Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners. I had to laugh a bit reading it.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. What better than to have capital from somebody who has actually done it in the trenches? Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2014

Disney is providing $120,000 in investment capital to startups to help them develop their ideas, and also provide mentoring from Disney executives. Disney is providing $120,000 in investment capital to startups to help them develop their ideas, and also provide mentoring from Disney executives. READ MORE>>.

Class 173

Class Entertainment Venture Capital Mentor 173

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Greathouse: How did you come up with the idea for ProductPlan? Semick: It wasn’t our first idea. We both had a laundry list of potential ideas and went through a validation on those ideas and eventually picked this opportunity of ProductPlan, because, based on our market validation, it has so much potential.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

With the new capital, SpotOn has raised $628 million since its inception. The latest investment is being used to finance the acquisition of another company in the space — Appetize, a digital and mobile commerce payments platform for enterprises such as sports and entertainment venues, theme parks and zoos.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

So while it started more about finding solutions to get him driving cars more or logging airline miles he also focuses on big, industry-changing ideas. Rumored to have turned down acquisition offers from Yahoo and Facebook. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. Scott has this obsession. Foursquare. -A Competitors: Gowalla.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages.

Funding 125

Funding Startup Ideas Equity 125

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

A micro venture capital firm. Micro-VCs, by definition, are firms that invest institutional money (meaning other people’s money) in projects that are at the seed stage or are too small to attract the attention of more traditional venture capitalists. A “genesis” venture capital round.

Funding 104

Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

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

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 24, 2010

Startups consistently identify more ideas and opportunities than they have the time or resources to pursue, such as potential partnerships, new products, entering emerging markets, etc. Idea Cronyism. This is analogous to a startup CEO selecting which ideas will be considered by a larger group for implementation.

Ideas 187

Ideas Resource Technical Review Startup 187

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

The fact is most start-ups that generate a positive return for their investors are acquired by corporations or financial institutions and the average time it takes a VC to make a return on their investment is more than eight years. So, whether an entrepreneur raises money or not, they have to have a long-term vision.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2019

We also had our first exit for Moonshots Capital Fund 1 --Threatcare. The exit through acquisition by ReliaQuest is the first of what we expect will be many exits for our Fund 1 portfolio. For my partner, Craig Cummings, and I - 2019 was our first full year as Venture Capitalists! Since 2010, $6.3B

Capital 100

Capital Technical Review Truecar Venture Capital 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

The company recently raised a round of funding from Santa Barbara-based ScOps Venture Capital. There's a lot more intricacy going into those algorithms and how the preferences work, but that's the general idea. In this industry, customer acquisition costs are super high. That's a great question.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages.

Startup 148

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 148

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

What's the idea behind the incubator? So, I set out a little bit in an ad-hoc way starting companies as ideas came to me. We are the founders of these companies, and the ideas come from our own team. We've got a very strong team of general partners, and increasingly we're getting ideas from our major partners.

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

Xconomy

MARCH 20, 2018

Mythic , which last year unveiled its novel computer chip designed for artificial intelligence, announced today that it has raised $40 million in a Series B fundraising round led by the venture capital arm of Japanese telecom and tech giant SoftBank. The boxes Mythic wants to break customers out of are their big.

Artificial Inteligence 77

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review 77

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2012

venture capital exits in. 2011, showing a reduced number of exits--but more IPOs--in venture backed companies. BetterWorks--headed by prolific angel investor Paige Craig--apparently was not able to sustain a large enough market, relative to its high costs of customer acquisition. We have no idea.

Southern California 211

Southern California Thousand Oaks Incubator SpaceX 211

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

The company Winters was working for sponsored her MBA to Harvard Business School, and it was there that she came up with the idea for Upgrade. “I million last year, is among hair businesses aimed at women and people of color, like Rebundle , Morado and theCut , attracting venture capital dollars. The company, which raised $1.7

Tool 179

Tool Customer Custom Marketing 179

socalTECH

JULY 23, 2012

socalTECH has analyzed its database of venture capital deals , exits, and other local deal activity, and started to come up with some tracking of the activity due to local accelerators, with some interesting results. However, what do the numbers say, even though it's but the first inning in the game?

Los Angeles 234

Los Angeles Angel Report Startup 234

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2012

GoPro--although based in the Bay Area--has a number of Southern California ties, including staff in San Diego, an investment from Burbank-based Steamboat Ventures, plus a group in San Diego it acquired when it bought Cineform. READ MORE>>.

Steamboat Ventures 164

Steamboat Ventures Report San Diego Southern California 164

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

I recently sat down with Troy Carter to talk about what he does and why he believes it is applicable to venture capital. And more recently he has turned that into a fund called CrossCulture VC such that many in Silicon Valley and beyond now know Troy as well.

Mentor 150

Mentor Venture Capital Marketing Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

While Google and Facebook will buy “acquihires” (at least as of Dec 2011), many acquirers hate the idea of buying companies that aren’t profitable. When they look at buying your company they often think in terms of “how long will it take until I earn back the profits to pay for my acquisition price?”

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages.

Startup 93

Startup Funding Venture Capital Ideas 93

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. RedBeacon went on to sell to HomeDepot in what was considered a very successful acquisition on all sides. But Ethan had left by the time of the acquisition.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

The institute said today that it has just published a white paper focused on helping universities to improve the spinout process, finding -- among other things -- that universities need to "get better at gathering, filtering, translating, and packaging new ideas." READ MORE>>.

USC 100

USC Southern California Venture Capital Education 100

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2015

Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based CrossCut Ventures (www.crosscutventures.com) announced its third, venture capital fund--a continuation of an investment theme very much centered around the growth of Southern California, and in particular, the Silicon Beach startup ecosystem. Thanks, and congratulations on the new fund!

Southern California 100

Southern California Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 100

Frank Addante

AUGUST 29, 2006

▼ August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? StrongMail Systems (Digital Messsaging Infrastructure Software) Status: VC-backed (Sequoia Capital, Globespan and Evercore) Lesson: Trust your gut. ► July (1) ► June (3) ► May (5) the Rubicon Project The Journey Startup 6.0: Hire Entrepreneurs!

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Capital Startup Outsource Development 40

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2014

How did you end up going from Senior Associate at a venture capital company to CEO at a fashion related business? John Tomich: Actually, prior to working for the VC firm, I spent a couple of years out of college working on eCommerce and Digital strategy at a consulting agency. You''ve got a very interesting background.

Commerce 203

Commerce Venture Capital Internet Brands Startup 203

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Yet most investors will tend to categorize your progress into one of the following five stages: Idea stage. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Funding or rollout stage. Growth stage.

Startup 96

Startup Venture Capital Demand Invest 96

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Tracy tells us how she bootstrapped her business by renting out both her bedrooms and sleeping on the couch--funding the startup via Airbnb--and is now scaling out the business with a new round of venture capital. How did you come up with the idea of handling all the shipping details? What is Tradesy? It was a crash course.

Startup 236

Startup Education Acquisition Funding 236

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages.

Startup 73

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 73

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

Perhaps the most misused terms I see these days from entrepreneurs involve CAC (customer acquisition costs) and LTV (life time value) and a lack of understanding these critical components is driving many companies to premature failure. CAC is often measured incorrectly and doesn’t often doesn’t capture the true costs of acquisition.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Yet most investors will tend to categorize your progress into one of the following five stages: Idea stage. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Funding or rollout stage. Growth stage.

Startup 92

Startup Venture Capital Demand Invest 92

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

I do think the way we work with companies is a little different from other programs, in that we view it much more like the wasyI personally think about investing and venture capital. An idea, prototype, customers, where? I think to be best positioned, a company should be more than an idea on the napkin.

Incubator 187

Incubator Southern California Startup Ideas 187

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

Have you ever had an idea for a great product, but thought any of the following: "I don't have en. Step by Step From Idea to Bootstrap Startup. The step by step story of an entrepreneur’s journey from idea to bootstrap web startup from her vi. Starting a dev team to build a brand new idea is harder. So you have an idea.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

InfoChachkie

JULY 28, 2015

Although this is a somewhat unusual real estate transaction, it reflects a surprisingly common scenario in the business world of mergers and acquisitions, with one important distinction. There is a well-worn adage in the world of mergers and acquisitions that, “companies are not sold, they are bought.” VC Funding Alternative.

Company 100

Company Companies Santa Barbara Pricing 100

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2017

in a funding from Mucker Capital, Social Capital, Hone Capital (formerly CSC Venture Capital), E-Merge, and GAN Ventures. That led to my experience and the idea, wondering if I could create the same kind of native experience people are used to with an app, except bring that through SMS.

Startup 100

Startup Orange County Platform Capital 100