socalTECH

APRIL 18, 2012

Earlier this week, Brad Feld, a venture capitalist who is well known for his work on TechStars, investments, and for his frequent blogging and speaking engagements, commented on the Los Angeles area using the term Silicon Beach. In his blog he says, "I responded that I thought it was stupid. My views are pretty well known.

GRP Partners 147

GRP Partners Startup Blogging Los Angeles 147

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

Brunson’s short and to-the-point blog post, “ It’s Called Networking, Not Using.” It’s why I wrote the blog post on 50 Coffee Meetings. Early in his days when he was raising capital for DocStoc he came to see me a lot. When I joined GRP Partners in 2007 I was offered a role as a General Partner.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too. Our portfolio companies value us as sparring partners. What’s up with that?

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this. People often ask me why I started blogging.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. Background: GRP Partners is a Los Angeles based Venture Capital firm with additional operations in London and Paris.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

I wrote a blog post on how to work with lawyers at a startup nearly two-and-a-half years ago. This was 2005 when I had no exits under my belt, no blogs … nobody was looking. It was very widely read. If you don’t have much experience in working with law firms at a startup it’s a good primer. Startup-focused.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Many (Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, True Ventures, GRP Partners, Mike Hirshland at Polaris Ventures) do it the right way – we treat it as a normal investment and we don’t have a “options&# strategy with our investment. and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). Ask their strategy.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. I’m going to save that for a future blog post. I’ve been to similar events with First Round Capital and True Ventures. My action item – I will soon announce the GRP Partners CEO Summit.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. I had one of the biggest mental breakthroughs about what I want to do differently at GRP Partners in 2013. How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital? The number of times I’ve had people come to me and say they want to blog more.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. You could just outspend. Tesla is not. It's a great talk.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

I started working with David when I was an entrepreneur and he was an associate with a VC firmed called … wait for it … GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures)! David is also frequently an inspiration for a story on my blog. I liked David so much I eventually persuaded him to join BuildOnline as our CFO.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. In a world of The Funded, VentureHacks and entrepreneur blogs this kind of informations spreads like wildfire.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

The San Francisco events will be run by Chris Sacca (of Lowercase Capital ) and Kevin Rose of Digg. My personal favorite and best fit for GRP Partners was Thumbtack. It’s always great to meet somebody in person that you’ve interacted with on blogs and on Twitter.

Angel 254

Angel Technical Review Software Review Platform 254

SoCal Delicious

AUGUST 23, 2010

Southern California companies are second to only Silicon Valley in raising venture capital , there are three major universities to recruit talent – UCLA, Caltech, and USC – and a thriving startup community to mingle with. He blogs here and tweets here. Not to mention the great weather, beaches, and beautiful people.

Guide 42

Guide Startup Mahalo GRP Partners 42

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Venture Capital: Upfront Ventures. Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. Fun Fact: One of the most prominent figures from their firm, Mark Suster t, runs a blog startups follow religiously. Get to know them now before they become household names.

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Social Media Venice 111

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

On my blog I’ve been hesitant to take the topic head on. But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? In it she observes that only 3% of the comments on this blog are from women.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

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. Being so open, when entrepreneurs think about capital, we want to be top of mind. Tell us about the new fund? Mark Suster: It''s a $200M fund.

Funding 196

Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Social Media 196

SoCal Delicious

MARCH 1, 2010

Mark Suster, a partner at GRP Partners in Los Angeles, spoke with Fastcompany.com about what makes L.A.s Sand Hill Road has so many venture capital firms and they are so large, and they have been around for so long and they are very closely coupled and tied with Stanford [University]. startup scene so hot.

Los Angeles 50

Los Angeles Company Companies Angel 50

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

When you think about the success that is Silicon Valley, the unfair advantage is not just the huge amounts of available venture capital. A key deal not only helps you raise venture capital but it can help attract employees, garner press attention, help with product focus & importantly drive customer adoption and/or revenue.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

In 2006, Steven Dietz, a partner at my firm, GRP Partners, had given me $500,000 in a seed in convertible debt when I started my second company, Koral. GRP Partners had also funded my first company. I’d like to get involved with capital efficient companies early in their lifecycle. So what is my thesis?

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur GRP Partners Venture Capital Invest 321

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

Including ff Venture Capital’s unique approach to finding deals and the services they provide to their startups. And ff Venture Capital cleverly has created a blog where their portofolio companies contribute. Don’t be surprised if you see me bagsie that idea for GRP Partners. 500px is in Toronto.

Cornerstone OnDemand 303

Cornerstone OnDemand Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup 303