Berkonomics

JULY 28, 2015

September 21st, 2015 marks the sixth anniversary of publication for BERKONOMICS , the blog containing insights for business management, entrepreneurs, and investors. Starting with just 4,000 circulation in 2009, BERKONOMICS has grown to well over 100,000, and is read on five continents by an audience that is 45% female.

RSS 120

RSS Blogging SoCalTech Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. I have blogged about some of the downside consequences of the changes and the private information I have says the consequences are much worse than is reported in the press since few people publicly talk about. There is a reason for this.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In addition to helping manage the board Chris also helps represent the interests of the angel investors / common stock holders. Oh, and did I mention: Roger – NYC, Rob/Rory – NorCal, Nick/Chris – London & me – Los Angeles. So what are Rob’s secret hacks that he didn’t spill in his blog post? .

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

I see it on email even more. Brunson’s short and to-the-point blog post, “ It’s Called Networking, Not Using.” ” In it he talked about how he gets daily emails asking for intros to Oprah (he does a lot of work with her) and his advice. Think about it – who knows angels the best?

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2010

I get these frequently via Twitter, Facebook or email. I provided my email address and he sent me a 688 word email (e.g. I felt I had committed so I read and responded to the email. SHORT : Whether you know the person or not – if you’re asking for help, a favor or an intro – keep your email VERY short.

Help 332

Help Email Mentor Blogging 332

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. But it’s here in the (other) Valley’s southernmost edge that investors have found a startup they consider to be the next potential billion-dollar “unicorn” that will come out of Los Angeles.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2013

If your startup is looking for an Angel investor, does it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of Angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up? In reality, hitting large numbers of Angels in multiple locations with a generic pitch is one of the least productive approaches.

Angel 101

Angel Startup Venture Capital Invest 101

socalTECH

AUGUST 24, 2009

Los Angeles-based mobileStorm , the email marketing and digital marketing provider headed by Jared Reitzin, has revamped the company's offerings. The firm's new offerings and site actually launched on August 18th, according to Reitzin in his blog, and is the output of a project launched in January to position the firm in the market.

Email 162

Email Blogging Tool Los Angeles 162

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Value of Blogging I started the presentation talking about the value of blogging. Tom Peters No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important in my life than blogging. But from a value perspective, it really comes down to the numbers I showed for my eLearning Technology blog. This is that post.

Social Media 222

Social Media Services Media Blogging 222

socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2011

To start off the year, we are publishing our first interview for the season with Jamie Siminoff , the CEO of Los Angeles-based Unsubscribe.com , an online service which helps you unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters and email lists. in funding from Charles River Ventures, First Round Capital, DFJ Frontier, and angel investors.

Newsletter 216

Newsletter Startup CTO Hire Blogging 216

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2011

The firm said the updated app helps users record and share those trips with friends via Facebook, Twitter, email, text, or within a blog or other web page. READ MORE>>.

eHarmony 154

eHarmony Yahoo San Diego Blogging 154

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Jay Penske has been building a huge, online blog publishing empire here in Los Angeles; the firm was previously known as Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC) before selling off its email service in 2010. Penske is the son of automotive magnate Roger Penske, owner of automotive firm Penske Corporation.

Media 150

Media News Entertainment Hollywood 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. Any longtime readers of this blog will know that I often try to simplify complex ideas into a simple parable that is easier to remember to set the tone of one’s behaviors.

Startup 317

Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

In case you missed all the kerfuffle this weekend, I posted this blog post originally on TechCrunch. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. Shervin Pishevar, another person who I respect wrote the following on Twitter, “ Saying you don’t like @AngelList is like saying you don’t like Email.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog. entrepreneur Wil Schroter (I am an angel investor in Affordit). The idea is that in a world in which companies need to deal with customer support requests from Twitter, Facebook, email, phone, IM, etc. Collaboration in business starts and ends with email.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

socalTECH

JUNE 15, 2010

The company said it will provide services such as site hosting, domain registration, social media strategy, blog installation, email newsletters, and other social media help to companies. The firm is backed by The Tech Coast Angels, Frontera Capital, Somera Ventures, and others.

Web 154

Web Tech Coast Angels Services Social Media 154

socalTECH

APRIL 27, 2010

Los Angeles-based Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC), which operates the Mail.com email service and portal, as well as its own network of content-focused web sites, said today that it has acquired BGR.com , a mobile/gadget review and news site. Tags: content publishing gadget blog acquisition merger bgr.com mail mail.com.

Blogging 133

Blogging Content News Sites 133

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

I have Twitter chats, respond to blog comments, trade emails, respond to comments on This Week in VC. I remember! &# You’re the guy who built the Twitter plug-in for blogs. I speak at conferences where I might meet 75-100 people and have conversations. I do dinners too often as my waistline can attest. I remember.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Blogging Conference Email 288

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2015

We raised six million from angel investors for this otherwise brilliant concept, and several first tier VCs followed with another thirty–two million over time. Email readers, continue here…] And the company ultimately died a painful death. I had my doubts, but led the deal anyway.

Design 120

Design Blogging Course Email 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

They know this model of YouTube production & distribution better than anybody else that I’ve met in my 5 years in Los Angeles. And anybody who follows this blog knows that I believe television disruption has already begun and it is more likely to resemble Internet content than streaming long-form content to our living rooms.

Carson 291

Carson Content Press Los Angeles 291

Jason Nazar

JUNE 11, 2011

Enter Leslie Wade, who put this list together for me below in an email (including the cute commentary), and I feel compelled to share it with the world since she’s not yet doing her own blogging.

Los Angeles 108

Los Angeles Angel CitySearch Hollywood 108

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. But before I sent it I had made 10 private phone calls, sent emails & built support.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2013

Last year I wrote a blog post on entrepreneurs with a chip on their shoulders. My friend Seth Levine covered this well in his blog post on “ Handling Rejection ” which you should also read. But even if a VC is nasty a rant email back isn’t the right way to channel your frustration. And it’s everywhere.

Startup 371

Startup Press Blogging Entrepreneur 371

SoCal CTO

MAY 4, 2010

- Ben Casnocha: The Blog , April 15, 2010 Everyone I spoke with loved the idea. Redeye VC , April 13, 2010 Startup Development - SoCal CTO , April 23, 2010 Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering?

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Venture Capital Startup Social Network 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Every angel, seed investor or VC is influenced by who else is talking with you, who else is investing in you and they (we) are all influenced by who introduced us to you.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

socalTECH

MARCH 5, 2009

High profile entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, CEO of Los Angeles-based Mahalo , emailed an impassioned note to his mailing list Thursday, which he also posted to his personal blog, detailing how one of the firm's employees has just been sentenced to 48 months in jail for computer hacking.

Mahalo 157

Mahalo Los Angeles Blogging Google 157

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My 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.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 12, 2009

This past week has had an interesting confluence of events that's led me to conclude that I want to start doing a lot of visible networking among the tech / web crowd here in Los Angeles. I really enjoy his blog and I can't wait to mix it up with him some more on the value of Hollywood money / connections. More often 4.

Networking 150

Networking Blogging Social Media VentureNet 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This posting was inspired by an email from Rajat Suri who wrote me an email in response to Chris Dixon’s blog post (link below) from August, which recently re-ran on Business Insider and has generated much Twitter chatter. Are there inherent risks in taking angel money? Is an average of $675k each a seed deal?

Seed Funding 283

Seed Funding Venture Capital Funding Software Review 283

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We also discussed how to deal with pricing in angel rounds and a strategy I advocated in my “social proof&# blog post , which is to price your initial angel round really low and get in the best possible angels as a way to get momentum in the company. Angels have a much lower threshold for returns than do VCs.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

I had been trading emails & Tweets with venture capitalist John Frankel and we were to meet in person in March 2011 at SxSW to talk about Klout and other investments he had made. I had been hanging around Klout for a year and many of my friends had angel funded the company and were champions. I was used to this debate.

Cornerstone OnDemand 303

Cornerstone OnDemand Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup 303

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

It's like WordPress, but instead of blogging, it provides an online community, which is self-hosted. However Gmail is only private email conversations. Alex Benzer: My partner and I met here in Los Angeles, in high school. We're definitely Los Angeles natives, but we got the opportunity to do TechStars.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

On August 23rd, 2013 I had an email intro from my good friend and trusted source Jeff Berman who only sends me stuff when it is somebody he respects (ie a strong filter vs. those who send casual intros). But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere. He hit me from two very trusted sources. The results?

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

Even when I’m not the one being sued I find myself being dragged into deposition after deposition and my blog (along with all my emails) are being served as evidence. I angel funded a company 5 years ago. Nobody talks about this publicly because the fights are too personal so people don’t blog about them.

Startup 150

Startup IP Writing Ideas 150

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. Well, aside from it showing discipline and intelligence – we always get flooded with emails when we recruit and when you have to manage volume you need to go for obvious filters. Please do not email either me or Michael directly.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

socalTECH

MAY 24, 2011

Southern California--and particularly, Los Angeles--has always been a center of the music business, which makes it unsurprising that there are many, music-focused startups which end up starting here. We wanted to do some testing ni Los Angeles, and quickly expanded to four cities. What's your background and how did you get into this?

Social Media 241

Social Media Startup Sites Advertising 241