Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

We did know about Snapchat as early as anybody. 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. Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

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. 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.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I’m not saying that lawyers were my screening process – simply that they knew about deals early on and they had voted with their time and pocketbooks so I knew I had a degree of filtering. Big difference.].

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2013

Last year I wrote a blog post on entrepreneurs with a chip on their shoulders. What I loved about the founding team from day 1 was that the founders were all people who tried to break into Hollywood and found the system closed. I could link to a bunch of blog posts that come across this way but prefer not to single anybody out.

Startup 371

Startup Press Blogging Entrepreneur 371

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. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company. But first you need to know about Reg D filings.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

TechCrunch interviewed me and asked me to talk about failure. So I spoke for 12 minutes about my own failures. As I’ve said before, all startups need to realize that every other company still has to see itself naked in the mirror in the morning. We all know that people who truly are crushing it rarely talk about it.

Startup 412

Startup Press Course Entrepreneur 412

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

When I did it was a little too close to home for a company to have me publish it. A while back I received a frantic phone call from the CEO of a company in which I invested. That’s how prepared we were and how serious we were about the issue. The company had their holding statement. Much time has passed.

Press 336

Press Blogging Journal News 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

I was thinking about this yesterday because my assistant Tasha posted a link on Facebook to Paul C. Brunson’s short and to-the-point blog post, “ It’s Called Networking, Not Using.” ” In it he talked about how he gets daily emails asking for intros to Oprah (he does a lot of work with her) and his advice.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I talk about failure a lot because I think it can be tremendously instructive and I think that success without failure often masks underlying lessons. I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. I wrote about how to build relationships with journalists in this post. In a startup this is a mistake. Their competitors took it seriously.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

It seems out of nowhere it has become the go to website for startup companies to launch their new products or businesses. Companies like Twitter were really cultivated by the TechCrunch enthusiast crowd long before celebs, comedians and politicians were on Twitter. Product Hunt. It reminds me a lot of how TechCrunch felt in 2006.

Product 150

Product Startup Press Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day. He had pitched me in the past and I told him that for a variety of reasons his company was too early stage for me but that I would happily keep track of their progress.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

The story on Uber has been written about ad nauseam, which is why I’ve been reluctant to weigh in. It’s not just about people like me who can (and do) turn up in nearly any city in the US and immediately book a ride. Powerful countries & companies act powerful because they can. Grievances – yes.

Press 418

Press Journal Startup Competition 418

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JUNE 29, 2014

Fred Wilson wrote a Tweetstorm and then did a blog post on the topic. I never asked Marc why he stopped blogging but I presume it is some combo of having started a venture capital firm (which you might guess takes a bit of time) and also allowing some air time for his then-less-well-known compadre. Engagement. They are synergistic.

Social Media 307

Social Media Blogging Media Startup 307

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

I have blogged about some of the downside consequences of the changes and the private information I have says the consequences are much worse than is reported in the press since few people publicly talk about. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Where Stealth is Good – There’s a lot of discussions on the web about whether startups should be stealthy before they launch or not. The truth is – there isn’t a “right&# answer so for your company.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. I remain a huge supporter and am very proud of our accomplishments and hugely optimistic about our future. At the time I pointed out: “If I had realized exits almost certainly it would be because I invested in a company that failed.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

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APRIL 17, 2013

” I think about this topic of perfection being the enemy of the good often. I hear about it in every first product release. And gearing yourself up for a lighting-in-a-bottle moment leads to bad company decisions. And the whole company feels it because you set expectations too high. So be prepared for the marathon.

Startup 371

Startup Press Product Blogging 371

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. Just not the kind you would initially read about on TechCrunch. And that’s what I love about her narrative.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

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MARCH 22, 2010

It got me thinking, which for me is always the sign of a good blog post. When you are selected you share the stage with 49 other companies (in the case of TechCrunch50. Most people pay attention to the first 5 companies. By company 22 it’s hard to remember what any of them did. I think Robert’s right. .

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

You Need to Find Your Mojo A Chip On Your Shoulder A few years ago I wrote a blog post on entrepreneurs with a chip on their shoulders. If my objective is raising capital and I’m struggling, what can I learn about those who do get funded and how can I improve my odds by changing me ?” I think it’s an important read.

Startup 150

Startup Press Entrepreneur Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2016

Yes, I want to scream at the media who gave Trump so much free press and created false equivalencies between his misdeed and misstatements and Clintons. It will try and draw conclusions about the changes that occurred with globalization, automation and technology. This isn’t my work blog or my company blog or a venture capital blog.

Blogging 267

Blogging Course Venture Capital Media 267

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DECEMBER 13, 2017

I find myself fighting indifference even on some company boards where misconduct has occurred, been identified and has been swept under the rug of being “a gray area.” The stories about Dustin Hoffman — so hard to read about how he tormented this young woman and made her life miserable. Men will make mistakes.

Startup 195

Startup Statistics Press Blogging 195

Berkonomics

MAY 23, 2019

If you are the largest company in your niche, you might want to define yourself by relative size, which connotes success and staying power. If you are the quirkiest of suppliers in your niche, you could create a campaign around your company’s counterculture. Sometimes it is best that you do it first. How do you define yourself?

Mentor 120

Mentor Statistics Press Blogging 120

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DECEMBER 7, 2011

A few weeks ago I was reading a blog post by MG Siegler that really struck a chord. I have written about this topic in regards in different ways before and if you haven’t read them I think they’re probably both worth a glance: 1. I recently was reviewing a press release for a company in which I’m an investor.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

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FEBRUARY 20, 2017

It’s easy to find yourself caught in the trap of just GSD (getting s**t done) and not stepping back to be thoughtful about whether you’d benefit from doing fewer things but doing those things truly well. It’s actually quite hard to lay out an annual company strategy that is articulate and underpinned by facts. Be clear on your mission.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

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OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. On August 26th I had an equally effusive intro from Ynon Kreiz, also a friend, trusted source and also the CEO of portfolio company Maker Studios. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere.

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

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FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? To put things into perspective, the company has 7.7 More on that later.

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Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

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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!

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

You know the old saying about trust … “It takes years to build and seconds to destroy.” I talk about this often with startups in which I’m involved. For example, I have had rigorous debates about the need to crack down on explicit online content – even in the face of lower growth.

Blogging 328

Blogging Content Press Startup 328

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. For an industry that takes 10% it means about $2.5

Organization 280

Organization Custom Customer Tips 280

Xconomy

JANUARY 11, 2017

On the campaign trail and as president-elect he has made occasional noises about drug pricing—giving the U.S. This morning, in his first press conference, Trump went further. He said drug companies are “getting away with murder” because of the prices they charge.

Company 40

Company Companies Pricing Press 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. But aside from choosing the time of day to focus on signal vs. noise, Brad’s post got me thinking about another question – what is signal and what is noise? They could chat about it with their peers or mentors.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

Yesterday I wrote a post about top-down versus bottom-up thinking. So they create a task list of all the marketing activities an organization can do: press releases, web site updates, customer case studies, blog posts, daily Tweets, Facebook fan page, attending conferences, etc. You have a marketing department with three people.

Startup 323

Startup Press Development Team Review SEM 323

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

I have often written about how lonely it can be to be a CEO and and have very few people with whom you can talk about difficult situations. I wonder sometimes if founders even know about the hours their lawyers or advisers put in on evenings, weekends, vacations. He called to try and put things right. And I agree entirely.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363