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.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. In particular I tried to do most of the “entrepreneur advice on VC” up front so that if you don’t want to watch our views on the deals you don’t have to. They sponsor TWiVC.

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SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. 10 Blogging Tips. 10 Blogging Tips.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She hasn’t raised any venture capital. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. So Tracy began keeping a blog about … (what else?) She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. That may soon change.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. 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.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write and 9 Tips To Get Started - OnStartups , September 27, 2010 "The best part of blogging is the people you will meet"- Hugh MacLeod repeating wisdom from Loic Lemeur to me at the Big Pink at 2 am in South Beach after the Future of Web Apps 2008. I got rejected from every single one. Kanye West.

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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. SlideShare: VC signaling in seed rounds.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2019

Upfront immediately wrote a check to back this vision and we later teamed up with their former colleague from Twitter turned VC, Rishi Garg of Mayfield and we’ve stayed quiet on what we were up to. Take a photo and make images rounded as the photo at the bottom of this blog post is? you can sign up if you want to try the service.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

VC Pitch Decks. The great thing about the VC pitch deck is that you can have 30 slides. If a VC only read your deck that would be fine but we’re no different than recruiters – we get more paperwork than we can process. If you can pick up a product and use it with no manual it is well designed.

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Slides Software Review Blogging Venture Capital 346

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. He and I once took different sides of an debate about whether “VC signaling&# in early-stage deals is a serious problem or not. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should.

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Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about? Gogii spent way more effort marketing to what I call “The USA Today market&# rather than the tech blog market. But I never gave up.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures. They know that there some implicit legitimacy (rightly or wrongly) to your story since a VC just wrote you a $10 million check. ” Why?

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years. I’ve been told so. Sounds obvious.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. In reality, crowdfunding has become a major startup funding vehicle, expected to reach $3.62

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From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a fourteen-year veteran of the venture industry I have often heard the phrase, “value added investors”, which is usually touted by certain VC’s as their biggest differentiating quality. Amplify’s close mentoring is by design. And they do all this in the span of four intense months. Amplify Mentor Panel in full swing.

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Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Xconomy

MARCH 20, 2018

Mythic , which last year unveiled its novel computer chip designed for artificial intelligence, announced today that it has raised $40 million in a Series B fundraising round led by the venture capital arm of Japanese telecom and tech giant SoftBank.

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Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review 77

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. They are venture bankers not investment bankers.

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Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , June 18, 2010 The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. " 8 Questions to Ask When Interviewing at a Startup - Instigator Blog , June 18, 2010 Job interviews are meant to be conversations.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid. Creative – we’re a place of writers, directors, producers, musicians, costume designers, make-up artists, graphic artists, 3D modelers. They designed the next gen UI for the film The Minority Report. Think about venture capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

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. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. So I hope that offers you insights into how companies move through the VC system.

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Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

They have a related post: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs , but I think that looking at my Startup Metrics post provides a bit broader set of metrics to consider. A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , February 18, 2010 Great post from Fred Wilson that questions a common metric – unique visitors.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

I’m generally not a believer in too much PR until you have a product built or at least well designed. This is somewhat changing in the world of crowd funding where people actually raise money so that they can build products but at a minimum your product design ought to be complete and ready to execute. Just don’t spam people.

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Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

I was 23 and had been programming computers, designing computer networks and selling software for 10 years. I talked with a few VCs and batted around the idea of becoming a VC. No prizes for guessing how my VC chats went. But you don’t really have VC experience.” ” or. ” or. ” No s**t.

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Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. You need a polished, tested concept, not just an idea.

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Changes in the Software World & in Venture Capital. But notably you had the following changes: Horizontally scalable computing & storage systems, which meant you required less capital up front for hardware. I’ve blogged about this before and provide a lot more details in these posts: 1. Venture Capital.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2011

Mark Suster , the highly visible venture capitalist blogger at GRP Partners, has invested in UK-based TreeHouse , an online, video-focused site for helping users learn web design and development. Suster, in announcing the deal on his blog, did not say if his firm, GRP Partners, participated in the round. READ MORE>>.

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GRP Partners Invest Web Design Blogging 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures. Fundamentally the system feels broken.

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Design Ideas Startup Writing 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Chris Sacca fly by that prompted me to want to write a blog post helping entrepreneurs understand why they should push back against VCs asking for “super pro-rata” rights. I’ll explain what they are and why you should avoid them if you can. A primer on “pro-rata” rights.

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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. VC Pitches. Having been an entrepreneur for near-on a decade and having pitched in 100 VC meetings I hated getting no feedback. Sure, it would have been ONE HELL OF A LOT EASIER to say, “well done! I face this issue several times a week.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

How To Land a Job at Google (or elsewhere) - FairSoftware's Blog , November 9, 2010 It’s been 11 years now that the obvious hit me: the best way to land a job is to do the job , not talk about it. I'm Tired of Creating Your Content - Babbling VC , November 12, 2010 Jeff triggered this post in regards to his Check-in Fatigue on Foursquare.

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Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Xconomy

JULY 26, 2016

Adding to the confusion, the most-recent MoneyTree Report on San Diego venture capital activity shows that Ostendo raised almost $10 million in VC funding during the second quarter. It’s unclear, though, if the $41.8 million disclosed in a July 14 filing includes $27.3M

Technology 40

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Xconomy

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Companies sometimes raise big venture capital rounds to invest in equipment, people, and other tools for growth. For Ginkgo Bioworks, its latest venture funding round is about all of the above, says CEO and co-founder Jason Kelly. Other times they do it to provide the business a cash cushion.

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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. I first discovered him or her as a commenter on Fred Wilson’s blog. There are many things I am – but different than what I say on this blog is not one of them!

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Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

Xconomy

AUGUST 10, 2016

It’s not that often in a VC career you get to work with teams you’re sure will be featured in documentaries about how major industries changed,” wrote Matt Ocko of Data Collective Venture Capital , which joined DFJ in Nervana’s initial venture funding. “We

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

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Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Xconomy

DECEMBER 18, 2018

The Bristol, UK-based startup, founded in 2016, has now secured a total of more than $300 million in financing from venture capital firms and other investors including Microsoft and the corporate venture arms of BMW and Dell Technologies. One of the leading contenders in the A.I.

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