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.” Thus the amount of money that companies have raised before going public had doubled since the Great Recession.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

I got a call from a VC friend of mine who said, “we’re looking at this deal but can’t write the full check. But I had just seen the company present at a recent tech event and thought highly of what they were building. I was interested in the company but I wasn’t chasing the deal. The CEO called me.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Writing 356

SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 23, 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009 -- "Accessing Government Funding for Research: Partnering for Success in Challenging Economic Times" Southern California Biomedical Council. In the current financial environment, these government grants are becoming more important as traditional sources of funding early-stage life science companies dry up.

Research 100

Research Funding Southern California Writing 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2009

If you search for her (as of July 10, 2009 at 5:45pm) you will get no result and the text, “did you mean Amanda Choong?&#. While you’re at it put in a link (if you don’t blog or want to link to your company at least link to your LinkedIn or Facebook profile). And write a short bio about yourself. Anything.

Tips 216

Tips Social Media Social Network Santa Monica 216

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

What changed — and why the definition changed — was it became 90+% cheaper to start companies and thus seed funds appeared en masse as did angels so the size of seed rounds actually INCREASED and the size of A-rounds in many instances decreased. So VCs started writing some smaller A-rounds. Why the latter?

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

But they weren’t there in 2009 when you were up late nights shitting yourself whether you really were smart for pursuing this idea. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. I didn’t have any grand ambitions other than to write, share ideas and try to build awareness of who I am through my thoughts. Nothing comes easy.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

This was 2009 and his understanding of audience engagement was far beyond anything I was hearing from most people at that time. In a perfect world they would just hang out in our offices, work on tech ideas, help us evaluate opportunities, attend our investment meetings and be thoughtful advising tech companies that come to meet us.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

I’m going to write a pure admiration piece. We saw several companies present and I was mostly there for the networking. One company – Samasource – presented an incredibly inspirational goal of helping people in developing countries – not by aid but by engaging them in work. Not this one.

Startup 150

Startup Conference Ideas Writing 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. To put things into perspective, the company has 7.7 See, I originally lost this deal.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Activision 310

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. So he decided to start his company in Canada.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

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 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

If one entered between 2009-2015 he or she is no doubt in the “hazard” phase where one need to be careful about thinking he know more about the industry than perhaps he do. Too much money too early often f s companies up. But that would be 4 companies just this week. The mega round will devastate many companies.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

But all of this increased company creation has to go somewhere. It costs less money to start companies so the world should have way more startups.&# I’ve heard the “world is different&# argument in every bubble I’ve ever seen. But I’ll judge the angel class of 2009/2010 on a 7-10 year time horizon.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. 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.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Funding Invest 263

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

In the past decade we have remained consistent, investing in 12–15 companies per year at the earliest stages of their formation with a median first check size of approximately $3 million. In our best-performing companies we often write follow-on checks totaling up to $10–15 million out of our early-stage fund.

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. It’s why opt-in marketing databases can be so incredibly valuable for companies like Gilt Groupe, One King’s Lane and AdoreMe. source: Harris Interactive IM Shopping Poll (August 2009)).

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

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

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

And 450 million licenses of Windows 7 were sold since its launch in 2009, making it the fastest-growing operating system ever, and showing us that Windows is going to keep controlling the OS market share. Microsoft as a company also donates its products and services to help those less fortunate. 3. It’s not just about Windows.

Writing 88

Writing Training Email .Net 88

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Pre-money ($8m) + investment ($2m) = Post-money ($10m) and the investors now own 20% of your company $2m / $10m. This was until about 2009 because most the investments in companies came from one, maybe two, sources. How much am I willing to invest in your company? How much do I want to own % wise of your company?

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. You invest across many funds just as VCs invest across many companies. By 2009 had reduced to around $15 billion in capital from LPs. Let’s look at some great companies. So I can make a huge difference in the company’s trajectory. And reinventing itself.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Employers also have a hard time looking for viable candidates for their company. Pablo Fuentes: It first started in 2009 when I was in business school originally. We clearly went through some difficult transitions in the company. The company almost died. Hearing that your company almost died. That was rough.

Mobile 86

Mobile Marketing Writing Startup 86

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. In the latter cases many companies (Flickr, Delicious, Blogger, Writely in 05-08 and lately Invite Media, Aardvark, Dodgeball, etc.) So where are we now?

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

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. Some of my friends who were forced to go into startup companies ended up working for these biotech firms that became huge, and they made a lot of money by not being able to get a job. I started the company for all the wrong reasons.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Great companies are comprised of great individual point people or functional leaders. 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. There are plenty of great leaders who work really hard and work for big companies. They finally quit.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2011

We called the company GOGII--literally, our short text code of 60611, which you can looks a little like GOGII. 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.

Gogii 200

Gogii Mobile Activision Electronic Arts 200

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. In the latter case many companies (Flickr, Delicious, Blogger, Writely, etc.) This is cheaper for them than waiting for big competitors and buying companies at big prices.

Invest 152

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Great companies are built by having great products. One great company, AppFolio , filmed all of this user interaction and made the DVD available to me. They are people who built and sold companies and have a bit of money. The key to getting money is that the people writing the check trust you. Go research it.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

I’d like to offer you two “life hacks&# that I implemented in 2009 and one that I’m test driving in 2010. They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. In fact, they were recently bought by a publicly traded company called Ditech Networks).

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Eric Greenspan

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Real quickly, most companies that offer credit card processing are a middle-man (most banks are middle-man). Today, I received this email from the BBB: We’re writing to let you know that during the past month the Reliability Report that we publish on Make It Work was accessed 6 times. No Middleman means Big Savings!

Santa Barbara 265

Santa Barbara Technical Advisors Email Technical Review 265

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization. Mostly, no.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

We need venture debt, factoring companies and public markets. So what took me $2 million at my first company now takes $20,000. A new group of investors have clustered around writing earlier-stage, smaller checks. Others should swing for the fences - Some companies are designed to be big, industry changing plays.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Each company is investing untold billions of dollars in developing AI technologies, betting on a future defined by computer systems that can perceive, reason, advise, and decide. General interest, awareness, and discussion about AI has waxed and waned since the field was founded in 1956,” they write ( PDF ). “We

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Technical Advisors Research 40

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. So before you ask someone to even spend an hour of their time writing code or reviewing specs make sure you can pay them in some form (coffee, dinner, laptop, etc.), Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Was it a case of needing Homework?

CTO Hire 241

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

socalTECH

JUNE 18, 2009

We caught up with the firm's CEO, Gregg Champion--who formerly was Vice President of Programming and Development at Mania TV--to learn more about the company, its business, as well as its fundraising plans. That was the jumping off point for OneCubicle a little over 18 months ago, when we started writing the business plan and code.

Social Network 100

Social Network Entertainment Startup CTO Coach 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. Imagine if, say, Autodesk had purchased it in 2009 for $100 million? Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding .Net 363

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100