Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. When I meet other VCs I’m constantly asking how they decide which investments to make, when to pass, when to do follow-on rounds, when to sell a company vs. when to go long, etc. On marketing I talk about “ Arming & Aiming ” 4.

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 7, 2021

I have to point out that the rest of the world looks for you online before visiting your business, finds talk about you on Yelp and social media sites, and what they see can make or break your business. You can remove items from your article or blog, but people do notice, and may escalate their concerns on another forum.

Social Media 144

Social Media Media Summary Satisfaction 144

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. He’s thoughtful about markets, investors, products and is always very well reasoned in his arguments. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

Founders don’t often think about “primary&# stock vs, “fully diluted&# stock in terms of voting rights. Liquidation preferences never say things like “participating preferred&# although we all talk about it. It’s no surprise that I got a bit fawked on my first company. I never did.

Venture Capital 304

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Guide Blogging 304

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2015

Anybody who reads the blog regularly will know that I’m long video. It’s why I so often talk about the Power of the Narrative. Think of the best tech company at marketing that you know. And think about how brilliant Apple is at conveying emotion and product features through video. Equals emotion.

Startup 150

Startup Summary Blogging Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

If you haven’t already followed me on Twitter, that’s the fastest way to get blog updates. In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. This post is about the “P” or pain. ” It’s a reason a company would buy. Click here.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My I decided well if I am going to be investing in this stuff at least I need to understand what it’s like to have a blog, to be generating content, and it was quite interesting at the very, very beginning.“.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2019

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. As with real estate, it’s still about location, location, location. Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 121

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Summary 121

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Netflix announced the changes to its company via a blog post. A blog post! You don’t handle major announcements via a blog post and no touch points. Not a freakin’ blog post. They thought about it for 5 minutes. Probably the 5 minutes before they wrote their blog post. What is my evidence?

Netflix 287

Netflix Customer Custom Pricing 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I spoke at Stanford last year about starting a tech company. Here is a quick summary of my POV: When you start a company a 50/50 partnership seems obvious. We get cast together with a team of people we barely know and if we win we gleefully announce we’re going to do a company together. Hire your co-founder.

Startup 393

Startup Equity Funding Summary 393

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. In the Early Days.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer development, etc. I’m going to save that for a future blog post. I’m going to save that for a future blog post.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. an investment in your company. Today I want to talk about the process and how to allocate your time. these are simply guidelines.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

about their marathon 4-hour sessions to get to zero inbox or somebody else claiming email bankruptcy ( definition if you don’t know it already ). Here’s the thing: I actually do care about responding to people. You’re writing a freaking blog post! I spend tons of time each day on portfolio company issues.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

Investor in Twitter, Foursquare, DISQUS, and (by Naval’s own admission) “a lot of other companies you have never heard of”. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. When great companies really hit, all the investors want in and there isn’t enough room. Former Founder Epinions. That is the great constant.”.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

Somebody asked the question, “What do you think about the term ‘Silicon Beach?” Brad wrote up his answer here – you should read it because it’s very instructive for how I believe communities ought to think about naming conventions. In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

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 wrote the summary notes in this blog post. That notes only told part of the story.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I intro’d him to the COO of a growing tech company about maybe working together. I get emails all the time from people asking me on a first date and saying, “how about if I buy you dinner.” And given that I travel enough and have dinners with portfolio companies, etc. Talk about more than just biz.

Venture Capital 397

Venture Capital Startup Email Networking 397

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. I explain in the video what happened in my first company (e.g. A: It’s not best.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. One example is that they introduced a program where their founders can pool together shares from their company and exchange them for a small portfolio of other First Round Capital companies. I'm a huge fan of this innovation. and Half.com.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

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

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2010

But I do like to try and make time for some and I’ll admit I’m a bit random about it. But many well intentioned entrepreneurs are sloppy about how they ask so I’d like to give you some guidelines to help. Ask me something very narrow that I can answer without typing a whole blog post length response.

Help 332

Help Email Mentor Blogging 332

InfoChachkie

JUNE 16, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Arnie’s responses. When a platform evolves, at some point the company that built the platform starts to slow down. If you follow the tech blogs, that’s a very vocal community, but it is a tiny community. The great thing about Twitter is you can make it your own.

Social Media 252

Social Media Platform Media Networking 252

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

These courses all proved to be serious influences on turning the dream of starting their own company into a reality. On the first day of class, Professor Greathouse told his students, “Take a look around the class, these are the people you will most likely start a company with,” and boy was he right.

Class 231

Class Startup Santa Barbara RSS 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2015

I don’t know Ezra yet but since he’s taking the time to blog (which I hugesly respect) and share thoughts I thought I’d take him up on his challenge and also spill the beans on my secrets. On blogging I blog because I love it. I don’t worry about typos. My other secret on blogging?

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Email Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Seth Levine of Foundry Group addresses this important topic this morning on his blog with a post, “ Has Convertible Debt Won ?&# I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. “Convertible notes have won.

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team. Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. So I believe that every great technology startup has the technology visionary inside the company.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

As I’ve highlighted I believe we’re in a unique period similar to 2005-08 where the biggest tech firms of Silicon Valley (and some media companies) are scooping up small software companies as “talent acquisitions&# versus accretive revenue / profit generators. Easier to start companies, yes. I doubt it.

Invest 283

Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2018

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. As with real estate, it’s still about location, location, location. Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 72

Outsource Development Outsource Summary Training 72

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 30, 2011

So I’ve spent the last few years checking out companies that are trying to solve for this problem. One company that I previously wrote about trying to change this industry is, Solve Media , (I am not an investor) has created an interesting ad unit designed to drive up brand “engagement&# and recall. Oh, sacred cow.

Advertising 352

Advertising Media Social Media Screening 352

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I still plan to publish on this blog occasionally, as well as more frequently on my blogs at Forbes , Huffington Post , and others. Blogging is a learning process as well as a sharing one. I learn something new every day in blogging. Remember, it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Blogging Social Media 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2015

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. As with real estate, it’s still about location, location, location. Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 104

Outsource Development Outsource Startup Summary 104

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?) Short summary of my posts: 1. If you don’t understand the concept of “signaling&# please read the blog post I wrote on Understanding VC signaling.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

By now you will likely have read Andy Dunn’s scathing post about Venture Capitalists in which he decries the industry’s masses. After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. But VC is like congress.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Anyone who reads this blog frequently will know that I am a big believer in low-cost video content and specifically the power of YouTube as a content creation & distribution platform. If you want to understand my thesis behind Maker you can read this article that outlines the trend , but in summary: People watch 5.3

Media 320

Media CTO Coach CTO Hire Los Angeles 320

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ growth hacking ” and why I thought it was wrong that people were hating on the term unnecessarily. Link has a summary of his argument plus a great video). It’s worth a quick read. My argument is pretty simple. Everything we were taught pre-Internet is still relevant.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379