Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. ” Yup.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 31, 2011

BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2011 comes to Los Angeles and its finally here. Prior to joining FM in 2009, she served as President at Scripps Networks Digital, where she led the charge on bringing Scripps more fully into the digital space. Starting November 3-5 (This week) BlogWorld kicks it off as will TechZulu. Thanks to our Sponsors!

Los Angeles 75

Los Angeles Angel Social Media Media 75

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). So VCs started writing some smaller A-rounds. .” Here’s how all the drama started for me. Why the latter?

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of By mario on May 2, 2012 in Features , grid. Features like this, as well as our daily interviews wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support of our sponsor eMinutes – a law firm here in Los Angeles that focuses on helping entrepreneurs structure their companies. Subscribe to RSS.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 31, 2011

BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2011 comes to Los Angeles and its finally here. Prior to joining FM in 2009, she served as President at Scripps Networks Digital, where she led the charge on bringing Scripps more fully into the digital space. Starting November 3-5 (This week) BlogWorld kicks it off as will TechZulu. Thanks to our Sponsors!

Los Angeles 49

Los Angeles Angel Social Media Media 49

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

I’m going to write a pure admiration piece. Yes, I still used a Blackberry in 2009. Angel investor. He flew to Las Vegas to lobby Harry Reid and get access to people with right-of-ways between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Not this one. A “hats off” (see what I did there?) And also a “thank you.”

Startup 150

Startup Conference Ideas Writing 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.” The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more Why is this? and hasn’t abated.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? Ive personally been involved in the start-up world in Los Angeles for about 15 years, and have had the opportunity to work on many early-stage companies (e.g.,

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2010

We built that and put it on the App Store on December 24 of 2009. As of the last four months, we've had about 200,000 plus downloads, a bunch of great write ups, and a lot of mom bloggers who have been reviewing the app and writing stories on it. All of 2009 was figuring out what people want.

Mobile 168

Mobile .Net Pasadena Software Review 168

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. At the time he granted me permission to write about his story. Felipe grew up in Brazil. Crazy, huh?

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to. The team has experience in building startups (Doug Ludlow was formerly a founder in a TechStars company) and have all worked at local Los Angeles based startups.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

If I look back to the beginning of the current tech boom which started around 2009, we often wrote a $3–5 million check and this was called an “A round” and 12 years later in an over-capitalized market this became known as a “Seed Round” but in truth what we do hasn’t changed much at all.

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. A new group of investors have clustered around writing earlier-stage, smaller checks. If you’re an angel you invest your own money and you have nobody to answer to except your spouse. But you’re not an angel. Answer: Not much. It’s a shame.

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Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

This was until about 2009 because most the investments in companies came from one, maybe two, sources. In the old days there usually weren’t convertible notes on early-stage deals and there weren’t party rounds with 20 angels or 6 seed funds. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? It’s very simple.

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

But when I’m looking to write my check I need to look in the eyes of the captain — the maestro who brings the whole orchestra together. He wanted to raise angel money. I joined GRP Partners in 2007 before they raised their current fund (we closed a $200 million fund in March 2009). I told him to quit his job first.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I regularly do wine tastings here in Los Angeles with some interesting folks I know. I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2011

Scott Lahman is co-founder of Los Angeles-based GOGII (www.gogii.com), the developer of group text messaging application textPlus. Scott Lahman: When we first put it out in early 2009, free texting was just a huge offering. Even though write once and run anywhere has been the holy grail, I think it's the false prophet.

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Gogii Mobile Activision Electronic Arts 200

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. If you have raised a limited amount of money from angels, accelerators or seed funds be very careful about having a high burn rate.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. But the problem with being all in – all in for me, let’s say I can write $10 to $12 million per company. If I write $2 million and we hit a bump in the road, I can write another $2 million. Am I allowed to say this?

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

socalTECH

JUNE 18, 2009

That was the jumping off point for OneCubicle a little over 18 months ago, when we started writing the business plan and code. What I feel like now, in 2009, is that to be an entrepreneur who dabbles both in entertainment and technology, you need to be able to talk tech, and talk entertainment, and be pretty well versed in both languages.

Social Network 100

Social Network Entertainment Startup CTO Coach 100

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2011

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based HitFix (www.hitfix.com) an online news site focused on entertainment, announced it had raised $2M in a funding round. We thought it was a real opportunity to bring in some taste-maker editors, who could write specifically for that audience, and break news. How did you decide to launch HitFix?

News 173

News Entertainment Startup Bertelsmann 173

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. So we think we're the right size for the market in 2009. We'll even write a half a million check. That as unhealthy. That's the sweet spot for what I personally am looking at.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

Imagine if, say, Autodesk had purchased it in 2009 for $100 million? Of the first four investments I made as a VC in 2009, two have exited and two (Invoca & GumGum) still are independent and likely to produce $billion++ outcomes . Case in point, Procore just went public and is trading at an $11 billion valuation. Maker Studios?—?sold

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 12, 2010

Before I start writing this review, I want to say how much I appreciate the web series' nominated for Streamy Awards. Here it is: March 28, 2009. Nominees: Angel of Death Compulsions OzGirl The Bannen Way Valemont. Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series: Wainy Days (David Wain). The first Streamy Awards was ballin.'

Web 40

Web News Technical Review Writing 40

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2010

Lunch.com is based in Los Angeles. Back at that time, I had people ask my--why would I ever want to read what other people are writing, isn't that what professional authors and journalists are for? Johnson: We launched in April of 2009, so it's coming up on almost a year. What's the story behind Lunch.com?

Content 204

Content Startup Sites Manhattan Beach 204

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

But Paul Graham really did have a point in his “ high resolution fundraising ” post – that there is a problem – particularly in angel financing – with herding cats. Since 2009 I have been counseling people to offer discounts to the first angel investors. Almost every wealthy angel wants a deal.

Pricing 294

Pricing Venture Capital Writing Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Clearly a startup should consult its lawyer before filing or not filing.But the attorneys I relied on to write this piece told me that they’ve done lots of Section 4(2) deals in the past, and would recommend it to clients who had relatively simple financing agreements (not tranched-out, not too many investors, etc.) Short answer: no.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Some thoughts on raising angel money. In fact, most early investor work hard to help their startups get to the next level so it makes no sense for the angel investor and founders to be at odds. So if I write you a $500,000 check into a convertible note with a $4.5 At a minimum every angel investor should ask for this.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Online video: is Hulu’s inventory really “sold out” as they often claim? -Launched in 2007 in Los Angeles by Adam Bernhard and Konstantin Glasmacher. Mo & I both have double majors with one being finance / econ.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Dec 26, 2009). We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all. The expanding pool of angel, seed, and super seed funds is another. If you are an entrepreneur or active in the angel/seed sector, you should read it. But since our firm does participate in select angel/seed rounds, this was interesting to me.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free! We write about $40 million of first-checks into new deals / year and about $40 million of follow-on investments. “10 angel investors walk into a bar …” Do you remember AngelGate at Bin38 ? In short – no.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. 17, 2009 and before Jan. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

► 2009 (3) ► May (1) A Tour of the Rubicon Project Headquarters ► April (1) "Pay it Forward" Event for Students & Aspiring Ent. Sequoia has a tremendous reputation, but it was also important to us to have a local (Los Angeles) VC as well. ► October (1) New Video!

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

November 23, 2010 Entrepreneurs, Using Outsourcing to Obtain Capital Efficiency Needs to be Thought Through to be Effective - Robert Ochtel , June 7, 2010 Teen Entrepreneur, Brian Wong, Youngest Founder to Receive Angel Funding - teenentrepreneurblog.com , October 28, 2010 Build Your Own Silicon Valley?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

The prices of angel deals have recently crept up, VCs have also gotten their checkbooks out again, frothy deals are happening and people are feeling bullish. VCs have also gone back to writing checks because as an industry we can’t be seen as “sitting on the sidelines” for years at a time. VCs get paid to “put money to work.&#.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298