Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

This blog post originally appeared in serialized form here on TechCrunch. The Past (1985-2002). AOL was controlled by one company and the Internet was distributed. AOL controlled the services, taxed companies to access users and decided what was good or bad. ask microsoft, aol/time warner & google].

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 13, 2010

And there is relationship between debating and blogging. I started blogging in 2005 and then re-started blogging about a year ago. The most important experience I have in blogging is the debate it encourages. So it goes with blogging. I’d rather have smaller readership and better ideas.

Blogging 250

Blogging Social Media Writing Startup 250

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2017

Based on my own experience as a startup investor, and feedback from like-minded friends, we all get pitches for at least ten startup ideas for every one new business plan. New business founders need to remember that investors fund business implementations, not ideas. Formalize a company entity, website, and social media presence.

Ideas 74

Ideas Social Media Startup Custom 74

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I always try hard to make this blog a place where you can learn lessons rather than an advertisement for portfolio companies. He quit the MRF and quietly amassed nearly $100,000 in angel investment to build a company. The Deal – I instantly loved the idea for the application, the market and Dustin’s vision.

Invest 303

Invest Company Companies Web 2.0 303

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

Such ideas require little-to-no capital, usually last for a relatively short duration and are of nominal size. Note that I am not purporting that these are particularly amazing or unique ideas. I was once on the Board of such a company. Investors invest in people, not ideas. From Small to Tall. Track Record.

Ideas 153

Ideas Startup Pricing Entrepreneur 153

Tech.Co

JULY 29, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has forced many companies to embrace working from home. The company is the first technology company to publicly commit to keeping its remote working policies in place into next year, in an attempt to give employees more clarity on how long they would be working from home.

Google 157

Google Blogging Journal News 157

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly that is an “in-stream advertising&# company currently focused on monetizing Twitter. Traditional media companies published their stories on the web. Then came blogs. We have it to filter blog comments. was the “static&# web.

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. The common reason given is that this prevents any competitor from stealing their idea and beating them to market. Get competitors to surface early.

Marketing 105

Marketing Startup Search Engine Optimization Ideas 105

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 19, 2019

Popular messaging app Kik is, indeed, “here to stay” following an acquisition by the Los Angeles-based multimedia holding company, MediaLab. It echoes the same message from Kik’s chief executive Tim Livingston last week when he rebuffed earlier reports that the company would shut down amid an ongoing battle with the U.S.

Social Network 153

Social Network Los Angeles Social Media Blogging 153

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

“We strive to invest in companies that are consciously working to create a diverse leadership team?—?one While we would never impose hiring decisions, we aim to reduce the potential impact of unconscious bias for key C-Level and senior roles within a Company. The idea came from a full-day session we held last year at Upfront.

Venture Capital 284

Venture Capital Coach Ideas Startup 284

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2020

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. The common reason given is that this prevents any competitor from stealing their idea and beating them to market. Get competitors to surface early.

Search Engine Optimization 174

Search Engine Optimization Ideas Startup Custom 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2023

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Continue to learn and grow. Build a team.

Social Media 94

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 94

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2020

In the past two weeks we have entered perhaps to most surreal experience in any of our lives. In our business lives we’re having to deal with decisions that could have lasting impacts on our companies without any compass to guide us in the direction we’re heading . What do we eat? Where do we shop? What is safe? are they being safe?

Demand 215

Demand Guide Custom Customer 215

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2020

Although most people believe that being a successful entrepreneur is all about having the right idea, I’m convinced from my years of experience as a startup advisor and investor that’s it’s more about you as a person. People need to see you as an “influencer,” who is able to sell your new ideas, as well as communicate the future.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Examples Blogging Custom 129

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2020

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Continue to learn and grow. Build a team.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 126

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

This is a theme that comes up in one the most influential business books for me of the past decade, The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb where he talks about the role that luck plays in business success. But they weren’t there in 2009 when you were up late nights shitting yourself whether you really were smart for pursuing this idea.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2021

In the past, if your startup had a website presence, the company was credible by definition. Yet most startups I know experience the same shock of disappointment when they first open up their website to offer their “million dollar idea” product, and nobody comes. Until the company name is a famous brand, you are the brand.

Web 117

Web Search Engine Optimization eBook Advertising 117

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. In colleges.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

Jason Nazar

MARCH 22, 2011

I recently hosted a panel at the Twiistup Conference about LA tech companies. I have some pretty specific thoughts on the differences between companies in the two cities, as I wrote about in my previous post A Tale of Two Tech Cities. Challenge #1 – Tech Companies are Not Typically Started by Technologists.

Company 111

Company Companies Startup Twiistup 111

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2016

I’ve been online for nearly 30 years (yes, there was CompuServe and Prodigy before the www), blogging for 10 and using social media tools since the earliest days. As somebody who invested his time heavily in writing and wanting to share his thoughts through a blog I learned that I had to Tweet a post 3 times to get it read: 5am, 8am and 10pm.

Social Media 240

Social Media Snapchat Media Blogging 240

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

Even when I’m not the one being sued I find myself being dragged into deposition after deposition and my blog (along with all my emails) are being served as evidence. I angel funded a company 5 years ago. I funded a company where the CEO stepped down. They tried to claim that the company was infringing.

Startup 150

Startup IP Writing Ideas 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. Tracy built her company, Recycled Media , out of necessity. She drove her company to profitability before paying herself a modest salary. The idea came from having been recently married herself and seeing how expensive it can be to buy a new wedding dress.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. What if I believed my company was acting illegally or my boss was embezzling money and I wanted to find a group to ask what to do? But more to the point.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. One wants to build a company that will be around in 10 years – financial outcome be damned! Those are the easy cases.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Steve Gilison worked as a market researcher and product manager at a startup where my company, TechEmpower , did the software / web development. I also blog at [link] and you can find me on twitter: @gilbola. Where are some interesting areas or companies in LA that you think are doing good things? What are you working on now?

Los Angeles 179

Los Angeles Product Angel Startup 179

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Jonathan Strauss took this issue head on in a blog post that I believe every startup founder should read on “ Replacing Oneself as CEO.”

Startup 303

Startup Technical Review Product Blogging 303

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

The world has changed much since I started my first company in 1999. Tim encouraged us to set up a blog and start talking openly about what we were doing as a company and inviting comments. This was 2006 and we were now working on our second company. My second company, Koral, was designed to be as simple as possible.

Organization 280

Organization Custom Customer Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

But trust me when I say that my observations across many startups (and other companies, frankly) is that not enough time goes into thinking. I’ve talked in the past about how I manage my own creative process. I can feel the ideas needing to come out and I know if I get distracted I will lose them. go on, click it ).

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

I had been hanging around Klout for a year and many of my friends had angel funded the company and were champions. He was an early investor in Klout and was the most compelling voice I had heard on why the company would become hugely relevant. Don’t be surprised if you see me bagsie that idea for GRP Partners.

Cornerstone OnDemand 303

Cornerstone OnDemand Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup 303

Eric Greenspan

APRIL 11, 2019

TED happened because the need to share great ideas and stories about achievement, wonder, and change, happened. Sharing those ideas was the goal, but the achievements came first” It starts with the idea, or the accomplishment, whether it’s the NHL or TED. Mine is writing this blog post, indirectly.

Writing 179

Writing Ideas Startup Coach 179

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Let’s say you have built a SaaS company where a large part of the early revenue comes from a few big customers or a large part of the revenue is services based vs. software based. The investor is a customer and they have money to spend but only for a limited number of companies. Let me give you an example.

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. Any longtime readers of this blog will know that I often try to simplify complex ideas into a simple parable that is easier to remember to set the tone of one’s behaviors.

Startup 317

Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

Visualization is so important to help yourself & others conceptualize ideas. It’s why I always work hard to find images for my blog posts & why all of my keynote presentations are visual rather than bullet points with words. This applies equally to VCs, startups & big company executives.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2021

Socially distant hiking in Sedona (we drove there) I recently wrote about my weight-loss journey over the past 18 months where I lost 65 pounds without a fad diet and returned to my college weight. It might work for you or at least you can use some of my ideas to find ones that work better for you. only to fall short. all amazing.

Coach 538

Coach Startup Guide Journal 538

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

Nobody really knows whether or not the idea is yet going to be big, so I believe in not over capitalizing too early. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC. If you’re creating truly innovative products, you often have no idea whether the proverbial dog will eat the dog food.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

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.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

My colleague at the time James Bailey was bugging me to take a meeting when it was an unknown company because he had younger family members and friends obsessed with Snapchat who were in university at the time. To be fair to TigerText they build a company focused on the healthcare industry and HIPAA compliance. Mostly kidding.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214