Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

My primary role was “chief psychologist&# and as I’ve learned over the past few years the same has been true as a VC. I finally got around to writing it having read Fred Wilson’s post about what a CEO does. As a VC you see the insides of companies rather than the companies positive spin on TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? That’s less interesting for me as a VC.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

When I sit down to write every week I never really imagine what is going to end up resonating the most with people but it seems I’ve most often been defined by my post that I Invest in Lines, not Dots. I was a proud angel investor in Jody’s company, EcoMom. So what is an EIR and why Sam? I thought that was the end of it.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

Brad Feld visited Los Angeles this past week. ” Many people on the Westside of Los Angeles are using the term Silicon Beach these days to describe the amazing renaissance that is truly happening here. I recommend that you start by writing down the attributes you would want people to think about when they think about your brand.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. Would they build a world class team.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

Another alternative is to find an inexpensive class on grant writing. Then seek angel investors or crowdfunding, as required, for the rollout, and venture capital for scaling the business across multiple geographies.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. It was a great chance for the class to interact with the community in LA. Almost every VC I’ve spoken with in LA is tracking DataPop. Watch this space.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2010

But Sam is a first-class act and boy does he know how to nail an intro. So 2 things reminded me of that story and got me thinking about writing this post: I was on a panel this week talking to a crowd of a couple of hundred aspiring entrepreneurs. I’m a partner at the largest VC fund in Southern California. Don’t blow it.

Startup 315

Startup Content Conference Media 315

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Bockerstette, Main Street Venture Fund Angel investing in most parts of the country remains a relatively informal and unstructured process. The depressed economy has dampened the angel community’s appetite, making the identification of the trophy investor more important than ever. For an angel investor, it’s a buyer’s market.

Entrepreneur 83

Entrepreneur Mentor Invest Angel 83

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

We talked with Noah about how the company grew out of a business plan competition at the University of Southern California, his recent funding from the Maverick Angels, as well as how the firm hopes to stand out among a crowded list of comparison shopping sites. Noah, thanks for the interview.

USC 207

USC CPC Sites Startup 207

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Here is a class of investor we’ve covered before, one usually focused upon you and less upon your business case. We’ll call these “inside angels.” There are other classes of equity investors for small or early stage businesses that we have not yet considered. Angel investment groups or funds. Friends and family investors.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. So then when I wanted to go into venture capital, they said, “You can’t do that, you need to be in EIR.” So when I got into venture capital, I thought, “Well, what can I do that’s different?”

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

This is why I am such a big fan of General Assembly both because they’re teaching more tangible skills but also because they’re working directly with employers to fund classes as well as to onboard the more successful GA students directly. His class reading lists could be a primer for any entrepreneur, not just MBAs.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

We write and create our own content for the game. Start Engine is a rapid accelerator focused on helping Los Angeles-based technology startups build a solid foundation for success in 90 days. We leverage our network in the Los Angeles community to provide members with access to potential employees, mentors and investors.

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

.” I applaud all efforts by people to take on this issue and especially be Adeo who – let’s be honest – was really the first champion of trying to make the VC world more transparent by launching TheFunded, which didn’t exactly endear him to VCs initially. Some thoughts on raising angel money.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. One of the many great things about having Jason on our team is that he’s got a lot of experience raising money and many contacts in the VC community, so he was able to set up all the right meetings. We met with a ton of VC’s and angels.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

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. Los Angeles. We have world-class universities like Caltech, UCLA, USC and more.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

I would never as a VC fund a round and then expect somebody else to pay a higher price right after me. I also would never expect another VC to do that to me. Since 2009 I have been counseling people to offer discounts to the first angel investors. The trouble is, nobody has an incentive to agree to write the first check.

Pricing 294

Pricing Venture Capital Writing Equity 294

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2011

Although Los Angeles has become a hub for the high tech startup world, Surprisingly, one of the things which hasn't happened in the Los Angeles area is any huge, successful venture acceleration programs. Bruce Brown: I was working in 1985 writing keyboard and mouse drivers for Windows version 1.

Startup 221

Startup Mentor Southern California Incubator 221

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Jamie Siminoff is not only one of the single best true entrepreneurs in Los Angeles, he’s amongst the best we’ve worked with in the country.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike Yavonditte is the founder of the “super hot&# Hashable , a startup out of NYC that has been described as a “ Mint.com for Social Capital ” Mike sold his previous company, Quigo , to Aol for $340 Million. He is also an active angel investor in companies like Klout and Meetup. Thank you, John.

Google 302

Google Startup Advertising Acquisition 302

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 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. . Venture Capital Funding 7. I'm 30, now will you take me seriously? Zondigo, Inc. Relaxing 2.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Interesting patterns emerged: Everyone makes the same classes of error. Fresh out of college and a summer internship at a VC firm, I thought I knew what I was doing.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217