Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. So I agreed to offer my current thinking on the economy and what it portends for the VC industry & fund raising for entrepreneurs. raise money now to weather any storms). Such is the case with advanced batteries.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

We thought today for our interview, that we'd get an update on the angel investment environment here in Southern California from Scott Sangster , the incoming President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels , the biggest angel investment group in Southern California. It was actually a really good year last year.

Tech Coast Angels 182

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 182

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2023

Over my many years of mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and business professionals, I often hear a desire to start a new business, with a big hesitation while waiting for that perfect idea and perfect alignment of the stars. Your time is precious, so don’t waste a minute of it on useless activities or dreaming.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur Software Review 149

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 18, 2010

Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is @launchpadlad. When I kicked off Launchpad LA a year ago I had a few objectives: Create an ecosystem where all Southern California VC’s had the chance to work together more actively outside of the boards on which we mutually sit.

Technical Review 259

Technical Review Venture Capital Southern California Tech Coast Angels 259

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Industry reviews. Alumni activities. So the “VC associate” is largely a launching pad job for exceedingly bright and hard-working young tech professionals. a really wide angle view of the tech industry since you see so many concepts / so many pitches and REAL data points on how startups perform financially.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

Want to be an entrepreneur? According to a recent Forbes article , UC Santa Barbara''s Technology Management Program offers students a superior startup education over the University of Pennsylvania (home of Wharton), as well Harvard, Northwestern and even its acclaimed southern neighbor, the University of Southern California.

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based LifeCrowd (www.lifecrowd.com) unveiled its service to help connect people with real life activities. The firm is initially focusing on the Los Angeles market, and connecting people with fun, interesting classes, activities, and more in the local area.

Startup 271

Startup CTO Coach Activity Software Review 271

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2012

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. 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.

Dollar Shave Club 272

Dollar Shave Club Technical Review Santa Monica Southern California 272

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. As is often said if you don’t get at least a few fellow VCs (and entrepreneurs) scratching their heads you may not be funding ideas with enough upside.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. Similarly I liked to keep myself apprised of the technical decisions we were making. As a content management system we had lots of write activities and went with Postgres.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

The tech market is filled with many stories of early-stage funding. The science of finding recoveries is based on computer-based algorithms that flag high-potential errors and trained technicians that then review these claims. Women Entrepreneurs. ” Let me explain all three. Taking more meaningingful ownership positions.

GRP Partners 285

GRP Partners Technical Review Truecar Invest 285

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Marketing is everything these days. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Berkonomics

JUNE 26, 2014

Angel investors, particularly those in organized angel groups, are typically former entrepreneurs who have had successful liquidity events in their pasts, or executives of companies who’ve retired with the funds from their stock options. The result of these surveys over time is universally the same. Email readers, continue here.]

Angel 191

Angel Technical Review Coach Entrepreneur 191

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Earlier this week, the Tech Coast Angels , the largest and most active organized angel group in Southern California, announced a new effort to create an angel group network, which will share and syndicate deals between groups--current the TCA, Golden Seeds, and Band of Angels. Richard Sudek: It could happen a number of different ways.

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Networking Angel Tech Coast Angels 145

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. Let’s review all of our existing investments. VCs were very active in this period. So I encouraged entrepreneurs to think about raising their funds as quickly as they could because.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2012

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. 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.

Southern California 215

Southern California Technical Review High Tech Venice 215

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

In my experience as an angel investor to startups, goodwill disagreements are perhaps the most common reason that you will fail to close interested investors as an entrepreneur. If you are the entrepreneur or owner, every potential investor takes a hard look at you. Quality of your technical and business teams.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Social Media Entrepreneur Startup 147

socalTECH

JULY 16, 2013

As much as the idea of "Silicon Beach" wants to represent the whole of the local technology industry in Los Angeles, there are -- as one would expect in such a large metropolitan area -- many different neighborhoods and communities spread across the region, all with their own individual identities, companies, and technology focuses.

Pasadena 242

Pasadena Santa Monica CalTech Technical Review 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

Great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, are great at both. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Too many entrepreneurs try to talk their way through all of these. Some struggling entrepreneurs are totally event driven. Here are a few: Business networking.

Activity 133

Activity Startup Ideas Technical Review 133

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. This article originally ran on TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

I believe that huge financial, productivity and technical gains come from new innovation rather than derivative thinking. Yet nearly any entrepreneur who has an idea that other people aren’t doing will tell you that it’s hard to get investors excited. I was very active in 2009 / early 2010.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 15, 2012

One the most frequent questions asked of me by entrepreneurs is, "How can I become a Venture Capitalist?" The inquiry is common because being a VC is (to an entrepreneur, at least) a sexy job. Thus, the total number of active VC professionals is actually smaller than the aggregate number of professional baseball athletes.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Entrepreneur 242

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 3, 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 -- Shaking the MoneyTree 2009 Q4 Review. The MoneyTree Report is a quarterly study of venture capital investment activity in the United States. The MoneyTree Report is a quarterly study of venture capital investment activity in the United States.

LAVA 100

LAVA Study Venture Capital Press 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Contrary to what most of you might guess, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the last few years is not Gen-Y young upstarts, but Baby Boomers in the 55-64 year age group. In every single one of the last 15 years, Boomers between the ages of 55 and 64 have had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than Gen-Y, aged 20–34.

Entrepreneur 118

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Technical Support 118

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. Less investments, more active. For starters, what is AngelList Syndicates?

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In my role as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that most have the technical challenges well understood, but many are a bit short on some basic street smarts , or basic business realities. Planning for the future must be a regular activity, not just an early-stage or once-a-year event. Survival requires regular updates.

Entrepreneur 173

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

This is our second year of creating our list of the top 50 people to watch in Southern California''s technology industry, and it was NOT an easy task. As we found last year, it''s a tough, unforgiving task to narrow down a list of the folks in Southern California''s technology industry to just fifty to watch. Will Kassoy , AdColony.

Southern California 279

Southern California SoCalTech Technical Review USC 279

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. Consistently review and respond to relevant online feedback. Every future entrepreneur should start by networking.

Product 127

Product Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Technical Review 127

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

InfoChachkie

MAY 20, 2013

According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. So we were dating, living together, (and) we were both in tech. A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. spending time together in an amazing place.

Entrepreneur 235

Entrepreneur Startup Software Engineering Technical Review 235

socalTECH

AUGUST 23, 2017

LA's technology startup industry has saw a surge in new companies and efforts from its serial entrepreneurs in the last few months. Here's a quick look at just a few of the new companies who are led by serial entrepreneurs from the LA ecosystem. Entering Startup image courtesy Mike @ flickr. Ground Control. AppOnboard.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Companies Company Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Bill Gates once famously said that people tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the 1-year timeframe and underestimate its impact in the 10-year timeframe. I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets. Their first batch of shipping is due out in the next few weeks.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup Southern California 278