Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013. Domain knowledge gives entrepreneurs an “unfair advantage” over newbies. (on Watch this space. (as

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Dressed in suits with questions and passports in hand, a delegation of over 15 US entrepreneurs and investors--including a number from Southern California--entered the seat of the British government at 10 Downing Street Thursday. 10 Downing Street is the equivalent of the White House here in the United States.

Entrepreneur 170

Entrepreneur Southern California Beverly Hills Patents 170

socalTECH

DECEMBER 26, 2012

We asked the same four 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 week. What are the technologies, companies, or things we ought to watch in 2013? What was the biggest lesson you learned over the past year (good or bad)?

Southern California 259

Southern California High Tech Activity Platform 259

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2012

We asked the same four 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 week. We'll head back to the beach on the first week of summer for a week-long Silicon Beach Fest in Santa Monica June 2013.

Dollar Shave Club 272

Dollar Shave Club Technical Review Santa Monica Southern California 272

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Big crowd of entrepreneurs, professors, students, and established professionals. All in a room at the University of Southern California Silicon Beach Event on September 18th, 2013. I wanted to connect LA’s incredible entrepreneurs with the larger business community and with the resources of USC.”. Over $50,000 in prize money.

USC 98

USC Cornerstone OnDemand Southern California Netflix 98

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. We’re excited to continue to grow our investment professional staff and will continue to do so over the course of 2013 & 2014 with our new fund.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2013

Even though it has been a long haul, it’s nice to see some optimism surfacing in 2013. Earlier this year, a new study “ 2013 Business Outlook Survey: A New Reality Of Cautious Optimism ” was published by EKS&H. Add new revenue streams, and more aggressive marketing. Grab market share from competitors. fiscal cliff.

Study 78

Study Tips Entrepreneur Guide 78

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Great networking skills, which are critical when you want to be about to reference entrepreneurs & concepts and bounce your ideas off of other people in the industry. He was also an undergraduate of the one place that I think is cranking out some of the best young entrepreneurs and investors these days – Wharton.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

So, without further ado, here''s the list of this year''s 2013 Socaltech 50 : Basil Abifaker , Transaction Wireless (San Diego, digital gift cards). Josef Gorowitz , Swagbucks (Torrance, online marketing/rewards). Amanda MacNaughton , PromoJam (Glendale, marketing software). Ryan Hudson , Honey (Pasadena, apps).

Southern California 279

Southern California SoCalTech Dollar Shave Club Santa Monica 279

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Yet 2013 is still projected by The Fiscal Times as a difficult IPO opportunity for startups, due to choppy markets, continuing fiscal uncertainty, and the Facebook fiasco. The market and venture capitalists are looking for business, but with a continuing focus on proven business models.

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

TrueCar, an LA-based company, sells more cars now than any physical dealer in the country and recently went public and has a $1 billion market cap. While the costs of starting a tech company have plummeted it still does take money to hire a team, launch products and market oneself. Indeed we have already seen the beginnings.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

Want to be an entrepreneur? In addition, Entrepreneur Magazine recently included UCSB in its Top 50 Schools For VC Backed Entrepreneurs at number 37. This allowed the curriculum to efficiently find its product / market fit. A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Don''t go to Wharton or Harvard.

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2013

is already well above the dot.com bubble of 15 years ago, although we have slipped a bit this year from the high point of 320 new entrepreneurs out of 100,000 adults in 2011. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and employees) are getting rich. in 2013, with aggregate proceeds of over $38 billion.

Startup 109

Startup Entrepreneur Social Media Satisfaction 109

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 28, 2013

On Friday October 25th, this innovative spirit was put on display at the 2013 Student Innovator Showcase. The judges, which featured experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and professors, made their way around the groups and listened to the different pitches. Grief Center Market Traction Award ($2500): BriskRabbit.

USC 91

USC Ideas Southern California Platform 91

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things. how to market our products and company. It surprises me that this is even controversial but in this day-and-age it sometimes is.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2013

Startups are the corporations of the future, so I have long believed that entrepreneurs who study existing corporate models, rather than ignoring them with disdain, will likely profit from the exercise. These are all huge challenges, as well as huge opportunities, for entrepreneurs. Stakeholder power. Globalization.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Social Media Startup Study 103

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2012

We asked the same four 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 week. We closed on a little bit more than $150 million and will do our final close above that in early 2013. Without this support we would have struggled.

GRP Partners 178

GRP Partners Southern California High Tech Venture Capital 178

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly. A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2012

We asked the same four 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 week. What are the technologies, companies, or things we ought to watch in 2013? What was the biggest lesson you learned over the past year (good or bad)?

Southern California 173

Southern California Technical Review High Tech San Diego 173

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2013

Isn’t it frustrating to think you understand something new in business, like marketing with social media, only to realize that the landscape changed while you were looking at other priorities? Jim should know, since he is the president Ignite Social Media , of one of the best known social media marketing agencies. Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Marketing Platform 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2021, from 280 to 360 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media News 104

socalTECH

JULY 17, 2020

Essner--who has been President and Chief Operating Officer at the company since 2013, will share the CEO post with Jukin Media founder Jonathan Skogmo. Essner joined Jukin Media in 2013 after serving as an entrepreneur at Idealab.

Media 113

Media Idealab Content Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

A great recent example of this was a successful group of entrepreneurs who had created a company that will do $10-12 million in revenue at their system integration business (read: services business) in 2011 after having done $5 million or so in 2010 and $2-3 million in 2009. And stop effing around trying to create a product company.&#.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

With the Identity Theft Resource Center® reporting a 30% increase in privacy breaches in 2013, there seems to be a growing population out there worried about all the people intent on hurting them. My plea to entrepreneurs is to recognize these concerns as an opportunity, to make people’s life better, rather than stoke the fires.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Social Network 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Watt joined Upfront Ventures in 2013 , but has been active in Southern California's market as both an entrepreneur and venture capitalist for more than a decade. Details on the new startup studio--which came to light at Upfront's annual conference, the Upfront Summit--have yet to be formally announced. READ MORE>>.

Southern California 113

Southern California Startup Conference Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. If you believe you have a market-leading position in your product space I would worry a bit less about it. ” Why? ” Funding IS the story.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 23, 2013

Saturday, January 26, 2013 -- AnyMeeting WebRTC Hackathon. To be held on January 26, 2013, the ?AnyMeeting encourages engineers, designers, product managers, marketers and entrepreneurs to come together and work on building a new project, product or service involving WebRTC in an intense 12 hour hack session.

Framework 100

Framework Web Design Networking 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2013

With the cost of entry at an all-time low, and the odds of success equally low, more and more entrepreneurs are starting multiple companies concurrently. For entrepreneurs who really try to be the CEO of multiple early-stage startups concurrently, the hot new term for this practice is “multi-table” entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Startup Resource Course 92

socalTECH

JULY 11, 2014

The company was actually founded in Las Vegas, but did not open a Los Angeles office until the first quarter of 2013. The company is actually relatively new to the LA market. The market for consumers online who want to save money, or find the best twenty or thirty deals on the Internet every day is huge. READ MORE>>.

Content 212

Content Yahoo Los Angeles Sites 212

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2018

We started in October of 2013, and last year, in December, we closed our Series B with Sequoia Capital with $21M. We viewed this as a central marketplace which would allow drivers to be put in the driving seat, get paid what they want, go where they want to go, and get paid the market price, and would help solve this issue.

Startup 173

Startup Pricing Marketing Entrepreneur 173

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

Andrew Connell is the CEO of DinnerDate.com , a startup which has been in beta in San Diego for the last few months, and is just now expanding out to new markets. Andrew Connell: I was previously at Nokia, and ran Nokia's e-commerce business globally in fourteen markets. What's your background?

San Diego 264

San Diego Hollywood Mobile eHarmony 264

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 26, 2013

From gaming, to advertising, to branding and marketing, there’s no online business plan that Facebook can’t be used for at this point. And while most social startups always begin as someone’s passion project, sheer ambition can only take a budding entrepreneur so far before they realize they need capital to stay afloat.

Social Media 82

Social Media Entertainment Media Tool 82

socalTECH

DECEMBER 2, 2013

We knew there would be a need in the commercial market, and prepared for it by building a viable, commercial-off-the-shelf product. We ended up positioning ourselves around 2008 to start developing and marketing the product. We released our software to the general public in August of 2013. What''s the background of your team?

Startup 183

Startup Software Southern California Santa Monica 183

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Jon Kraft: One of the things we''re doing, is a lot of testing, early--not just the product, but testing the market. He does a ton of iterative testing, approaches to marketing, to find the kinds of deals that work. Jon Kraft: We raised an angel round of financing back in July of 2013, and we''re still working against that round.

Help 252

Help Idealab Activity Startup 252

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2019, from 280 out of 100,000 to 310 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2012

I’ve been meeting with LPs (those who invest in VC funds) over the past year and discussing trends I see in the market and where I think we need to be as a firm to be near to and meet the needs of our customers. Our lease runs out in 2013. And it’s not just the movement from Palo Alto to San Francisco.

Technology 313

Technology Rustic Canyon Cloud Computing Beverly Hills 313

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Joining Initialized in the round is the serial entrepreneur Moise Emquies, whose previous clothing lines, Ella Moss and Splendid, were acquired by the fashion holding company VFC in 2017. “We first invested in Avametric at Initialized in 2013 and he had experience prior to that as well.

Incubator 184

Incubator Develop Development Los Angeles 184