Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. I'm a huge fan of this innovation. and Half.com. and Half.com.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

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. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

JULY 5, 2017

Beverly Hills-based Kairos Venture Partners , a venture capital investment firm that specifically focuses on commercialization of scientific discoveries, has raised $74.6M as part of an ongoing fundraising effort for its second fund, Kairos Venture Partners II, LP. The funding was disclosed via a regulatory filing.

Beverly Hills 124

Beverly Hills Funding Southern California Venture Capital 124

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Social Network 255

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

As the authors make clear in the book’s preface, their goal is to create a “definitive guide to venture capital deals” and “demystify the venture capital financing process.” Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. In many of them I get asked similar questions, including the inevitable “what makes a great entrepreneur?” Tesla is not. It's a great talk.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start Up Advice &# but I’d really like to call this post, “VC Advice.&#. A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. He’s been at it since 2005. VC’s who don’t get this are naive.

Venture Capital 329

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 329

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Availability of Capital.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). I should say that I agree that naive optimism in entrepreneurs can produce higher beta (upside or flops) and that’s good from an investment standpoint if you’re looking for big returns.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Los Angeles- and Atlanta-based Mighty Oak Entertainment , which produces sports clips for traditional, digital, and streaming, has received an investment from former MGM Television President John Bryan and entrepreneur and KDOCTV (Los Angeles) owner Bert Ellis, Jr., before leaving in 2005 to found Might Oak Entertainment.

Entertainment 113

Entertainment Invest Los Angeles Content 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0 RSS was something that had appeared.” “….I was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

He knows every startup & VC in town.” This was 2005 when I had no exits under my belt, no blogs … nobody was looking. When I first arrived in LA my good friend Matt Pillar (a long-term veteran of tech, media & VC) who had been in LA for some time told me, “in LA there’s none better than David.”

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. Tell a friend!

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2016

we're proud to be part of one of the world's most vibrant innovation ecosystems with some of the fastest growing companies and most creative entrepreneurs. Despite the Q1 correction in valuation, and subsequent drop in VC funding, we saw numerous LA companies not only survive, but thrive - despite the macroeconomic trends.

Santa Monica 124

Santa Monica Southern California Venture Capital SoCalTech 124

socalTECH

DECEMBER 21, 2017

For today's interview, we spoke with Richard Sussman , who is leading up investments for a new venture capital firm in town, NordicEye (www.nordiceye.com), which just saw a big exit in one of its very first investments, Los Angeles-based Weblife. As a very young VC, we can't do that. He is the CEO of Magic Partners.

Southern California 133

Southern California Startup Venture Capital Invest 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). And if I were an entrepreneur I’d rather find investors who understood “my space&# so that in tough times they felt comfortable about “doubling down.&#. Not everybody agreed.

Invest 152

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. I need to take some VC meetings. This article originally ran on TechCrunch. I’m in Seattle this week. Of course I have.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations. I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. VCs were very active in this period.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

On the other hand were everybody else including those that tried to make a full time of it like Robert Scoble as well as those that did it as a side job like VCs, CEO’s and start-up entrepreneurs. Bill Gurley , a well known VC from Benchmark Capital, seemed to have a 2-year hiatus from blogging and has now picked up the pace.

Blogging 219

Blogging Venture Capital Startup Social Media 219

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

socalTECH

DECEMBER 26, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Today, we share the thoughts of Brett Brewer , co-foudner and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscut.vc). in 2005 for $680M.

Southern California 100

Southern California News Platform Class 100

socalTECH

APRIL 7, 2011

Many local entrepreneurs might know Todd Jerry , formerly a venture capitalist at Anthem Venture Partners. Todd has a unique view, having worked both on the venture and high technology investing side at Anthem, as well as the architecture and construction industry now. That's developed into new business in and of it self.

Santa Monica 190

Santa Monica Venture Capital Anthem Design 190

socalTECH

AUGUST 2, 2012

As part of the funding, John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners has joined the company's board. Gross is a serial entrepreneur, having successfully founded online advertising firm Fastclick, which he took IPO in 2005, and later sold to ValueClick for over $200M. Gross said the funding will go towards sales and technology.

Netflix 124

Netflix Seed Funding Advertising Sales 124

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

Los Angeles-based Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscutventures.com) is one of the newest venture capital funds in the area, and has quietly been working on funding local companies over the last year. We spent six plus years at a local firm, Palomar Ventures, doing Series A and Series B investments.

Southern California 153

Southern California Startup Palomar Rustic Canyon 153

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. Oh, yeah. And when there is a spark, go for it.

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Web Ideas 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

As many of you know I run a weekly webcast called This Week in VC that’s getting between 25-35,000 weekly views across ThisWeekIn.com, YouTube & mostly iTunes. In 2005 they realized that this business was going to evaporate over night with the introduction of YouTube. Yesterday’s show floored me. Here’s the link.

Startup 303

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Writing 303

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2012

I lived in London from 1997-2005 and for 6 of those years ran my startup based out of London. Which is why I often tell people to start being entrepreneurs when one is young. ” 31:45 Is there truth to the idea that you shouldn’t force change upon entrepreneurs? I remember this lesson well.

Startup 350

Startup Ideas Education Class 350

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development.

Invest 283

Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Breakout companies become much harder and this isn’t likely to improve unless we give new companies the tools and capital they need to flourish. You think Turkey is going to be eager to allow the movement of capital it can’t track? Our social graphs are locked in Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Without trust no currency has value.

Course 280

Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

where entrepreneurs share their stories. 63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of By mario on May 2, 2012 in Features , grid. Free Corporations For First-Time Entrepreneurs. Right now they’re setting up 500 free corporations for first time entrepreneurs. Here are 62 63 Los Angeles entrepreneurs we can be proud of.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 24, 2011

I am currently at the annual VC in the OC program held in Irvine CA by OCTANe , an organization that connects people and ideas to resources and capital in Orange County. Over 600 people came to this event to listen share and network, including entrepreneurs, VC’s and investors. All this success in less than five years.

Orange County 104

Orange County OCTANE Technical Review Outsource Development 104

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2010

One of Southern California's successful, serial entrepreneurs is Winston Damarillo , who founded Gluecode, which he sold to IBM in 2005. CSK Ventures in Japan is on eof the largest data center operators, and they have their own venture capital firm, which provided us with our seed funding. READ MORE>>.

Southern California 242

Southern California Startup Cloud Computing El Segundo 242

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 17, 2012

Prior to founding MuckerLab, Erik was most recently at Harrison Metal Capital where he helped lead one of the most successful seed-stage venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Our Panelist Include: Erik Rannala , Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ MuckerLab. TX is also an Associate of Chartered Accountants (U.K.)

Startup 110

Startup Activision Santa Monica SaaS 110

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

GRP has just recently closed on a new $200M fund, and Mark has been one of the more active venture capitalists in the Los Angeles area in recent months. What's your thoughts on the local venture market? An A-round investment in the late 90's, or even in 2005/2006, or 2007, was a $5-8M check. We're taking it seriously.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

socalTECH

APRIL 5, 2017

And, even more impressively, it's now seeing more than $100M in annual revenues--without ever having taken any institutional or venture capital. We spoke with CEO Bryan Cheung to learn more about LifeRay, and how it grew from a church basement and open source to $100M+ in revenues, without ever taking outside capital.

Diamond Bar 169

Diamond Bar Customer Custom Organization 169

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150