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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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2012

And no wonder, lately he and his partners are on a tear, investing out of their $200+ million VC fund. Both companies were in Los Angeles. We both agree that VCs are better off not doing “seed investing as an option” type activities. Nate, tell us a bit about Rustic Canyon Venture Partners. Not bad, hey?

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Rustic Canyon Venture Capital Southern California Userplane 279

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

In an attempt to boost diversity and inclusion efforts and civic engagement between the growing technology industry in Los Angeles and the community that surrounds it, over 80 venture capitalists and entrepreneurs joined the city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, and the non-profit Annenberg Foundation to announce PledgeLA.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. No VC will be so naive as not to see straight through it. When I first became a VC, seed rounds were typically $500k – $1.5 If you''re newer to VC math here''s a great primer]. Nobody cares. Why the latter?

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Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2014

In a bid to boost the Los Angeles economy and create new jobs in the city, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday that he has created a new "Entrepreneur-in-Residence" program, which will help the city in developing initiatives and policies aimed at growing, assisting and sustaining entrepreneurs in Los Angeles.

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Entrepreneur USC Los Angeles Mentor 232

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” My favorite new VC blogger, Hunter Walk, weighed in with some thoughtful comments about how Syndicates might actually pit, “ angel vs. angel.” Bowery Capital).

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Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 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. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me. Why prorata rights used to be less of a big deal to angels. Why prorata rights are becoming a bigger deal to angels.

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Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

In other words, it isn’t that VCs suddenly got smart, it’s that the costs of starting a company went down dramatically. Rise of Angels. There was an explosion in number of startups both because it was cheap and there was tons of available capital. Non VC Growth Rounds. VC Infighting. Explosion in Seed Funds.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Venture and angel investing has long been considered a man''s world--with domination of the industry, executives, financiers, and others by men, with only a few exceptions. Eva Helene Yazhari: It''s a program for budding angel investors, and female angel investors. What is the Pipeline Fellowship?

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Angel Invest Mentor Technical Review 276

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

To be a great entrepreneur you really do need talent. Think of Scooter as Justin’s angel investor. Consider Usher a hard-working early-stage VC. It’s that sort of mentorship experience that drives many of us hands-on VCs. As an entrepreneur getting traction, whose life are you going to change ?

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Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. That’s fine.

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Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. Generally speaking in venture capital financings the legal documents will specify that only “major investors” (a threshold set in the agreement – which can be $500,000 investor or more). There is a reason for this.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. But in Los Angeles, Santa Monica is akin to SoMa in San Francisco, Cambridge in the Boston area or Flatiron / Union Square in NYC. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too.

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Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. ” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.” LA By The Numbers.

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Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

If you’re an entrepreneur who would like to see this clause in more startups please ask your VC to include it in future term sheets and link to it from their home page. “We Many of us had experiences of asking entrepreneurs, “Why are none of our candidates women?” Ours is: upfront.com/inclusion. Well, did you ask them to???”

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Venture Capital Coach Ideas Startup 284

socalTECH

JUNE 29, 2017

Greycroft Ventures. Fund size: $250M growth fund Los Angeles Partners: Dana Settle, Mark Terbeek, Dylan Pearce, Paul Bricault, Jon Goldman. We've summarized the funds that have announced new funds in the last nine months or so, or that are in the midst of raising funds--a total of more than $1086 million in total funds. greycroft.com.

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Southern California Venture Capital Artificial Inteligence Capital 178

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs. 5 years ago.

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Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. But a couple of people replied with responses of such lack of comprehension that I thought it was worth expanding on for first-time entrepreneurs. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital.

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Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

One of the most common questions I hear from first-time entrepreneurs is, “How do I meet angels?” Think about it – who knows angels the best? Earn the right to ask if they wouldn’t mind an intro to an angel. It’s why I talk about building VC relationships early – Lines, Not Dots.

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Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

This sometimes frustrates entrepreneurs who just want to “get back to running the business.&# But if you understand it you’ll see that it is perfectly rational and it should also influence how you form relationships with investors. For this reason I tell entrepreneurs the following: Meet your potential investors early.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

I am thrilled to announce that we have added Hamet Watt as a Partner at Upfront Ventures. At every entrepreneur event I through between 2008-2012 I invite Hamet because he was a great mentor for entrepreneurs. Hamet started his career in Venture Capital working for the first post-apartheid VC fund in South Africa.

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Invest Venture Capital Startup News 340

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

We met at a private party hosted by his venture partner Mike Yavonditte and I outlined my concerns for the lack of precision of the algorithm. I had been hanging around Klout for a year and many of my friends had angel funded the company and were champions. 2:00 Why don’t you like the term VC? I was used to this debate.

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Cornerstone OnDemand Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup 303

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. This brings our combined funds under management to nearly $2 billion.

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Funding Venture Capital Santa Monica Invest 287

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

We talked about how business school historically hasn’t positioned entrepreneurs well for success. I wrote about that before in a post about “ whether MBAs are necessary for entrepreneurs. His class reading lists could be a primer for any entrepreneur, not just MBAs. Venture Capital.

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Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC? It may be the right answer for you.

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Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. I need to take some VC meetings. This article originally ran on TechCrunch. I’m in Seattle this week. Of course I have.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 26, 2024

Be careful about investor rights This important variation on money talks is an important consideration for entrepreneurs when seeking an investment from professionals such as VCs. So, the combination of bad news and VC or professional investors on the Board can be volatile for the founders or management.

Coach 156

Coach Venture Capital Statistics News 156

Berkonomics

MAY 15, 2014

After being an active angel investor for about fifteen years, I realized that many of the discussions I was involved in were virtually identical to ones I’d had many times before. Angel investing today is similar to where venture capital investing was in the mid-1980s. By Basil Peters. Email readers, continue here.]

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Venture Capital Examples Invest Conference 228

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Cincinnati, like many startup communities in the US over the past 5 years, has revitalized important regions in its urban core, created accelerators, built co-working facilities, pooled together angel capital, attracted VCs, involved educational institutions and solicited the help of important corporations in a more cohesive ecosystem.

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Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” My starting salary when I joined a VC fund as a partner at the age of 39 (and after 2 exits)? Why did I join as a partner in a VC fund on that salary? Angel Yourself.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

He knows every startup & VC in town.” When I first arrived in LA my good friend Matt Pillar (a long-term veteran of tech, media & VC) who had been in LA for some time told me, “in LA there’s none better than David.” I told David, “Look at the changes we’ve seen in the VC / funding market.

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Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors. The amounts from angels start as low as $25K, while minimum venture capital amounts usually start in the $2M range.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Startup Invest 125

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Now, I’m pretty on the record that being an entrepreneur is about being great at The Do. Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people?

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Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. Local Capital – I do believe that you’ll struggle to get a community started without some local capital.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Press San Diego 378

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2016

Kobie Fuller, Partner at Upfront Ventures We set out to build a venture capital firm that would not only be a beacon for the rapidly growing LA tech ecosystem but also one that would compete and collaborate nationally with the best firms in the country. Kobie scored highly on all fronts.

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Venture Capital Startup SaaS Social Media 260

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Greathouse: Your collective experiences have clearly made bootstrapping a viable option for you, more so than might be the case for a typical, younger entrepreneur who needs more direction, doesn’t have cash discipline, etc. But we made a deliberate choice at the beginning to not take capital and instead bootstrap the company.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115