SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 22, 2019

Thursday, March 28, 2019 -- Interested in meeting and pitching to early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Southern California? FundingPost has hosted 400 sold-out venture events in 22 cities over the past 17 years. Register for the FundingPost event on Thursday, March 28th, 2019. See [link] (more)

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Venture Capital Angel Conference 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

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. In fact, far better if you haven’t raised venture capital.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

Tuesday, June 11, 2019 -- San Diego FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. At this San Diego Event, we will be showcasing some of the newest early-stage venture funds and angel groups in the San Diego area! We're doing it again! See [link] (more)

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 7, 2019

Thursday, June 13, 2019 -- Orange County FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. At this OC Event, we will be showcasing some of the newest early-stage venture funds and angel groups in the San Diego area! We're doing it again!

Orange County 100

Orange County Venture Capital Angel Tech Coast Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. This post is for those who want to raise angel money.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. The first step toward a business with any idea is to write it down, and build a business plan around it. Funding or rollout stage.

Startup 122

Startup Funding Organization Incubator 122

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 15, 2012

One the most frequent questions asked of me by entrepreneurs is, "How can I become a Venture Capitalist?" The inquiry is common because being a VC is (to an entrepreneur, at least) a sexy job. I define a "VC" as, "a professional investor who deploys third-party funds into relatively early-stage companies."

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest RSS 242

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Tuesday, October 9, 2018 -- FundingPost Los Angeles VCs, Angels, Crypto and ICOs Event. ICOs raised a global record 6.7 billion dollars in 2018 alone according to ICOdata.com. See [link] (more)

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Angel Venture Capital Writing 100

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. Angels have been prolific for years now and they, too, rely on downstream money to cover their bets. If an accelerator is writing you they’re also writing 25 other VCs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

TechCrunch LA

JULY 21, 2020

When Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman first met Natalie Portman a few years ago to talk about ways their non-profit organizations All Raise and Time’s Up could collaborate, she never realized they’d eventually be partners on a sports franchise. “We’re venture capitalists. Image Credits: Angel City.

Writing 171

Writing Los Angeles Equity Startup 171

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. Heck, stick around and watch me discuss the seed funding debate that is going on right now and what is happening in the VC industry overall. Don’t.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2013

Despite the increase in startup activity in Southern California, local venture capital funds are still few and far between, and a large chunk of the funding here is still from Sand Hill Road. The firm just announced that new fund, and a new name, Upfront Ventures (www.upfront.com).

Funding 196

Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Social Media 196

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

TechCrunch LA

JULY 2, 2020

When it comes to venture capital, Los Angeles is a city on the rise. In the past year, it’s seen one of the most profitable venture-backed exits of any tech ecosystem (with the $4 billion sale of Honey to PayPal) and investors are minting billion-dollar companies in the region at a torrid pace.

Los Angeles 277

Los Angeles Venture Capital Capital Invest 277

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. I just cover the companies that were funded that week. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. Others I have not.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

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. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. This experience made me want to dig into my archives, re-write & publish this piece. Not so in venture capital. Don’t let that be you.

Venture Capital 298

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Help 298

Xconomy

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Venture capital activity is gradually easing from last year’s peak, according to a new quarterly report put together by Seattle-based PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. VC firms invested $14.99 PitchBook data also shows a nearly 29 percent decline in year-over-year funding, from the $21.1

Venture Capital 86

Venture Capital Activity Report Funding 86

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? It’s very simple.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

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. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” ” Yup.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

This morning, Moonshots Capital (www.moonshotscapital.com), led by Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings , announced its first formal fund, a $19M seed stage fund. Kelly Perdew: I think you know that, since 2004, I have been an angel in LA. I'm in Los Angeles, and Craig is in Austin. Tell us about this new announcement?

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2020

The only way an entrepreneur can really dodge this issue is to totally fund the startup with personal funds (bootstrapping). Then you don’t have to worry about the fact that most angel investors and venture capitalists won’t take a bet on you if none of your friends and family have given you a vote of confidence with money.

Funding 123

Funding Startup Equity Venture Capital 123

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). But while I prefer a certain naive optimism in founders I can’t see the logic that this extends to angel investors. Either downside scenario requires angel deals to be funded further.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I funded them 8 weeks later. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. The abundance of late-stage capital is good for us all. My first ever investment as a VC was Invoca. Entrada Ventures? —?that

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste. 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].

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

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).

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. Does he blog about venture capital and try to advise entrepreneurs?

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Too Techie - Tone down emphasis on the technology underlying your venture; an interested investor will perform tech diligence at the appropriate time. No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source. A restaurant is a generally appropriate for a bank, but not an Angel investor. Capitalization.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

TechCrunch LA

JULY 14, 2021

The startup’s ambitions aren’t cheap, FlyMachine tells TechCrunch it has raised $21 million in investor funding to bankroll its plans. The funding has been led by Greycroft Partners and SignalFire, with additional participation from Primary Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.

Platform 310

Platform Los Angeles Startup Venture Capital 310

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners).

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290