 111