Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Finally I realized that venture capital and angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. Exudes integrity, humility, and stability.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2015

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Project your cash burn rate to keep at least 18 months between venture capital or angel investments.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Sales 102

Tech.Co

MAY 25, 2018

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur, technology has served you well. BlackTech Week was created in 2014, and in four short years, they’ve gained over 2700 participants, 150 speakers, and 3 pitch competitions. While winning pitch competitions is great, it’s not the most important thing about Startup of the Year.

Startup 140

Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. A smart investor will take an independent final reading in the market on barriers to entry, active competition, demographics, and price sensitivity.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Project your cash burn rate to keep at least 18 months between venture capital or angel investments.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 147

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

The scion of Los Angeles’ famous first family of the deli business — the owners of the eponymous Canters restaurant — Canter has been in the food business longer than many seasoned restauranteurs twice his age. After rolling out in Canters, the company reached out to other mom and pop restaurants in the Los Angeles area.

Services 165

Services Los Angeles Startup Capital 165

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. Semick: In the beginning, many of our conversations were about whether we wanted funding from angel investors and eventually VCs.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. These days that’s not the case and it’s a great outcome for entrepreneurs and for innovation. If you’re an angel you invest your own money and you have nobody to answer to except your spouse. But you’re not an angel. Answer: Not much.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Due to this, seed rounds have become more competitive, with more expensive valuations and more oversubscribed rounds. Since 2010, $6.3B

Capital 100

Capital Technical Review Truecar Venture Capital 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Editor's note: All this week, and into the start of next year, we'll be featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. You'll be able to browse all of those contributions here. What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

Startup 124

Startup Press Commerce Southern California 124

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

The startup is backed by the Tech Coast Angels and Dolby Ventures. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. After that, we had a $7.5

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. Clearly this is is a trend and a topic that is interesting entrepreneurs. angel, seed) you’re taking the most risk. a priced/valued preferred stock financing)?

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

The startup is backed by the Tech Coast Angels and Dolby Ventures. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. After that, we had a $7.5

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Others stage elaborate “training” sessions, to “assure” that everyone tells the same story. The right answer is somewhere in between.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 152

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2015

As an angel investor, I hear many entrepreneurs making negative comments about competitors or asserting they don’t have any competitors. They don’t realize that knocking competitors is assessed as a weakness and denying that you have any competition suggests there is no market for your solution.

Capital 63

Capital Competition Case Study Patents 63

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

The fitness professional network develops business tools that make it easier for fitness professionals to run their businesses and keep their clients engaged between training sessions. We knew there’s a better personal training experience to be had, so we set out to create one. We just found this hole in the fitness industry.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

As an angel investor and business advisor on new ventures, I expect to see five-year financial projections from every entrepreneur. Does this entrepreneur understand the basics of business costs in the selected business domain, growth dynamics, and the competitive environment?

Pricing 57

Pricing Startup Entrepreneur Invest 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2016

The good news is that everyone expects entrepreneurs to make mistakes, since founders explore uncharted territory. As an active angel investor and startup advisor, I’ve seen many of the same stumbling blocks repeated all too many times. Some entrepreneurs believe that being first to market will keep them ahead of competitors.

Startup 59

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 59

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

Messenger : Paige Craig, CEO BetterWorks, Angel Investor, former Marine. 5) When I interviewed people at my past startups, I rejected them if they asked me about our dental plan, as true entrepreneurs don’t care about such pedestrian benefits. In real-world training scenarios (over two weeks), on the phone selling, we cut 75% of them.

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

I’m continually amazed at the number of entrepreneurs who go for months into a new business without really keeping a formal record of money spent or assets acquired. At this stage, you should start recruiting, hiring, paying, and training others to help you run your business. But having no process does not make you more competitive.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2016

Every entrepreneur I know starts out with a strong conviction that their solution is a perfect match for their target market, and yet almost every one later admits a need to “pivot” before finding their groove. Few entrepreneurs know that even the most successful startups had pivots, which rarely get mentioned.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur Pricing Course Competition 57

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Pipeline Fellowship teaches women to become angel investors and become a more powerful and helpful voice in the investment world. We like to give women a chance to see and learn all about investing and what it takes to become an angel investor. Entrepreneurs are everywhere and capital isn’t. That is something I am aware of.

Mentor 84

Mentor Invest Entrepreneur Startup 84

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. If you invested in the first angel round of a startup company it is usually very hard to sell your stock – usually for many years if ever at all. They are pretty illiquid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2018

Breakthrough innovation is the dream of every entrepreneur, but it’s still a scarce commodity. Selecting and nurturing people who are likely to help you in this regard is an even more elusive capability, and one that every angel investor, like myself, wishes he could get a lock on.

Training 57

Training Ideas Startup Tool 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2017

I hear it all the time as an angel investor, but I also see that same naïve or cavalier attitude come back to haunt entrepreneurs once they really get out in the marketplace. Are you prepared to hire and train team members required? Do you have a contingency plan to mitigate risk?

Metrics 58

Metrics Resource Startup Training 58

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

. “President Biden is calling on Congress to make smart investments in research and development, manufacturing and regional economic development, and in workforce development to give our workers and companies the tools and training they need to compete on the global stage.” Sick of your ISP?

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2014

And, even more, how to do you manage the jump on the viral video train again, and keep those viral hits coming? Is there a lot of competition for the rights to all of that content? Lee Essner: That''s one of the competitive edges we have. In some cases there is competition, and there are other people trying to acquire a video.

Media 235

Media Content Startup IP 235

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The same should be true of an entrepreneur who is attempting to secure money from sophisticated investors. Step 1: The Person, Not The Firm – As Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson make clear in their book Venture Deals , entrepreneurs should identify specific venture partners, rather than target firms as a whole. It’s not.”

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

We’ve had an explosion of alternate sources of financing from crowd-sourcing, angels, accelerators, incubators, corporates, corporate incubators. Did they do a major training program? An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. And importantly we’ve had revenue.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

I’m continually amazed at the number of entrepreneurs who go for months into a new business without really keeping a formal record of money spent or assets acquired. At this stage, you should start recruiting, hiring, paying, and training others to help you run your business. But having no process does not make you more competitive.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. I think many board members (including VCs) were trained 10+ years ago when life was very different and their advice often comes from an outdated lens.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 7, 2014

For top tier programs, there is a compelling combination of promise and mystique that creates a unique drive for entrepreneurs, who once accepted, become ready to put life circumstances on hold during program durations to grow their startups. Build, fail, learn, and improve FAST. It’s a new way to think “business” school.

Startup 74

Startup Case Study Study Screening 74

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

Yesterday I had lunch with a really interesting and capable serial entrepreneur who is raising his A round. Many serial entrepreneurs who have been burned would use something less kind than quotes. The other strategic was a train wreck. Many strategics have less experience in helping entrepreneurs. See point 5 above.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur Framework 279

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

I’m continually amazed at the number of entrepreneurs who go for months into a new business without really keeping a formal record of money spent or assets acquired. At this stage, you should start recruiting, hiring, paying, and training others to help you run your business. But having no process does not make you more competitive.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

I’m continually amazed at the number of entrepreneurs who go for months into a new business without really keeping a formal record of money spent or assets acquired. At this stage, you should start recruiting, hiring, paying, and training others to help you run your business. But having no process does not make you more competitive.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

In fact, most employee training courses recommend the distance if the work relationship crosses management levels, and most management policies strictly forbid fraternizing with the team. Can be a competitive advantage. Competition over salary, promotions, and position. Yet the 2013 Office Romance Survey by Vault, Inc.

Startup 92

Startup Course Competition Social Media 92

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Los Angeles-based Fuel50 (www.fuel50.com) Anne Fulton: I've always been a technology lover, although I'm an organizational psychologist by training. Anne Fulton: I've always been an organizational psychologist crossed with a serial entrepreneur. I can't help myself in being an entrepreneur. How did you start the company?

Help 100

Help Southern California Startup Technical Review 100