Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “ Top deal maker in Los Angeles in Venture Capital.” And Greg has had the most influence on Upfront Ventures’ strategy since he joined. From 2007-2012 I scoured LA constantly. I sat on panels.

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Venture Capital Journal Invest Santa Monica 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly? Short answer – yes.

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Venture Capital Startup Funding Invest 263

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures).

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Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors. One of the most difficult things to do as a first time entrepreneur is to get to know the investors you might be working with if you accept money. So how did Mike get into VC?

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Fandango 230

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I’m enjoying being a VC. I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. By fund II (2007) he was able to raise $15 million (if you watch the video you’ll hear an interesting story of how he did this) and he had a proper fund.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Product Manager Entrepreneur Mark Geller SEO for Startups Startup Version 1.0 Kevin Federline Search Engine Realistic Entrprenuer's Guide to Venture Capital Time Rich, Time Poor and Apple F2F Still Matters 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing. Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Guide CTO Coach Southern California 150

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.

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Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. But VC is like congress. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.”

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. Founded in 2007 by Oxford Univ.

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Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5 As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” years ago. None have exited.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, March 9, 2007 Map of VC Investments Found this Map of 2006 VC Investments post. Product Manager Entrepreneur Mark Geller SEO for Startups Startup Version 1.0 Some very interesting graphics including this heat map: Very cool visualization tool!

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Venture Capital Invest Southern California CTO Coach 150

Berkonomics

AUGUST 13, 2020

In fact, many angel investors or venture capitalists look for and respect the lessons learned by entrepreneurs that have survived a failed business. The key question is: Why did an entrepreneur fail? Most failed entrepreneurs blame undercapitalization for the cause of the failed business. Yes, it works both ways.

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Startup Entrepreneur Venture Capital Course 156

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. You can sense when it is a “mission” for this entrepreneur to succeed and she will continue the journey even if success isn’t easy or immediate.

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Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I’m enjoying being a VC. I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#.

Startup 176

Startup Entrepreneur Venture Capital Ideas 176

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

There's a new opportunity in clean technology investments, according to venture capitalist Aaron Fyke , the head of a new, Pasadena-based venture capital investment fund, Thin Line Capital (www.thinlinecapital.com). In 2007, the cleantech excitement was in full swing. Those were not VC-appropriate investments.

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Invest Capital Venture Capital Idealab 113

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 8, 2011

I recently reviewed Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson’s book Venture Deals , in THIS ENTRY. I concluded that it is an effective tool for leveling the playing field between sophisticated investors and emerging entrepreneurs. We felt it was a topic that we could create something that would be really lasting for entrepreneurs.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. So in the past we needed VC to really get a startup going.

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Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

One of the most common questions I hear from first-time entrepreneurs is, “How do I meet angels?” It’s why I talk about building VC relationships early – Lines, Not Dots. Fill your VC good will, build relationships, be helpful to them not just asking for things. “I’ve never been a VC before.

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Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.&# If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11. It isn’t a “must&# for me but it’s certainly a huge positive when entrepreneurs have it. I met the CEO Brian Malewicz several times. Another example.

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Entrepreneur Startup SaaS ASP 267

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 25, 2011

Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. Thursday, March 31, 2011 -- startupSD: Mark Suster from Both Sides of the Table. He focuses on early-stage technology companies.

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GRP Partners UCSD SoCal Southern California 100

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. The reason is that no VC wants to see the venture debt provider get burned if you become bankrupt.

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Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. It’s a non-fiction story of many of the players at the heart of the financial crisis that became exposed in 2007/08.

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Invest Angel Venture Capital Slides 306

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

I recently sat down with Troy Carter to talk about what he does and why he believes it is applicable to venture capital. And more recently he has turned that into a fund called CrossCulture VC such that many in Silicon Valley and beyond now know Troy as well. Same with Gaga. “It was a series of inflection points.

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Mentor Venture Capital Marketing Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2016

Not since the initial popularity of Twitter in 2007 has a product so befuddled people. Why would a VC do that? Now here is the important thing for you to understand — many of my target customers — entrepreneurs between ages 21–35 — are on Snapchat! I remember the same disdain from people when I started blogging or using Twitter.

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Snapchat Blogging Venture Capital Writing 200

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2016

In 2007 I started using Twitter and most of my friends & colleagues wondered why people would care what I ate for lunch. In 2008 I started VC blogging. I had blogged when I was an entrepreneur. In 2006 I started using Facebook and most of my friends & colleagues thought I was strange.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2013

After all, you’d have to be a really big baby to complain about being a VC. You’d imagine your favorite founder, VC, blogger, political figure, billionaire, whatever has a stress free life pontificating about how to build the next really cool, society-altering product or changing a city, state or country.

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Writing Venture Capital Blogging Startup 313

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.

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Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

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. Long Term Value – Look at your adVenture objectively, in the same manner as a Venture Capitalist (VC).

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Entrepreneur Venture Capital Acquisition Pricing 124

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. We are experiencing a frenetic time. My general advice is to do less.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. The industry did that in 2007.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

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. Long Term Value – Look at your adVenture objectively, in the same manner as a Venture Capitalist (VC).

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Acquisition Pricing .Net 124

Xconomy

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

After starting Organovo in 2007, I spent much of the next decade as CEO seeking financing to advance our bioprinting technology. Because I stepped out of an operational role early last year, I am now in a position of providing financing to aspiring life sciences entrepreneurs.

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San Diego Capital Funding Entrepreneur 45

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. 2007, 2011) and for the hottest of companies and in bad markets for fund raising (2003, 2008) prices test the bottom end of the range. I’m a VC so I have an obvious bias.

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Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 1, 2007 Entreprenuer Network Great post by Ben Kuo - The Importance of the “Network&# to Entrepreneurs - the informal connections between people in the technology industry here who have a vested interest in helping entrepreneurs take their companies to the next level.

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Networking CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

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.

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Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

socalTECH

JANUARY 27, 2010

In 2007, we started to put some policy attached to the money, and created a jobs investment fund. We put out an RFQ to all sorts of venture capital firms in California, in order to be the fiscal steward of that money. Of course, as with any VC, they can't just limit themselves to such a small area.

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