Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs have been feeling great about venture capital due to holding valuable paper positions in companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Dropbox, all of which they feel confident will drive large cash distributions in the future. In fact, if you add the capital flows of the past ten years, there have been just shy of $50 billion in net cash outlays.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry has performed terribly over the past 10 years. It takes less to start a business these days – We all know that it takes less to start a technology company these days. So companies are running for the first 1-2 years on significantly less capital than they did 10 years ago.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is at an all-time low, and most entrepreneurs avoid this option like the plague, knowing the process is painful, and public company executives are seen as greedy sharks. Public companies of any size must comply immediately with the full reporting requirements of the SEC.

Startup 97

Startup Report Entrepreneur Statistics 97

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

However, most often, these funds are solicited by a well-meaning entrepreneur from investors who are not qualified as accredited investors under the law (currently requiring a proved income of $200,000 a year or $1 million in net worth for an individual investor).

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Invest Class Entrepreneur 174

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Working with professional athletes combined with my natural leadership ability and experience in business development makes me uniquely suited to lead a technology company in the health and fitness industry. Any competition in LA? We haven’t identified any competition in LA, specifically. Athletes can join for free.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2009

Cliff Rees: We're a software as a solutions company. One of the other things we do very well, and where we have engineering expertise, is we provide one-off, interactive IVR solutions for media companies in the Los Angeles Area. Los Angeles-based XCast Labs (www.xcastlabs.com) announced earlier this month that it has raised a $2.7M

IP 165

IP Pasadena Angels Pasadena Los Angeles 165

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. This one doesn’t help NewCo just yet.

Startup 108

Startup Invest Patents Outsource Development 108

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

People are even talking about “decacorns" -- investable companies with net worth now exceeding $10 billion -- like Dropbox and Pinterest. The new entrepreneurial age is here, but you can’t be competitive if you don’t speak the language. Prime examples include Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat. Could your startup be the next one?

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

In the past, venture debt was often viewed as a funding vehicle of last resort. The nature of the company’s business model requires it to fund certain costs before it is paid by its customers. Thus, even though the company is cash flow positive, its growth is constrained by the amount of payables it can fund. welcome back.

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

A recurring entrepreneurial challenge is to determine the optimal price of a new product, especially absent a directly competitive alternative. The same phenomenon occurred at ProCore , when the company shifted the market focus of its SaaS solution from small contractors to large commercial builders. How Much For A Rib?

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. This one doesn’t help NewCo just yet.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Patents Outsource Development 98

Xconomy

AUGUST 26, 2016

Drug pricing rhetoric had dissipated over the past few months, leading to a steady biotech rally over the summer. Critics say Mylan has been emboldened by the recall of EpiPen’s only competition last fall. The company gave no reason for the rejection. Whether Medivation will be worth the price remains to be seen.

Pricing 40

Pricing Thousand Oaks Startup Research 40

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 21, 2014

The transaction is considered the largest public acquisition in Bitcoin history with both companies exhibiting impressive growth numbers since their respective beginnings. To comment on the rocky state of Bitcoin affairs in the last 30 days, does Dan believe we’re past the worst of a media firestorm? The ultimate plan?

Startup 104

Startup Venture Capital Draper Invest 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. This one doesn’t help NewCo just yet.

Startup 93

Startup Patents Outsource Development Web 93

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

Why has Monopoly, which takes hours to play, moves at a relatively slow pace, is completely devoid of surround sound and offers players no opportunity to blow up aliens or other combatants in high definition, remained so popular over the past 70-years? Luck intervenes with the first roll of the dice, which determines the order of play.

Outsource Development 154

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Training Startup 154

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

The company was founded by the head of the North America investments for Carrefour, the second largest retailer in the world, the head of the retail banking practice at DLJ, the investment bank. The new fund is focused entirely on technology companies. Those companies are doing phenomenally well, and in a normal market was IPO.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

InfoChachkie

JULY 18, 2011

When starting a company, luck plays a bigger role than many successful entrepreneurs care to admit, and a smaller role than unsuccessful entrepreneurs like to claim. This conveys the healthy message that business success is not binary – a company can thrive without driving its competitors into bankruptcy. Monopoly is no different.

Entrepreneur 216

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Paramount 216

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly that is an “in-stream advertising&# company currently focused on monetizing Twitter. Traditional media companies published their stories on the web. If we continue our success we will have strong competition. was the “static&# web.

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Such attorneys can also add tremendous value in your negotiations with Big Dumb Companies (BDCs), as they can ensure that you focus on the deal points that are of most significance to a small entity. He or she must be willing to fight for your company and go toe-to-toe with your investors. but They Make Great Guard Dogs. Go Nuclear.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Most existing metrics and analytics for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty, including the popular Net Promoter Score (NPS), don’t distinguish between recommend messages to others (word-of-mouth), detract messages, or no message. In the past, retention and loyalty were often used interchangeably. Nobody said it would be easy.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Satisfaction Social Media 97

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

In my ongoing quest to get you good transcripts of the wonderful interviews we’ve done in the past, I present you with one amazing interview here with Tom McInerney – a friend, co-investor, former entrepreneur turned angel investor and “wizard of Oz&# behind the scenes at the uber hot startup Klout.

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 13, 2010

I have learned lots of lessons over the past 20 years about technology, entrepreneurship and investments. The net result of my posts plus the comments forms a tighter view of my evolving belief system. But I think it’s fair to point out when I believe that the profit motive is a net negative for startups or for our industry.

Blogging 250

Blogging Social Media Writing Startup 250