Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

I’d rather be Roger Ehrenberg with a thesis around data-centric companies and base my investment decisions on the skills I’ve developed in my career. To some extent Keith Rabois agreed with me about domain knowledge and argued that most of his investments are in the consumer Internet space as a result. Always have been.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I’d rather be Roger Ehrenberg with a thesis around data-centric companies and base my investment decisions on my background. 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 152

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Raising money as a first-time VC fund is hard.In Many of my friends who are VCs (and some friends who tried to raise a fund unsuccessfully) warned me that raising for a first-time fund would be very difficult. What was the biggest lesson you learned this year? As I look back on the last 18 months, I realize just how hard it was.

Capital 113

Capital Venture Capital News Patents 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 26, 2015

Los Angeles-based PeerStreet said this morning that it has launched a brand new, online real estate loan marketplace, which is aimed at accredited investors interested in real estate investments. The company said it already has funded more than $35M in real estate loans, across 78 properties, during its pre-launch phase.

Google 100

Google San Diego Los Angeles Acquisition 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

Let me take you back just 10 years ago to 2005 in Silicon Valley where I returned after 11 years of living in Europe. At the time almost nobody had heard of the following funds: FirstRound Capital, TrueVentures, Floodgate and SoftTech. We discussed how initial investments and follow-ons work in this short 2-minute clip.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

socalTECH

OCTOBER 18, 2010

According to Ice Energy, a Colorado maker of equipment which uses equipment which shifts energy produced at off-peak hours to peak power demand times, SAIL was one of a number of investors in a $24M, first close of a Series C funding round.

Venture Capital 157

Venture Capital Demand Invest Capital 157

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

The biggest news this year for Okapi, Southern Californias original seed stage venture capital fund, is that we ramped up the deployment of our 3rd fund and saw its portfolio grow by another 10 companies! Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that you found most interesting in 2018?

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Capital Southern California News 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

The trend of funding anything from the first $25k to funding $50 million at a billion+ valuation is unlikely to last as the skills and style to be effective at all stages are diverse enough to warrant focus. I will argue that LPs who invest in VC funds will also need to adjust a bit as well.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software Capital Startup 334

socalTECH

JULY 30, 2012

The move might actually be a positive one for Southern California, given that Levinsohn had been pulled away from investing and helping Southern California startups in 2010, when he was tapped by then Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz to aid Yahoo. Levinsohn has not said what he'll do next after his stint as Yahoo CEO. READ MORE>>.

Yahoo 145

Yahoo Southern California News Venture Capital 145

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. Give us an overview of your fund and what you invest in?

Southern California 133

Southern California Startup Venture Capital Invest 133

socalTECH

JULY 18, 2013

We spoke with Arjan Shutte about the investment firm and its interest in financial startups, and why it moved from New York. Arjan Schutte: Our fund has a big mission, to invest in financial technology for the emerging middle class. I then moved to New York, where I set up the fund. How big is the fund?

Capital 183

Capital Startup Los Angeles Invest 183

Xconomy

JULY 26, 2016

Ostendo Technologies, a Carlsbad, CA-based company founded in 2005 to advance curved screens and other innovative display technologies, has raised $41.8 The financing includes both new investment funding and a conversion of debt to equity, according to a notation in the filing. million, according to a recent regulatory filing.

Technology 40

Technology Venture Capital Beverly Hills Funding 40

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Rob Freelen: The best lesson I learned in 2016 is that a well-managed company can succeed in any funding environment. 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. What's the biggest lesson you learned this year?

Santa Monica 124

Santa Monica Southern California Venture Capital SoCalTech 124

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

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. In the early 80’s he left academia to work on venture capital investing with Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies. In 2008 they raised a much larger fund $132.5

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

socalTECH

JULY 14, 2010

The round was led by Global Gateway Investment Group (G2iG), and also includes Frontera Group LLC, CSK Venture Capital Co. Morphlabs said that the funding will go to accelerate expansion in the United States and Asia. El Segundo-based Morphlabs , the latest startup of Winston Damarillo, is announcing today that it has raised $5.5M

El Segundo 124

El Segundo EC2 Cloud Computing Venture Capital 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

This was 2005 when I had no exits under my belt, no blogs … nobody was looking. I told him that our market was absolutely booming and was worthy of a commensurate investment. Invest they have. I told David, “Look at the changes we’ve seen in the VC / funding market. He was a mensch.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

socalTECH

DECEMBER 10, 2009

OVP is known for its list of "missed deals" in its portfolio, and recently added Networks In Motion to its missed deal for its 2001-era Fund 6. According to OVP's site, it was approached in 2005 by the CFO of a former portfolio company, who had made money for the firm twice before, begging the firm to invest.

Networking 133

Networking Orange County Redpoint Mission Ventures 133

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. Let's start with an overview of the fund. What do you invest in? We closed our fund in August of 2008.

Southern California 153

Southern California Startup Palomar Rustic Canyon 153

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

He said, “They need an unbiased view of the fund raising environment because there is too much misinformation and everything seems to be changing fast.&#. – you’re very well positioned as a fund. Many good companies will not get funded. Get funded now, if you can.&#. And well they should be.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). I first met Ethan in 2005. So I asked Ethan to build his product first and then we would fund. Let me not bury the lede.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

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. otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). (it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

We caught up with David Siemer , both an investment banker who runs Siemer & Associates (www.siemer.com) and an early stage investor here with Siemer Ventures (www.siemervc.com), to get his thoughts on the subject. You have a unique position, being both in the investment banking as well as being an early stage investor.

Southern California 124

Southern California SoCal Commerce Invest 124

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising. There’s no doubt (at least anecdotally) that the pace of VC investments in early-stage technology companies has picked up in the past few months. Because you have multiple forces at work. but I’ll save that for post 3/3).

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Social Network 255

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I had a pre breakfast with a CEO of a company in which I invested talking about his next fund raising round. I called another about his fund raising (DUDE – you never called me back! ). He turned me down for a job in 2005. Fund raising. Here’s my day today and how I bucketed it. Operations.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

I know that the tone of the title and post will seem a bit aggressive for a post from a venture capitalist on fund raising. Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. Dealing with an artificially high price can make fund raising hard. The list goes on.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 289

socalTECH

OCTOBER 26, 2016

This morning, Techstars (www.techstars.org), the startup accelerator which has had great success in spreading its approach to helping to get startups to the next stage of their life�usually, funding�announced it has opened up its third accelerator in Los Angeles, Techstars LA. billion combined. Thanks, and good luck!

Startup 100

Startup Los Angeles Mentor Class 100

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2011

We're looking to launch our first class in the fall, with five to ten companies, with the TechStars model of a small capital investment, and a seed investment of $6000 per founder. I helped them raise a few rounds of funding, ran their European operations. That was five or six years ago, 2005 or so. more) READ MORE>>.

Startup 221

Startup Mentor Southern California Incubator 221

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2011

Scott Saunders: I spent nearly my entire career on the investment side, and in 2005 switched over to the entrepreneurial side of the world. Ultimately, we expect those to be ad-funded by different advertisers involved in our platform. The firm is backed by a notable list of angel investors, and based in Los Angeles.

Startup 197

Startup Ideas Southern California Social Network 197

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC. Attitude – Brad and Jason clearly exhibit an entrepreneur-centric approach to the venture funding process. If you have an ad hoc funding question, these sources may still satisfy your needs.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

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. It looks like GRP has been making lots of early stage investments lately--can you talk a little bit about your investment preferences and what you are looking at nowadays?

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2011

in funding from Charles River Ventures, First Round Capital, DFJ Frontier, and angel investors. I had been doing some angel investing, and incubating several projects. Not everyone had a spam filter, and lots of companies didn't have a spam filter in place until 2003, 2004, or 2005. What are you doing with that funding?

Newsletter 216

Newsletter Startup CTO Hire Blogging 216

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. This is the fund raising perspective from both sides of the table. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. Executive Summary.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

He’d been working at a well-funded startup for about a year and had come to terms with the fact that the startup was really a pretty dumb idea. friend of mine asked me to chat with a startup he’d invested in. think his strategy is essentially the Ron Conway strategy , and at his rate ("34-ish investments" in 1-2yr?)

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2011

Elizabeth Amini: I actually ran into him in 2005, when he was a keynote speaker at a conference. I told him, I wanted him to invest his time. How is the firm funded? Elizabeth Amini: We're privately funded by the founders. But, we never were looking for funding. I ended up managing that project.

Study 252

Study Startup Design Tips 252

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Steve Jillings has a long track record of running successful startups in Southern California, ranging from such companies as FrontBridge Technologies (sold to Microsoft in 2005 for over $200M) and Vantage Media (acquired in 2007). They started in January of 2005. Can you tell our readers the story behind how you found the company?

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

socalTECH

JULY 16, 2010

Quinn Curtis: We were around since 2005, we were incorporated and funded in 2006. Quinn Curtis: We were self-funded from 2006 to 2008, and in 2008 we acquired a small botnet company in San Diego, which had a venture capitalist invested in it. Quinn is now VP of Hosted Security Services at Webroot (www.webroot.com).

San Diego 145

San Diego IP Acquisition Web 145