Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards. But it’s quite rare.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. You took the risk to start your company. They told you, “Yeah, man, I’ll gladly write the first $250,000. You scraped together enough for an angel round but not enough to pay yourself a real salary.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

Months of submissions and the amazing help from our judges , the Spotlight is shinning down on awesome companies that were born right out of Southern California. And now without further ado I present the Spotlight: LA Tech Winter Companies: Spotlight Companies. We write and create our own content for the game.

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

That's something which Los Angeles-based VroomGirls (www.vroomgirls.com) is looking to change--with the backing of sponsors like Toyota, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. It's simply that there are so many men doing it.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. In fact, they are probably in such a hurry to give you money that they don’t want you to waste time writing anything down and passing it along to new investors. In fact, the whole process is a waste of time.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I recently got together with Aaron Shechet and an early stage startup to discuss the direction the company might want to take. I grew up in Los Angeles and went to undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, graduating in 2003 with Honors in Economics. We also represent a few larger companies with international issues. That's great.

Startup 150

Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Founded in 2008 by Mehdi Maghsoodnia.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Schwartzfarb is currently Managing Director of Techstars Austin, but spent a significant time in the Los Angeles technology community working with Jake Winebaum at Business.com. Amos Schwartzfarb: I have been in and a part of early stage startup companies since the mid 90's, in San Francisco. Donnelly in 2007.

Sales 113

Sales Startup Custom Development Framework 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. There is an inherent value that any company has. I acknowledged this in the article.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

What is it to start up a company, and run it to the brink of shutdown�only to have it acquired and restarted immediately? That's the fascinating story behind Los Angeles-based Earbits (www.earbits.com), which offers up a mobile music streaming service focused on discovering both new and talent. So, we decided to shut down the company.

Software Review 100

Software Review Startup Metrics Content 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. 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.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? Ive personally been involved in the start-up world in Los Angeles for about 15 years, and have had the opportunity to work on many early-stage companies (e.g.,

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. What makes their story more remarkable, in the age of 20-something billionaires, is that both of the company’s founders are in their 50’s.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. He believes that one of the financial metrics taught at business schools and reinforced by Wall Street has accelerated offshoring of industries. New company in Boston with a model called “royalty capital.”

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” Nobody is offering to put you on their scout program and pay you to be an angel investor. The company with no revenue and a $150k burn rate that raised $2.5 Should I write off my $2.5

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

But the hardest question to actually answer is, “What is the right burn rate for your company?” In other words, fund-raising is a permanent part of the job of the CEO (and CFO) of a company so whether you allocate 5% of your time to it or 20% – it is a year-round activity even if just in the background.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. We need venture debt, factoring companies and public markets. So what took me $2 million at my first company now takes $20,000. A new group of investors have clustered around writing earlier-stage, smaller checks. But you’re not an angel.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

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. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Innovation is the key, to keep each process small, but make it more effective than competitors and big-company processes.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. The right question is “What is the minimum that I need?”

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

I know it’s easier to write “horse race&# stories about who’s signing up more users, raising more funding or who’s “hot&# lately. In a world where it’s easier to judge the immediate value of a business, I know that metrics like “time on site&# matter. That’s what AOL was. Please join us.

Social Media 274

Social Media Google Media Startup 274

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

Los Angeles-based Maple Media (maplemedia.io) recently announced a big, $30M funding from Shamrock Capital, to assemble a collection of mobile applications in the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. After I sold my last company, Shift, in May of 2015, I took some time off to look for the next thing to do.

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. The right question is “What is the minimum that I need?”

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

Well, Los Angeles-based KarmaGoat (www.karmagoat.com) has figured out a way to help people get rid of those unwanted items they have--and provide those proceeds to charity. When I was moving to Los Angeles from Paris, I was sorting through my stuff, and I made three bags of things. Where did the idea come from?

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Innovation is the key, to keep each process small, but make it more effective than competitors and big-company processes.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Many of our job postings for Engineering positions describe the company as a place “where the word ‘millions’ is used frequently and in many contexts&#. SaaS 101: 7 Simple Lessons From Inside HubSpot - OnStartups , July 19, 2010 It’s been a little over 4 years since I officially launched my internet marketing software company , HubSpot.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

Mine started this way … I started my first company in the “go-go years&# of the Internet: 1999. We worked out a plan to merge our company with another European competitor, raise money from both sets of investors, cut the cost base and live to fight another day. We were based in London. We were weeks from bankruptcy.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I regularly do wine tastings here in Los Angeles with some interesting folks I know. I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It turns out that to build a successful company you ultimately need this strange thing called “revenue” that people don’t just hand you: You need to earn it. Most of this advice boils down to an argument in favor of basic planning before starting a company or raising money. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Working with professional athletes combined with my natural leadership ability and experience in business development makes me uniquely suited to lead a technology company in the health and fitness industry. We closed an angel round of funding in March for $415,000, 90% of which came from investors in Chicago.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

Erin Korogosky – Beckon , Performance management for marketing companies. Susan Etlinger – Altimeter , research and consulting company for business disruption. Alex Taub – Social Rank , Twitter metrics and engagement tool. Anima Sarah Lavoy – Connect , Geo locational convenience for your social networks.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99