Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

It really is possible for an introvert to succeed as an entrepreneur, even though you can’t expect to start and build a business alone. Every entrepreneur, especially an introvert, can benefit from the perspective of another business person, ideally one who has prior experience in the domain you are about to enter.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Jason Calacanis , CEO of Santa Monica-based Internet search site Mahalo , has signed on several angels for his new angel group, the Open Angel Forum - Los Angeles. Tags: jason calacanis mahalo angel investment venture capital keiretsu forum openangel executive.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2023

One of the simplest questions I get from aspiring entrepreneurs, and ironically one of the hardest, is “How do I start?” They just aren’t prepared for the life they want, and are really asking me how to learn to be an entrepreneur. Help entrepreneurs with constant learning. Learning doesn’t have to be all work.

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Startup Education Entrepreneur Tool 108

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. This post is for those who want to raise angel money. At an angel round you can get away with no market validation.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Many entrepreneurs struggle with their setbacks.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2015

One of the simplest questions I get from aspiring entrepreneurs, and ironically one of the hardest, is “How do I start?” They just aren’t prepared for the life they want, and are really asking me how to learn to be an entrepreneur. Help entrepreneurs with constant learning. Learning doesn’t have to be all work.

Entrepreneur 112

Entrepreneur Startup Education Tool 112

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2020

In response to VCs’ sudden rush to invest in more Black founders , Black venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have penned a bunch of advice on the best way to tap into talent. It held a city-based internship program with Los Angeles, which connects students to venture capital firms in the area. Among the strategies?

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Equity Technical Review Venture Capital Blogging 220

Berkonomics

APRIL 7, 2022

An entrepreneur makes a claim that stretches comfort. The entrepreneur–founder explained this problem away by stating that the designers and manufacturers would ship direct after we’d grown to a large enough size. But something had bothered me from the very start – unsalable inventory. I had my doubts but led the deal anyway.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

I also blog at [link] and you can find me on twitter: @gilbola. My clients are typically entrepreneurs who have other jobs and are looking for help to get their side projects going but don’t have the time or skill set to launch it themselves. Likely any successful web entrepreneur has more ideas than time. I can see that.

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InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2016

The reality television show Shark Tank makes for entertaining content but many of its underlying messages are potentially detrimental to tech entrepreneurs. Thus, emerging entrepreneurs should parse fact from fantasy by watching the show with an experienced business pro. According to David S. Shark Tank Distortions.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

On why you should be an entrepreneur, “A lot of people do what they have to do. Last night I co-hosted a dinner at Soho House in Los Angeles with some of the most senior people in the media industry with executives from Disney, Fox, Warner, media agencies and many promising tech & media startup CEO’s.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment. This is the same with angel investing. How’d that work out?

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds. See Five Things Meme as an example.

Blogging 150

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socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Los Angeles-based venture firm GRP Partners announced Wednesday that it has hired a new, entrepreneur-in-residence for the company, Sam Rosen, who was formerly the founder of SpeakerGram in New York City, was involved in 500Startups in San Francisco, and also has been involved with ScoreBig. READ MORE>>.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

The dinner parties now are filled with self-righteous angel investors bragging about how many deals they are in on. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. The best angels will do very well just at the best real estate investors did well in good times and bad. And now everybody is an angel.

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TechCrunch LA

APRIL 1, 2019

Here’s how the two describe it in a blog post about the new program: Venture partner, operating partner, entrepreneur in residence, advisor etc, so many names and so many different implementations, so we decided to simply give our unique relationship it’s own name- a Sage. . million round.

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Invest Legalzoom Los Angeles Blogging 109

socalTECH

AUGUST 16, 2018

One of the best things about working at Silicon Valley Bank in Los Angeles is the access to amazing founders and companies. This blog post highlights a trend I'm seeing here in Los Angeles: Established mobile gaming founders are leveraging their deep mobile expertise, including performance marketing, into new non-gaming verticals.

Mobile 113

Mobile Los Angeles Blogging Venture Capital 113

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

where entrepreneurs share their stories. 63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of By mario on May 2, 2012 in Features , grid. Free Corporations For First-Time Entrepreneurs. Right now they’re setting up 500 free corporations for first time entrepreneurs. Our Best Interviews Via Email: Monthly. Idea Mensch.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2016

One of the simplest questions I get from aspiring entrepreneurs, and ironically one of the hardest, is “How do I start?” They just aren’t prepared for the life they want, and are really asking me how to learn to be an entrepreneur. Help entrepreneurs with constant learning. Learning doesn’t have to be all work.

Entrepreneur 58

Entrepreneur Startup Education Tool 58

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

Wish you could automatically hear and follow the latest tracks people are talking about on music blogs? That's the whole idea behind BEASTMODE.FM , the newest creation of Matthias Galica, the Los Angeles entrepreneur who runs StartupDigestLA and heads up QR code startup ShareSquare.

RSS 174

RSS Blogging Los Angeles Ideas 174

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cashflow personally every day. burn rate business cashflow entrepreneur investor startup'

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Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. I was thinking back to a few previous “insider baseball&# blog debates that raged for several weeks: AngelGate (aka Bin38 secret cabal), convertible debt vs. equity, bubble vs. not, and now the AngelList discussion.

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Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2013

Many entrepreneurs I know don’t realize that the language they learned in the corporate world, or even their recent MBA class, won’t get them ahead in the startup world today. As a reality check, try this quick test of your entrepreneur savvy. As a reality check, try this quick test of your entrepreneur savvy. Super-angels.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Startup Web Equity 109

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 27, 2019

In fact, the region’s relative dearth of investors is often bemoaned by local entrepreneurs. No one would argue that San Diego is overflowing with venture capitalists in the way, say, the San Francisco Bay Area is. But, at least once yearly, that changes, and the community gets to hear insights from prominent outside VCs firsthand.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2019, from 280 out of 100,000 to 310 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever.

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Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2010

If you are new to the startup space and angel investing, you probably don’t realize that some groups of angel investors charge entrepreneurs a fee to pitch to their groups. He calls these a scam, and “angel group” payola. Others , including noted angel David S. Find and fix that first.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Angel Funding Blogging 93

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2012

The average entrepreneur is not the one who dumped a promising career, sketched his idea on the back of a napkin, and accepted millions from an investor to make billions of his own. Born to be an entrepreneur may not be enough today. Dropping out of school is not recommended. First-timers usually fund their own venture.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Tips Education Ideas 111

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, February 23, 2007 Events and Networking in Los Angeles One of the issues I discussed in Innovation and Geography was that the geography and traffic in Los Angeles generally makes it more difficult for networking. Startup Co-Founders: If You Cant Recruit Em, Should You Join Em?

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Los Angeles Networking CTO Coach Angel 150

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 26, 2020

The move to a rolling admissions mirrors an approach taken by other accelerator programs including MuckerLab , the wildly successful Los Angeles-based early stage program. Blumenthal explained the switch in a blog post. “It will be making investment decisions year round instead of twice a year.

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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.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

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. Still, as I’ve written in the past, what I love about blogging is the ability to have a public debate where we can all learn. It’s hotter than hot.

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Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 Finding Good Developers in Los Angeles? ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo. Product Manager Entrepreneur Mark Geller SEO for Startups Startup Version 1.0

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Los Angeles CTO Hire CTO Coach Develop 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day. Buffer your projected resource requirements.

Search Engine Optimization 103

Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media Equity 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2012

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. I’ve asked this question many times of presenters in angel meetings, and often get a blank look. Use them and win.

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Seed Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Funding 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

But in Los Angeles, Santa Monica is akin to SoMa in San Francisco, Cambridge in the Boston area or Flatiron / Union Square in NYC. Wouldn’t we be a bit hypocritical if we talked with entrepreneurs about innovation and change but we weren’t willing to take it on ourselves? We love all of LA and fund all regions.

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Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. milestones entrepreneur startup funding business' Marty Zwilling.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

Brunson’s short and to-the-point blog post, “ It’s Called Networking, Not Using.” One of the most common questions I hear from first-time entrepreneurs is, “How do I meet angels?” Think about it – who knows angels the best? ” There is such an obvious solution. Be helpful.

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