Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. I’d link to it but it’s behind a paywall.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

Had a great chat with Jim Armstrong who is a General Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners today on TWiVC. It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. Segment Three: “VC Deals Funded this Week”.

Clearstone 236

Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

socalTECH

APRIL 23, 2013

Los Angeles-based Nativo , the online advertising technology firm led by Justin Choi, has raised $3.5M The funding was led by Greycroft Partners, and also included e.ventures and Signia Venture Partners. nativo venture capital advertising sponsored content' in a Series A funding round, the firm announced Tuesday.

Advertising 185

Advertising Technology Seed Funding Content 185

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Burbank-based Steamboat Ventures , the venture capital firm backed by Walt Disney Co., has invested in a Chinese provider of online advertising. According to Beijing-based Yoyi Media , it received a Series A investment on undisclosed size from Steamboat Ventures and Gobi Partners.

Steamboat Ventures 157

Steamboat Ventures Advertising Burbank Venture Capital 157

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. Total raised: $29.5mm. Read more: CrunchBase profile , TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

JUNE 29, 2017

Investment interests: Consumer Internet, eCommerce, enterprise software, cloud computing, financial technology, advertising technology. Managing Director: Bill Maris (formerly of GV/Google Ventures) Investment interests: Health care investments. Section 32. www.section32.com. Fund size: $230M fund.

Southern California 178

Southern California Venture Capital Artificial Inteligence Capital 178

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2010

Los Angeles-based MySpace and startup Ad.ly , also based in LA, said today that they have linked in an in-stream advertising deal. helps celebrities, musicians, and other social influencers monetize their Twitter and other activity streams with advertising; the firm is backed by GRP Partners, Greycroft Partners, and LowerMyBills' Matt Coffin.

Advertising 168

Advertising Userplane GRP Partners Mahalo 168

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2013

Online video advertising firm TubeMogul , which has operations in Los Angeles, said today that it has raised $10M in the second tranche of its Series C funding. According to TubeMogul, the funding was led by SingTel Innov8, and also included Cross Creek Capital, Digital Advertising Consortium, Foundation Capital and Trinity Ventures.

Advertising 147

Advertising Funding Hollywood Venture Capital 147

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. In particular I tried to do most of the “entrepreneur advice on VC” up front so that if you don’t want to watch our views on the deals you don’t have to. They sponsor TWiVC.

Venture Capital 214

Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

Pasadena-based advertising technology firm OpenX has raised $22.5M The new round was led by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and also included Accel Partners, Index Ventures, SAP Ventures, Mitsui & Co. more in a round of funding, the company announced today, via a Series E funding round.

OpenX 178

OpenX Advertising Pasadena Web 178

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2014

Santa Monica-based VideoAmp , which operates a programmatic video advertising platform, said this morning that it has raised $2.2M in a funding round, from Anthem Venture Partners, Simon Equity Partners, Third Wave Capital, Wavemaker Partners and ZenShin Capital. videoamp video advertising venture capital ross mccray'

Advertising 138

Advertising Platform Anthem Santa Monica 138

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Current round: $90mm led by The Founders Fund, including Youniversity Ventures, Glynn Capital, Ulu Ventures, Jeremy Stoppleman, Ben Ling, +. A demand side advertising platform which allows advertisers to bid on individual ad impressions in real time, based on the site and who would see it. Total raised: $17mm.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. Press doesn’t mean anything other than free advertising. Just notice how many VC emails you get after your TechCrunch article or after you were on stage at TC50.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. I hope that when you’re presenting to a VC this will give you some sense of what might be going on in our minds. Both presenters are anonymized.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Yahoo 288

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Ok, I know it’s an hour-long video, but if you have time in the evening, we had a series of great discussions once you get 6 minutes in or so past the upfront advertisements. Is the VC model broken? - Why did the VC investment pace slow down so much? - Was Fred Wilson right that a VC owning a small stake is OK?

Startup 245

Startup Venture Capital Advertising News 245

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Digital advertising spend is projected to grow 25% this year to $191 billion, and Google (69%), Facebook (59%), Snapchat (116%) and Twitter (87%) all just reported rapid growth in their year over year advertising revenues. no surprise?—?that’s that’s where the customers are. For these companies, it looks like a rosy picture.

Product 424

Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

socalTECH

OCTOBER 16, 2012

Los Angeles-based ThinkNear , the developer of hyper-local mobile advertising technology headed by Eli Portnoy, has been acquired by TeleNav , TeleNav said this morning. All of ThinkNear's twelve employees are joining TeleNav's mobile local advertising group. TeleNav said it would pay $22.5M, consisting of $18.5M READ MORE>>.

Venture Capital 164

Venture Capital Seed Funding Advertising Mobile 164

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2021

Ventura-based advertising technology developer The Trade Desk is launching its own venture capital arm, and has made its first investment, the company said this morning. The company said that the new investment fund, TD7, will invest in open Internet startups.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Invest Capital Ventura 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Los Angeles-based venture capital investor Karlin Ventures is the lead investor in mobile advertising firm StrikeAd. StrikeAd now has two Los Angeles area investors backing the company; Siemer Ventures is also in Los Angeles. capital venture advertising mobile ventures karlin strikead'

Venture Capital 166

Venture Capital Invest Advertising Los Angeles 166

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. One of my goals in doing the show was not only to educate entrepreneurs but also to put a human face on many of the VCs in our industry as VCs can be hard to get to know. 1:00 – 3:40).

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Los Angeles-based RGM Group , which provides online media services for premium advertisers, said today that it has raised $21M in a funding round. The round came from Riordan, Lewis & Haden (RLH) Equity Partners. As part of the funding, the company said that it has hired Kurt Johnson, the former CEO of FastClick, as its new CEO.

Advertising 165

Advertising Equity Media Los Angeles 165

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

socalTECH

JUNE 15, 2010

Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project , the online advertising optimization firm founded by Frank Addante, is on track to do $100M in revenues this year and will reach profitability in Q4, according to a blog post by Addante Tuesday afternoon. Tags: rubicon project online advertising optimize profit. READ MORE>>.

Clearstone 232

Clearstone Santa Monica Advertising Blogging 232

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

The venture capital industry is so heavily skewed to Northern California, which the remains spilled over Boston, New York & Southern California. So it was wonderful to hear from a leading venture capital firm based in Washington DC. I run Revolution’s VC investments. Revolution, what is it?

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Examples Startup Invest 277

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. That’s convenience when your VC is hoping to write the next $20 million check.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

I am thrilled to announce that we have added Hamet Watt as a Partner at Upfront Ventures. It was a software platform for allowing advertisers to purchase brand integration (product placements) as a standardized unit through a marketplace. I’ve known Hamet for 5 years. The idea immediately resonated. And he followed through.

Invest 340

Invest Venture Capital Startup News 340

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2010

Southern California venture capital investments totaled $686.5M in 29 venture capital deals for Q1. in investments, IT services--which includes many online advertising firms--was at $35.15M in investments. According to the report, released today, Southern California investments totaled $686.5M across 31 days.

Southern California 208

Southern California Orange County Invest GRP Partners 208

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

AUGUST 9, 2011

US TV advertising is $60 billion in its own right. But I guess you could say the same about VC. Stock market declines would bring back dog days of VC. If you want a comprehensive summary of the industry in this era it’s worth a read: VC Ice Age Part 1 – What Happens When a Market Comes to a Standstill?

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She hasn’t raised any venture capital. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. I blog on entrepreneurship & VC precisely because entrepreneurs and other VCs are my customers. That may soon change.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2010

I guess it may be impractical for Twitter to acquire Seesmic given it has raised considerable amounts of venture capital (reportedly $12 million) but the broader point for me is that I always believed Twitter should control the client versions of its product. Think about the creative tension. Kind of obvious, huh?

Acquisition 287

Acquisition Development Develop Conference 287

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

In the early days of the Internet as an advertising medium the industry organized to create “standard ad units&# for which most media companies would sell their inventory. The standards were set by the IAB ( Interactive Advertising Bureau ), which was founded in 1996. You prefer free AND no advertising. I know, I know.

Media 288

Media Advertising Screening Content 288

socalTECH

MAY 29, 2013

Los Angeles-based social, celebrity advertising startup Adly confirmed the company''s recent $2M funding round today, officially announcing the funding from GRP Partners and Siemer Ventures. adly venture capital funding social celebrity advertising' The firm disclosed the funding last week. READ MORE>>.

Funding 170

Funding GRP Partners Social Media Advertising 170

socalTECH

MAY 13, 2013

According to Greentoe, it will use the funding for marketing of the site, including a multi-platform advertising campaign across the web, television, and mobile. greentoe venture capital angel ecommerce retail retailer seed' The funding came from Parker Thompson from 500 Startups/Dave McClure. READ MORE>>.

Angel 231

Angel Funding Venture Capital Entertainment 231

socalTECH

MAY 24, 2013

Los Angeles-based celebrity advertising firm Ad.ly more in funding, from GRP Partners and Siemer Ventures. helps match up celebrities with social media advertisers. adly celebrity advertising partners venture capital social media twitter' disclosed Thursday that it has raised $2.0M READ MORE>>.

GRP Partners 159

GRP Partners Social Media Advertising Venture Capital 159

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

James Borow and Clark Landry (shared position), SHIFT (Los Angeles, Santa Monica, advertising). Tim Cadogan , OpenX (Pasadena, advertising). Asher Delug , Airpush (Los Angeles, advertising). Jerry Jao , Retention Science (Los Angeles, analytics/advertising). Jason Lehmbeck , Datapop (Los Angeles, advertising).

Southern California 279

Southern California SoCalTech Dollar Shave Club Santa Monica 279

socalTECH

DECEMBER 10, 2013

Santa Monica-based SHIFT , which develops real time, online advertising and marketing tools, announced this morning that it has raised $6M in a Series B funding round. The company said the funding came from DN Capital, and will go towards international expansion in Europe. SHIFT said it has now raised $14M in funding. READ MORE>>.

Tool 174

Tool Marketing Santa Monica Advertising 174