Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

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. Most VCs and Angel investors don’t read unsolicited proposals, unless they have met you first, or have a glowing recommendation from another investor or acquaintance.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Crowdfunding to gauge demand is not recommended, since failed campaigns don’t usually recover later.

Startup 151

Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. And sometimes they take part of their prorata right.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from angel investors , called seed investments. Funding of $25,000-$250,000 may be available from angels, who are private individuals spending their own money.

Resource 171

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 171

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 16, 2019

The organization, active in the Bay Area and New York City, is announcing new chapters in Los Angeles and Boston this week, as well as a new director of engagement, Domonique Fines, formerly of Y Combinator, and a new chief of staff, Jack Dorsey’s former chief of staff at Square, Alicia Burt.

Venture Capital 184

Venture Capital Ideas Los Angeles Tool 184

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. In today’s market, so much focus is placed on transacting business online. 10) Rob, why does the world need RingRevenue? . “In

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

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. Don’t demand or expect immediate gratification.

Startup 171

Startup Entrepreneur Activity Ideas 171

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2023

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. Don’t demand or expect immediate gratification.

Entrepreneur 70

Entrepreneur Startup Activity Ideas 70

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Amazon has razor thin profits compared to their revenue but Bezos doesn't care he just wants growth and world domination and has a market cap of $763B. The biggest news was the continued bullish market now coming on ten years even though historical cycles show markets don't usually last more than 7-8 years. On Demand).

Southern California 100

Southern California News Class Writing 100

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. Brett Rossman: ConsumerTrack is a performance-based, online marketing company. What is ConsumerTrack all about? What''s the story behind the company?

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free! In short – no.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

a) doing what is effectively a down round preemptively when I don’t have to, by underpricing my current round in this market vs. b) accepting the market price along with some risk of taking a down round in the future, if I don’t hit my milestones, why would I ever choose b)?” That’s why. We know that.

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. Has it begun to mature or is it just better marketed than in was say 5 years ago? Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2019

Harris writes: “The figures, dating back to 2016, paint a picture of a company desperate to meet over-ambitious autonomy targets and one that is willing to spend freely, even recklessly, to get there. .” After five days in Austin for SXSW, I headed to Los Angeles, actually Hawthorne, for Tesla’s Model Y unveiling.

San Fernando 217

San Fernando Los Angeles Commerce News 217

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

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2018

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from angel investors , called seed investments. Funding of $25,000-$250,000 may be available from angels, who are private individuals spending their own money.

Funding 94

Funding Startup Organization Incubator 94

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. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes 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. You need money, and plan to do crowdfunding.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

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.). So VCs started writing some smaller A-rounds. .” Here’s how all the drama started for me. Why the latter?

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Skyler Lucci is co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based HeyTutor (www.heytutor.com), a startup which has created an online platform which connects and matches students with in-person tutors. If you look at the other players, I believe, on-demand tutors will never exist. What is HeyTutor? Here's the reason why. It's the hub.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

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. You just had to be lucky, write reasonably good code and land in an industry with some legs, and of course, treat the customer well. By Frank Peters. His personal story is full of lessons for us all.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

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. Bad board members can make business very unpleasant.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2018

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. Don’t demand or expect immediate gratification.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Startup Activity Ideas 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

To hear about the firm's interest in Los Angeles, and Southern California investments in general, we spoke with Fouad ElNaggar , Principal at the firm, to hear about where the firm is nowadays and what kind of investments it is making locally. We've created over a billion dollars in public market capital created by our investments here.

Redpoint 154

Redpoint Southern California Cornerstone OnDemand Invest 154

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.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Separately at this stage, you may look for small funding amounts from Angel investors , called seed investments. Funding of $25,000-$250,000 may be available from Angels, who are private individuals spending their own money.

Organization 93

Organization Startup Incubator Ideas 93

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets. Was there consumer demand? Note: Company headquarters is in Los Angeles with major R&D also happening in Northern Virginia. No brainer.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

They both raised angel / seed money of $1.5 They hired a marketing team to promote their products more broadly. 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. million to fund operations in their first year of operations.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). People buy companies for 3 primary reasons: 1) they want the management team / talent 2) they want the technology or 3) they want the market traction (revenue, customer base, profits, etc). This is minutes 8-11.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. Market Size. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio? There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. 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.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2008

We're always interested in how technology is influencing the business of Hollywood, and recently ran across Los Angeles-based Scripped. to the business of script writing, and is looking to combine a free online tool for writing scripts with matching those scripts with content producers. That is the way to attract writers.

Content 138

Content Writing Software Review Hollywood 138

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!” If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. Not necessarily.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

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. People of Korean descent in Los Angeles are amongst the most entrepreneurial people I know — in technology but also in garments, fashion, food and so forth.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

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. On why you should be an entrepreneur, “A lot of people do what they have to do.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

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. Don’t demand or expect immediate gratification.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Activity Ideas 110