socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

Kevin O'Connor: I've been doing venture since my first deal in 1995, and have been investing on and off since I moved to Santa Barbara in 2001, under the name O'Connor Ventures, and did that full time until 2009, when I started Graphiq, and switched back into doing another company. Kevin O'Connor: It's 100 percent our own funds.

Venture Capital 145

Venture Capital Startup Invest Capital 145

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

David Carter and Allen Hurff are two startup veterans, who believe they have a new formula to help create early stage, technology companies, through their new "startup studio", Zuma Ventures (www.zumavc.com). We sat down with David and Allen to learn more about how the company wants to change how startups are created.

Startup 231

Startup Technology Incubator Silver Lake 231

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2016

Today's contribution is from Lawrence Ng , serial entrepreneur who, last year, founded OnRamp Fund , a $10 million incubator that invests in early stage startups. Lawrence Ng: When you start an incubator, your quickly learn how passion for a new product motivates the team and encourages them to work together regardless of location.

Funding 113

Funding Southern California Incubator Startup 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 7, 2009

If you’re thinking about raising VC and have not yet started the process, you’ve probably already missed the boat for 2009. So why is Funding Season over for the rest of the year? Because almost all VC’s know this, many are reluctant to even start the process with you. Many VC partners take 2-3 (4?)

Venture Capital 304

Venture Capital Funding Startup Capital 304

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. The Valley has obsessed with a quick up-and-to-right momentum story because we were thought to live in “winner take most” markets.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2015

Crosscut Ventures has just announced their 3rd fund and clocking in at $75 million , which will be focused heavily on Los Angeles – FTW. LA has grown up a lot over the past 5 years. This week Michael Dubin’s startup Dollar Shave Club announced a $75 million funding round at a rumored $650 million valuation.

News 150

News Funding Venture Capital Dollar Shave Club 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2020

For example, you may think that disruptive smartphones were an overnight sensation, but in reality, it took huge investments by several different companies starting in 1992, including IBM, Apple, and Google, before the market really took off in 2007. Innovation doesn’t even require technology.

Startup 129

Startup Artificial Inteligence Examples Google 129

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Let’s set up a framework. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

It is an heroic accomplishment in a brutal fund-raising market in which only market leaders can bring in that sort of money. But the story started more than 6 months ago. We started planning our fund raising as much as 14 months ago. Many had started IPO’ing and we started to think about our future.

Funding 150

Funding Startup SaaS Venture Capital 150

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Shoes Of Prey , a fashion startup which allows women to custom order shoes to their specifications, has raised $15M in a Series B funding, and set up shop in Santa Monica, according to the company. The company was founded by Michael Fox, Mike Knapp and Jodie Fox in Sydney in 2009. READ MORE>>.

Santa Monica 100

Santa Monica Startup Customer Custom 100

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. Same as I felt.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way). Very few people fund individuals. And a great product starts with the founder. Their name alone is enough to get meetings set up. I’ll make my next posting shorter. I get that.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. ” We talked about my influences as a younger person and what got me started in technology and entrepreneurship. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. Top for January 16, 2009 - January 31, 2009 Posts Are You Selling Online Yet? This hot list is based on various social signals of what people are writing about, reading, bookmarking, searching, etc.

Layoffs 159

Layoffs Woodland Hills Southern California Orange County 159

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Most are sitting on large portfolios of private companies that are raising money now or will need to do so in the future and they know that they’re up against some headwinds. The Motive for Speaking Up. ” “Mark has a vested interest in talking down valuations of startups.” All of these are false.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

I think I’ve read Paul Graham’s post on “ Startup = Growth ” three or four times now. “The growth of a successful startup usually has three phases: There’s an initial period of slow or no growth while the startup tries to figure out what it’s doing. I talked about some of that here.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2010

The Tech Coast Angels said today that the angel group invested in seven new deals, and seventeen follow-on deals in 2009, a total of $4.7M The group said that as part of those deals, its portfolio companies raised an additional $57M in funding from venture capital groups and other angel investors. in investments.

Tech Coast Angels 150

Tech Coast Angels Invest MyShape Angel 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste. ” Here’s how all the drama started for me. A rounds back then seemed to be anywhere from $2-3 million (LA or NYC) or up to $5 million in Silicon Valley. $5 Nobody cares.

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Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Interested in getting some help in getting your startup off the ground and funded? Launchpad LA , the Los Angeles startup accelerator program which is run by Sam Teller, and was founded by venture capitalist Mark Suster, is gearing up for another class, to start next month.

Class 168

Class Startup Web Design Mentor 168

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I started showing my partners more deals that I found interesting and doing loads of analysis on the future of markets I thought were ripe for disruption. Let’s help get their funding get finalized or the company sold if it’s already in play. And VCs scrambled to raise their own funds. Fundings boomed.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

socalTECH

JULY 12, 2012

It turns out the company still exists--albeit under another name and management--and just became, again, a venture backed startup. Now, FuzeBox announced a Series A funding round worth $20.0M, from Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Insight Ventures. READ MORE>>.

Santa Barbara 133

Santa Barbara Funding Capital Startup 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. When you look at how much median valuations were driven up in the past 5 years alone it’s bananas. In 2009 we could take a long time to review a deal. And reset they must.

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

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). Talk about the new firm and the new fund? Cleantech had an enormous rise and fall between 20006 and 2009.

Invest 113

Invest Capital Venture Capital Idealab 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

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. VC’s often talk about this term as in the total amount of funds EVER raised by that VC. What is a VC fund? What is total assets under management? -

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

My good friend Adam Lilling and I started Launchpad more than 5 years ago . I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) We announced Fund I in 2011.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. It is to out friend. Enjoyed this post? Disruptive. We get it! I Be specific.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

In other news we announced the closing of $61 million in funding at Maker Studios , which I’ll talk publicly about soon. He first came to see me in 2008 when we was raising money for his 1st startup – NextMedium. Startup DNA. Mark, why wouldn’t you fund him? This is a big news day at Upfront Ventures.

Invest 340

Invest Venture Capital Startup News 340

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Their first fund was a $75 million fund raised in 2006 and they very recently announced a brand new $130 million fund. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. In the intro section of the show we talked a lot about why VC funds are becoming smaller again and where Greycroft fits.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

JANUARY 10, 2013

The Honest Company , the online brand offering up natural products for babies and families founded by Jessica Alba, has teamed up with daily deals site Zulily , the two said Wednesday afternoon. Lee also headed up LegalZoom, and also runs ShoeDazzle. Financia link between the companies were not disclosed. READ MORE>>.

Company 196

Company Companies Legalzoom Startup 196

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

I will argue that when the dust settles, although we will have fewer firms, each type well end up more focused on traditional stage segments that cater to the core competencies of that firm. I will argue that LPs who invest in VC funds will also need to adjust a bit as well. When I built my first company starting in 1999 it cost $2.5

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software Capital Startup 334

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2021

More and more entrepreneurs are hearing about the successful graduates and investors queued behind a few well-known startup incubators, including Y Combinator, TechStars, and the Founder Institute. His tests focus on personality traits alone (ignoring your startup idea), looking for fluid intelligence, openness, and agreeableness.

Incubator 146

Incubator Technical Review Entrepreneur Mentor 146

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2017

Hollod is now joined up with Burkle and recording artist D.A. Wallach on investments out of a new fund, Inevitable Ventures. How did you end up here in Los Angeles doing investments? Chris Hollod: Growing up in Atlanta, I was completely oblivious to California and more specifically LA. All day, every day.

Invest 157

Invest Startup Hollywood Echo Park 157

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Opendoor has opened the door, so to speak, for startups to apply their technical expertise in search, marketplaces and audience segmentation to rethink the very antiquated and analogue world of property. The funding is being led by QED Investors; Founders Fund, Susa Ventures, Navitas Capital, and Prudence Holdings also participated.

Sales 282

Sales Demand San Diego Funding 282

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

When convertible debt first started being introduced as a “faster, cheaper way to get startups funded” they didn’t have pricing built into them. 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.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

LA saw its first big enterprise exit in recent memory with the recent acquisition of Signal Sciences for $775 million, and less than a month later a hometown startup, Britive has raised $5.4 million from LA’s own venture fund, Upfront Ventures and a clutch of security experts.

Los Angeles 308

Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Culver City Angel 308

InfoChachkie

MARCH 5, 2012

Expansion League Teams In The Startup World. In the past year, the number of startup accelerators and incubators across the US has grown faster than expansion league baseball. In 2009 Jed created a Google doc to track the seed accelerators. .” If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for.

Startup 270

Startup Incubator Doc Mentor 270