Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2020

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Investors and strategic partners look for entrepreneurs who can execute.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million-dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).

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Startup Funding Organization Incubator 122

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. And it wasn’t just Google Ad Words that originated in Los Angeles.

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Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Truecar 376

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Investors and strategic partners look for entrepreneurs who can execute.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Activity Ideas 110

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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Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. Or your A-round investor who wrote a $5 million for 25% of your company may not be well positioned to write another $5 million (25%) of a $20 million round.

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Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

As an Angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Investors and strategic partners look for entrepreneurs who can execute.

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Product Startup Activity 63

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).

Resource 171

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 171

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2013

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy). Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Funding Incubator Startup 102

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). Why the latter?

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. You need funding, and plan to get it from friends and family.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2011

We caught up with Julie Schoenfeld , the firm's CEO, to hear about how the firm's offerings have evolved, an interesting comparison of the firm's software to what Demand Media is doing, and what this new funding will go towards. It's some of the kinds of things Demand Media does, except, for the newsroom. Congrats on funding.

Marketing 232

Marketing Funding Content Writing 232

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

Our guest insight this week is from Frank Peters, well-known in the angel and in the bicycle worlds for his podcasts and passion. It’s good advice; the theory being that entrepreneurs can discover the flaws in their business models sooner, make course corrections and move in a more favorable direction. – Dave.

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Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2018

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).

Funding 94

Funding Startup Organization Incubator 94

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Editor's note: As we head into the new year, we've been featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. We do, as of the writing of this in early December, seem to be seeing a correction at this time. On Demand).

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Southern California News Class Writing 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

Well, a down round is even more complicated than having no demand for your investment round. If we count seed funds and large angels maybe that number goes up by 2x? I always tell entrepreneurs, “ Clean Your Own S**t Up First. And what’s worse than being under-subscribed? A down round. That’s why.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).

Organization 93

Organization Startup Incubator Resource 93

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy. You also ran the risk that if you hired employees quickly and then demand wasn’t as strong as expected it was incredibility hard to fire people.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

I had an enjoyable conversation this morning with a young team straight out of college this morning and they were calling to ask advice on how to approach fund raising (angels vs. VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. It’s not you.

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Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. 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. I acknowledged this in the article. I’m just making the commentary.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

It encompasses everything from crumbling roads and bridges to a lack of clean drinking water, failing sewage systems, inadequate recycling facilities, and increasing demands on power generation, transmission and distribution assets that the nation’s electricity grid is unable to meet. Sick of your ISP?

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Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

For simplicity I’ll assume you’ve raised some money from angels or seed investors and you’re either raising an A round or a B round of venture capital. People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.” Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC).

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2012

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).

Resource 94

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 94

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

In the Los Angeles startup world, there are lots of high profile, buzzy companies which have lots of attention and funding--but which haven''t earned a dime of revenue. We started looking at the landscape, and as I was getting my MBA at the time, ended up writing the business plan for ConsumerTrack.

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Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

Unfortunately, as a startup advisor and angel investor, I’ve seen too many ventures with great potential get destroyed or set back by legal and other shortcuts that should never have been allowed to happen. Clarify up front the potential for a conflict of interest or violation of a non-compete clause, and confirm the answer in writing.

Startup 62

Startup Patents Entrepreneur Writing 62

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. But it turns out I met a bunch of really interesting entrepreneurs. But TWTFelipe is an entrepreneur.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? They both raised angel / seed money of $1.5 They hired a biz dev team to work on deals where their product could be embedded in other people’s products as a way to increase customer demand. Thus the trade off between profits & growth.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2010

The life of an entrepreneur is filled with 20 second opportunities. My partner was in product management at Demand Media. 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. Most are squandered.

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Startup Content Conference Media 315

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2011

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).

Startup 92

Startup Organization Incubator Ideas 92

Jason Nazar

MARCH 22, 2011

I asked the panelists ( David Travers , Brian Norgard , Fouad ElNaggar , & Demian Sellfors ) about the specific challenges that we face down here in Los Angeles as opposed to Silicon Valley. That’s typically not the case in Los Angeles. I recently hosted a panel at the Twiistup Conference about LA tech companies.

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Company Companies Rustic Canyon Startup 111

Tech.Co

MAY 24, 2017

My spouse’s work is demanding, but he is an extremely present dad, covers for me during work dinners, and still spends the time to talk to me about how to handle work matters. Whether it is yoga, a workout class or even just writing a journal, spend at least three to four hours on yourself a week.

Class 91

Class Journal Writing Demand 91

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. So there is likely robust demand from borrowers. Enter P2P lending.

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Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. In many ways the fact that it has become so cheap to start a company and relatively cheap to raise angel/seed money that we as an industry have gotten lazy on basic planning.

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Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

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!” I have had this discussion with many a first-time entrepreneur. They both raised angel / seed money of $1.5 ” The Details.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. Do you have any words of caution or advice for entrepreneurs who attempt to “Get Their Band Back Together”? “In When assembling a team, I encourage entrepreneurs to seek out the MVPs, and look to build diversity into the teams they assemble.”.

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Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. Last week I went to the Inaugural Open Angel Forum run by Jason Calacanis. It’s two young guys who both dropped out of college to pursue their dream of becoming entrepreneurs. We’ll see. Enter Withings.

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Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278