Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Many experts are certain that successful entrepreneurs are the ones with the most inspiration (passion and dream), while others will assert that it’s about more perspiration (working harder). This may also be the moment when you get your first big acquisition offer, rather than a clone appearing.

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Startup Satisfaction Custom Customer 118

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2019

In an age of ever increasing marketing spend to attract customers, how do you make sure you aren't spending more acquiring a company than they are worth? Michael Greenberg: My co-founder, Emad Hasan, led the business marketing operations at Facebook. We spoke with Retina's CEO, Michael Greenberg , to learn more. What's next for you?

Dollar Shave Club 113

Dollar Shave Club Artificial Inteligence Custom Customer 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Many experts are certain that successful entrepreneurs are the ones with the most inspiration (passion and dream), while others will assert that it’s about more perspiration (working harder). This may also be the moment when you get your first big acquisition offer, rather than a clone appearing.

Satisfaction 174

Satisfaction Custom Customer Outsource 174

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

Every entrepreneur starts by accepting the reality that you have a rare mindset of joy of discovery, with an intense curiosity about how certain things or people work, or why a new technology hasn’t yet been accepted. What they found was that what really mattered was less about who was on the team, and more about how the team worked together.

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Entrepreneur Help Incubator Startup 139

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2013

There''s been a subtle--but very significant shift--in the solar power market in recent years, particularly in California, where it''s actually cheaper in many cases to lease solar panels on your roof, than to pay the power company. But, it''s all about the economics. How did OneRoof Energy come about?

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Equity Invest Marketing Product 234

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2019

Ian talked to us about the rewards and challenges of being an entrepreneur, plus how important it is to manage lifetime value (LTV) of a customer versus customer acquisition cost (CAC) in making a successful company. (We Ian Chen: In my previous life, I was working in private equity in LA. Ian Chen: It's completely different.

Startup 113

Startup Equity Custom Customer 113

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2017

We're now one of the top five tech markets in the world, along with the Bay Area, New York, the rest of Southern California, companies in India, and places like China, Berlin, and London. What most excites you about the technology industry here today? There are some big opportunities around autonomous vehicles I'm really excited about.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Conference Silver Lake Cornerstone OnDemand 100

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

For those negotiating equity allocations it covers some of the most complex issues to address in the process. Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun. An option plan should carve out an addition of about 15% of the “fully diluted” shares. How about the price per share? There are some rules.

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Equity Class Pricing Sales 256

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. I often hear about efforts that have been stalled for several years, pending more funding, economic change, or other priorities. Competitors, like the market, never stand still as you disrupt their space.

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Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Xconomy

JUNE 14, 2019

Is one of the bigger biopharma acquisitions of the year in trouble? The US Federal Trade Commission wants yet more information about the buyout, and overseas, the UK Competition and Markets Authority opened a separate investigation. This past week, antitrust regulators once again delayed Roche’s planned $4.8

News 97

News Competition Acquisition Report 97

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

You know, they get so excited about doing deals all the time instead of doing the hard work of figuring out their businesses. A close friend of mine in LA who is 3 years into his startup called me about 2.5 I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity. 500k had come through the last acquisition.

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2016

The report noted concerns about a "global economic slowdown, falling oil prices and turbulent equity markets." The report found 167 deals raised only $12.1 billion in Q1 of 2016--the weakest first quarter of the year since 2009. The last IPO in Southern California was for Kura Oncology, which raised $57.5M

Activity 100

Activity Report Southern California Pricing 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2019

I started thinking about some of the people I know who I admire, respect and love the most and how they achieve their goals. 2018 was a great year for TVC Capital and we were able to get our fourth growth equity fund closed, taking our assets under management to close to $400 million. I'm trying to leave the hammer in the toolbox.

Capital 113

Capital Southern California El Segundo SaaS 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

Clichés abound about, “You know what would be cool? What I want to talk about today is one of the insider baseball discussions of our industry this past week: The odd fact of the $500 million financing round completed just before the company sold for a B. Think about it. You are either bought for stock or for equity.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Entrepreneurs who are looking to attract investors need to develop and pitch a plan -- preferably written -- that answers every potential investor question about your startup before it is asked. Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now. How does your business model make money?

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

Of course the VC is looking to have specificity in how you plan to spend the money you’re going to raise and plans that show a pie chart that says, “25% on marketing, 30% on technology and R&D, 20% on infrastructure, 25% on G&A” do not get funded. Yes, I see plans this pedestrian. You might not like this?—?but

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2011

Jeff Zwelling is the co-founder of Convertro (www.convertro.com), a Los Angeles company focused on helping companies track how their marketing efforts are leading to sales conversions. First off, tell us what Convertro is all about? Jeff Zwelling: Convertro allows marketers to know all of the marketing that led to a conversion.

Startup 210

Startup Marketing Custom Customer 210

socalTECH

JULY 5, 2017

We caught up with co-founder and CEO Shaan Sethi to hear more about the startup, as well as Shaan's journey from investment banking to running an apparel startup. I moved down here to work as a large, $10 billion private equity fund with Ron Burkle, at Yucaipa Companies. That really makes private equity investors shake in their boots.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 Equity Legalzoom Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. But what IS the right amount of burn for a company?

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Startup Company Companies .Net 383

socalTECH

AUGUST 2, 2012

San Diego-based NextWave Wireless , the company which holds a chunk of bandwidth used for the wireless communications market, has been acquired by AT&T , AT&T announced this morning. AT&T said it will acquire all of the equity of NextWave for $25M, plus a contingent payment of up to approximately $25M. READ MORE>>.

San Diego 124

San Diego Equity Mobile Services 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. How to investment banks help with the M&A (mergers & acquisitions) process? We discussed: 1.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2019

Until the recession a few years ago, market research indicated that as many as 90 percent of the roughly 20 million American small business owners were motivated more by lifestyle than growth and money. Non-equity funding has to come from personal sources, or government grants, or bank loans. There is no free lunch for money.

Startup 77

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Course 77

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Today, we have the thoughts of Jeb Spencer of TVC Capital (www.tvccapital.com), a software focused growth equity fund which just raised a new fund, and has had some great success in the market. Jeb Spencer: For TVC, closing on our new $115 million software focused growth equity fund at the end of last year made for an exciting 2015.

Capital 100

Capital Beverly Hills Artificial Inteligence Equity 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2017

If you think about what you see with marketplaces in the more traditional areas of hotel rentals, airline reservations, and marketplaces like Priceline, Expedia, and so forth, we're bringing that to the construction rental industry. The company has grown about 200 percent since 2014, in terms of revenue. BigRentz is based in Irvine.

Startup 174

Startup Metrics Custom Customer 174

socalTECH

APRIL 22, 2010

Last week, Irvine-based Teridian Semiconductor (www.teridiansemiconductor.com), a developer of semiconductors for the electric metering and electricity measurement market, was acquired by Maxim Semiconductor. We've got four generation of parts in the market, with three in production, and the fourth sampling--with a fifth in design.

Equity 124

Equity San Diego Startup Activity 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2014

Here are some basic “rules of thumb” that every Angel or venture capital equity investor uses, to help you anticipate their reactions. According to a recent Dow Jones VentureSource report, the average time to liquidity of an equity investment in a startup is now about five years. Build a path to 10x return.

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Equity Venture Capital Invest Pricing 99

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2012

We caught up with Andy, whose executive experience ranges from ZeroDegrees, NBC Internet/Xoom.com, Infoseek / Go Network, to CNET and Snap.com, and whose last firm was MerchEngines, which he sold last year, to hear more about his new startup. Can you talk about your background? What is Punchcard? I started early on in my career.

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Southern California Idealab Startup Custom 245

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2015

Entrepreneurs often ask me why investors expect financial projections for a new startup even before the product is built and while the market is still being defined. Premium startup-acquisition targets usually at least double revenues every year, so conservative 20 percent yearly-growth projections will not win accolades.

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Startup Equity Invest Acquisition 107

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In reality, they need a separate pitch about the business, carrying over only a slide or two about the solution. First to market” is not sustainable by a startup.

Product 103

Product Slides Custom Customer 103

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub.

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Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2017

In emerging markets and the developing world, access to banking, capital, and financial resources is fare more difficult than here in the U.S., The company's CEO and founder, Shivani Siroya , talked to us recently about the startup and what it's doing. Shivani Siroya: Tala is a data company that is working in emerging markets.

Startup 100

Startup Santa Monica Custom Customer 100

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. Curious to learn more about the pain and joys of bootstrapping a business, I sat down with Jim Semick, the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Strategist.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2020

A reasonable place to start is one percent of your company equity, plus actual expenses to cover travel and meeting attendance. You need diversity and a broad demographic experience to prepare you for the range of customers in today’s markets, to balance your own views, no matter how experienced.

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Startup Course Equity Organization 134

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. I’ve spoken about this in a post entitled, “ Do you even need VC ?&# How does your brother-in-law feel about that? What to do?

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Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

socalTECH

AUGUST 13, 2010

Having followed the firm since its early days as a spinout of USC, we thought we'd talk with CEO Mark Tapling to get the back story behind the acquisition, and where the firm is going form here. What's the story behind the acquisition? How much discussion was there about that aspect of your funding?

Equity 168

Equity Startup Acquisition Funding 168

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

We spoke to Daniel last week to learn more about his firm. What's your startup all about? Once a campaign has been created, there's some level of marketing and call to action, which can be through traditional media, or the web. Daniel Scalisi: I've been in the mobile market for fifteen years. How is the company backed?

Mobile 162

Mobile Web Startup Custom 162

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 21, 2019

Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” in 1899 when commenting on the human desire to publicly display wealth through the acquisition of consumer goods. Some online customers utilize bots, at about $100 per use, to ensure they will have a legitimate shot at fulfilling at least part of their wish list.

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Demand Pricing Product Equity 160