Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2014

In my Twitter bio is says that I’m “ looking to invest in passionate entrepreneurs ,” which almost sounds like I was just looking for a cliché soundbite to describe myself. Passion is also the featured heavily in nearly every presentation I give to entrepreneurs or on college campuses or in talks with MBA students.

Startup 419

Startup Entrepreneur Design Funding 419

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2020

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. In fact, we now live in a buyer-led digital age, where the traditional media push-marketing efforts just don’t work.

Marketing 174

Marketing Invest Demand Metrics 174

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. In instances when the celebrity''s brand is aligned with the target market, such as Kim Kardashian''s promotion of ShoeDazzle, this approach works. Share and Enjoy.

Entrepreneur 193

Entrepreneur Technical Review Hollywood Southern California 193

InfoChachkie

APRIL 28, 2011

Many entrepreneurs encounter a similar dilemma. Thus, entrepreneurs must decide when to stop listening to the Sirens’ song of a quick buck and position their company to take advantage of long-term, sustainable business models. 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 mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Berkonomics

JULY 30, 2015

500 entrepreneur, after years as a senior marketing manager of a large computer company. One thing, though, that never bothers an entrepreneur is fear of the unknown. As an entrepreneur, you have a genetic problem. The problem is that we weave that safety net even as we sit in it, making the job doubly difficult.

.Net 120

.Net Startup Entrepreneur Mentor 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. Entrepreneurs started demanding that VCs call their first-round financings “seed” rounds even if they were $3 million. Why the latter? and there''s always a but]. I saw this myself a few times in a row.

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2012

An entrepreneur utilizes online communities to solicit pledges of small amounts of money from individuals who are typically not professional financiers. Research the Net for guidance in this arena, which is changing as laws enabling this are evolving.

Funding 192

Funding Entrepreneur Startup Invest 192

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. That is, how much should your company be willing to lose in cash every month as you make investments in staff and equipment that funds technology, sales, marketing and management.

Startup 212

Startup Venture Capital .Net Capital 212

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

If you don’t already read Chris’s blog you should – it’s very well written, often takes a strong POV and speaks from an entrepreneur’s perspective but with a huge knowledge of the technology investors as well. I covered this a bit in my post about the market definition slide in fund raising. He is both.

Product 348

Product Startup Design Blogging 348

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Until the recession a decade ago, market research indicated that as many as 90 percent of the roughly 20 million American small business owners were motivated more by lifestyle than growth and money. Being called a lifestyle entrepreneur should be a point of pride, not an insult. It seems that more people are focused on money today.

Entrepreneur 148

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Course 148

InfoChachkie

JULY 18, 2011

Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and Marcia Brown’s Stone Soup , the seemingly innocuous board game Monopoly has played a pivotal role in the edification of several generations of entrepreneurs. In addition to the Luxury Tax board space, there are also Chance cards that require you to pay a percentage of your net worth in taxes.

Entrepreneur 216

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Paramount 216

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 28, 2021

You, the lonely fisherman, must weave a net to catch your fish. Should your net be large and bulky, requiring more effort and expense to weave? Or should it be small and delicate, to catch those fish that would otherwise fall through the net? So, is your (SOM) serviceable obtainable market large enough?

.Net 156

.Net Statistics Marketing Research 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Customer 113

InfoChachkie

MARCH 5, 2012

If you use the mentor-driven model that we pioneered at TechStars, you get entrepreneurs who are deeply connected with the broader entrepreneurial landscape. ” Brad went on to address the issue of a diluted entrepreneur talent pool and its potential impact on the efficacy of new accelerators. Probably not.

Startup 270

Startup Incubator Doc Mentor 270

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

Although many are entertaining, most fail to provide entrepreneurs with a sufficient return on their time investment. Unfortunately, most business books do not offer entrepreneurs an adequate payoff. The brief chapters lend themselves to multiple sittings, allowing a busy entrepreneur to read each chapter in short increments.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

TrueCar, an LA-based company, sells more cars now than any physical dealer in the country and recently went public and has a $1 billion market cap. While the costs of starting a tech company have plummeted it still does take money to hire a team, launch products and market oneself. Indeed we have already seen the beginnings.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2013

Every entrepreneur wants to know how they can improve their odds on the road to success, and why some entrepreneurs seem to be able to squeeze success out of even a marginal business case. Every existing and budding entrepreneur should internalize these reality principles: Ready yourself as a founder.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Course Ideas .Net 103

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital. The core business we have built on is taking out-of-market startups and introducing them to investors. One mistake I made early on is I thought, ‘capital is fungible, look at the foreign exchange markets.’ It’s actually quite common.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

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. the funding and market coverage. If this figure is accurate – it’s certainly a very large business even when you look at net revenues.

Clearstone 236

Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2015

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. In fact, we now live in a buyer-led digital age, where the traditional media push-marketing efforts just don’t work.

Metrics 101

Metrics Marketing Demand Paramount 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

A great recent example of this was a successful group of entrepreneurs who had created a company that will do $10-12 million in revenue at their system integration business (read: services business) in 2011 after having done $5 million or so in 2010 and $2-3 million in 2009. And stop effing around trying to create a product company.&#.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2012

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. These moments are always being transformed into options to be explored.

Entrepreneur 112

Entrepreneur Social Media .Net Startup 112

Berkonomics

MAY 7, 2015

You, the lonely fisherman, have to weave a net to catch your fish. Should your net be large and bulky, requiring more effort and expense to weave? Or should it be small and delicate, to catch those fish that would otherwise fall through the net? The size of your market may well define the ultimate size of your dream.

.Net 120

.Net Research Marketing Entrepreneur 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2011

Every entrepreneur wants to know how they can improve their odds on the road to success, and why some entrepreneurs seem to be able to squeeze success out of even a marginal business case. Every existing and budding entrepreneur should internalize these reality principles: Ready yourself as a founder.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Course Ideas .Net 92

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Babak Nivi is one of the most understated, helpful & important people on the entrepreneur / startup scene in NorCal. What he (along with Naval) started with AngelList is also a very important transformation to the communications between first-time entrepreneurs & angels. But it +is+ an anti-entrepreneur stance.&#

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

Many had the typical investor-friendly terms where entrepreneurs would get screwed and not even understand how they got screwed until many years later. This was pre Venture Hacks so not a lot of help on terms on the Net. They said they believed in aligning investor and entrepreneur incentives. I totally agree.

Funding 252

Funding Venture Capital Startup Blogging 252

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

As an entrepreneur, you always need to be on the lookout for ways to expand your current business, and always on the lookout for your next big thing. I’ve netted out his and others to create the following basic strategy for entrepreneurial growth: Apply your core competency to related markets. Hire people smarter than you.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Customer Custom .Net 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. Staying “lean&# is not an option.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

When an entrepreneur first incorporates a business, they may find themselves the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. every entrepreneur should incorporate early and file an 83(b) election with the IRS within 30 days of founding the company. In the U.S.,

.Net 96

.Net Startup Entrepreneur Acquisition 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2011

Every entrepreneur is flooded with information from all directions, but despite their best efforts to absorb it, they likely miss the information really needed to start a business. and books for entrepreneurs like “Think and Grow Rich.” These are both experienced entrepreneurs and angel investors. Lessons Learned , by Eric Ries.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Technical Review Blogging Java 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2019

Elon Musk via Flickr by TED Conference To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra that you can’t quite put your finger on, like Ryan Seacrest is searching for on American Idol. Be delightfully authentic and honest.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Social Media .Net Blogging 103

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

Two weeks after Brad’s post I was at the 140 Conference in LA and I held open office hours for any entrepreneur who wanted to spend 15 minutes talking with a VC about their business. But it turns out I met a bunch of really interesting entrepreneurs. But TWTFelipe is an entrepreneur. Tags: Tech Market Analysis.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 13, 2010

The net result of my posts plus the comments forms a tighter view of my evolving belief system. If I had link bait with stupid ideas then entrepreneurs wouldn’t want to work with me. 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

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Entrepreneurs who experience promising initial success also play a similar game. Nearly every successful entrepreneur is offered a relatively modest amount of money for their adVenture during its early days. Take Home Pay – All that matters is the amount of money you net, not the size of the initial offer.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Acquisition Pricing 124

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

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Entrepreneurs who experience promising initial success also play a similar game. Nearly every successful entrepreneur is offered a relatively modest amount of money for their adVenture during its early days. Take Home Pay – All that matters is the amount of money you net, not the size of the initial offer.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Acquisition Pricing .Net 124