Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I obviously don’t have a crystal ball so the economy could fare better than my gut, but here’s why I’m cautious for some time in 2010 or early 2011: Why is the future still so unpredictable?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 10, 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011 -- Los Angeles VC and Angel Event. At our next Los Angeles event, the panel of investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing - how to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check - Especially in this economy! FundingPost. See [link] (more)

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Venture Capital Angel Writing 100

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. ” Numero uno. I was nowhere to be found.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Journal Invest Santa Monica 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

I just read the Q1 2011 report from CB Insights , which shows venture capital is back. Sure, there is always some seed funding (10% of overall deal flow), but you can bet that this money goes to entrepreneurs who have been there before and won. Back to VCs, Silicon Valley venture capital firms are still the most active.

Venture Capital 93

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 93

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 15, 2011

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 -- Orange County Angel VC and Startup Event. At our next Orange County event, the panel of investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing - how to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check - Especially in this economy! FundingPost. See [link] (more)

Orange County 100

Orange County Venture Capital Angel Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. I promise you, he really said this out loud.) I’m only 52!

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 -- The Halo Effect: How Angels can Bridge the Entrepreneur Funding Gap. You are invited to attend the next Maverick Angels Open Evening for Entrepreneurs at the University of Southern California. Maverick Angels. See [link] (more)

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Angel Southern California Funding 100

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2015

He founded Alpha Origins in 2011. Fredi''s email is worth reading, as it reinforces how lucky American entrepreneurs truly are. However, from an entrepreneur''s viewpoint, the philosophical distance can be measured in light years. Geographically, the distance between Spain and the US is about 4,715 miles. Fredi''s Plea.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Startup Santa Barbara Venture Capital 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 -- LAVA At The Beach. Meet the VC Event. This networking event is for the Venture community in Southern California. In attendance will be Venture Capital Partners and Angel Investors for over 20 firms. In attendance will be Venture Capital Partners and Angel Investors for over 20 firms.

LAVA 100

LAVA Venture Capital Southern California Santa Monica 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. By 2011 the market had started to change dramatically. We announced Fund I in 2011. So we went for it.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 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). 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 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

Xconomy

OCTOBER 25, 2016

According to the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook , this past quarter $15 billion was invested in 1,810 deals , which compares unfavorably to both the prior quarter ($22.1 Notably, this was the lowest quarterly deal volume since the fourth quarter of 2011, a period spanning 19 quarters. The projected $43.2

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Capital Activity Invest 40

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2012

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Blank, author of Four Steps To The Epiphany , Stanford Professor and noted entrepreneur. The subject discussed in the video below is Steve’s belief that Venture Capitalists should begin their careers as operational entrepreneurs. The Alchemy Of A Great Venture Capitalist.

Venture Capital 239

Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur SaaS 239

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 27, 2011

Thursday, June 2, 2011 -- Early Exits. Early Exits describes a strategy for startup investors and entrepreneurs to build a new ventures, prove business models and exit companies in 2-3 years without the need for multi-million dollar investments. San Diego Tech Coast Angeles. See [link] (more)

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Venture Capital San Diego Pricing 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC? It may be the right answer for you.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. I’ve been on the road much of 2012 and part of 2011. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur?

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

This offline event was successful in helping Kaviani find his own cofounder, Culin Tate, and a new venture. Together they envisioned a Match.com type of site for entrepreneurs to find each other and make things happen. s first accelerator called The Fort and raised VC funding. Soon after CoFoundersLab was accepted into D.C.’s

Entrepreneur 87

Entrepreneur Santa Monica Startup CTO Hire 87

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 2, 2011

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 -- LAVA hosts PwC's Shaking the MoneyTree. Please join LAVA, PwC and a distinguished panel of industry experts and local VCs for their insights on the results of the Q4 2010 PwC/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report based on data from Thomson Reuters. See [link] (more)

LAVA 124

LAVA Rustic Canyon Mission Ventures Venture Capital 124

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Thursday, September 22, 2011 -- Shaking The MoneyTree. Please join PwC, the Los Angeles Venture Association, and a distinguished panel of venture capitalists and industry experts for their insight into results of the MoneyTree TM Report. See [link] (more)

Press 100

Press Venture Capital Study Report 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 -- The Dating Game: Who Can Best Transform Healthcare? Featuring Diego Miralles, Head of Janssen Healthcare Innovation So, Future of Healthcarewill it be entrepreneur #1, entrepreneur #2 or entrepreneur #3? See [link] (more)

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Entrepreneur Mobile 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 25, 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011 -- startupSD: Mark Suster from Both Sides of the Table. 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. He focuses on early-stage technology companies.

GRP Partners 100

GRP Partners UCSD SoCal Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2011

The Clean Technology venture capital sector, which includes alternative energy, soared 68 per cent year-on-year during the first quarter of 2010. In previous articles, I’ve put some definition around the green and biotech investment categories, so I’ll try to do the same here for renewable energy. I expect another increase this year.

Technology 94

Technology Venture Capital Competition Funding 94

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.

Invest 152

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 16, 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 -- The Employee-Ownership Alternative: Building the Company You Want. Entrepreneurs have choices about the kind of company they want to create.

Company 100

Company Companies Venture Capital Equity 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Thursday, November 3, 2011 -- Bridge Financing. So your VC or Angel investors have given you a term sheet for your A round. Bridge financings are an important addition to the alternatives available to entrepreneurs and investors alike, proving the flexibility to handle unforeseen problems. Tremendous! Not so good!

TCVN 113

TCVN Venture Capital Equity Entrepreneur 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Babak Nivi is one of the most understated, helpful & important people on the entrepreneur / startup scene in NorCal. What he (along with Naval) started with AngelList is also a very important transformation to the communications between first-time entrepreneurs & angels. But it +is+ an anti-entrepreneur stance.&#

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 20, 2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011 -- Social Media - Is There Still a Play? SD Venture Group. Its gotten to the point that venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins have launched an investment fund just for social media start ups. But are entrepreneurs and investors too late? See [link] (more)

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Conference Venture Capital 100

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. The three largest webmail services had over 1 billion global users at the end of 2011. And while this data is from mid-2011 I can assure you that data is not going down. There are 2.9

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2010

We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks. Earlier today, we talked with Greg Martin at Archer Venture Capital. It's been really gratifying. READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Southern California Cloud Computing Venture Capital 160

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2017

Ring got its start as Doorbot, and grew due to an appearance by Siminoff--already a serial entrepreneur with a track record here in Southern California--on Shark Tank. Siminoff's last successful venture was Unsubscribe.com, which he sold to TrustedID in 2011. Ring, led by Jamie Siminoff, has now raised over $209M in funding.

Funding 100

Funding Southern California Los Angeles Entrepreneur 100

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. first world problems and all] But I did feel like 2012 was particularly tough for me having closed out 2011 losing a close family member and dealing with cancer with both family members and close friends. ” I felt that way exactly.

Writing 313

Writing Venture Capital Blogging Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2016

In 2008 I started VC blogging. I had blogged when I was an entrepreneur. In 2011 I started using Instagram. In 2007 I started using Twitter and most of my friends & colleagues wondered why people would care what I ate for lunch. I went to an industry event where people actually called me self-centered for writing publicly.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Product Startup AMA 150

socalTECH

DECEMBER 20, 2010

We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks. Our first answers come from David Cremin , Managing Director of venture capital firm DFJ Frontier (www.dfjfrontier.com).

Southern California 193

Southern California Technical Review High Tech News 193

Xconomy

JANUARY 7, 2020

When a group of scientists from Amira Pharmaceuticals wanted to start a new biotech after the company’s 2011 acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb , Celgene provided seed funding. Rob Williamson, a longtime biotech entrepreneur, joined PharmAkea as CEO in 2013 after the company formed its “build-to-buy”-style.

Seed Funding 63

Seed Funding Equity Research Acquisition 63

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

That’s how it felt then and a bit how it feels in May 2011. People who comment to me privately about how surprised they are by how rapidly I’ve “built a name for myself in VC&# remind me of this fallacy. I hope to offer experiences from being an entrepreneur and being a VC.&#. I did that? Oh, Crap.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391