Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. He started the call by telling me he had exciting news. Entrepreneurs get so used to friends and family congratulating them on their press coverage that they forget sometimes that this isn’t real.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. I’m sure you’ve heard the meme that “email is dead” – if fact if you Google it you’ll find a long list of articles that will mislead you.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

You can watch/listen to how John and Kyle turned their email newsletter into an international bestseller in the following 9-minute excerpt from John''s recent talk at UC Santa Barbara. Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

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. If I check Twitter it’s usually because I’m waiting for a meeting to start and I never write posts during the day. They could start to form an opinion. I enjoy that. Are these signal or noise? .&#

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

So what are Rob’s secret hacks that he didn’t spill in his blog post? . Email updates frequently. And as Rob points out – if you email members with short updates more frequently they are more up to speed when you do need them to weigh in. Make your emails actionable. Rob is an over communicator.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. 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. How founders get screwed on convertible notes. You betcha.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

I see it on email even more. 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. It’s why I wrote the blog post on 50 Coffee Meetings.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

On August 23rd, 2013 I had an email intro from my good friend and trusted source Jeff Berman who only sends me stuff when it is somebody he respects (ie a strong filter vs. those who send casual intros). Andrew & Petri posed a question to me, “If Walt Disney were starting his company today, what kind of company would he build?”

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

Berkonomics

MAY 23, 2019

Email readers, continue here…] One great way to define your story is with a word picture in which you associate yourself with a person or company that is recognized in a positive way and helps you tell your story more easily. (See “Manage Your Mantra” two weeks earlier in this blog.) How do you define yourself?

Mentor 120

Mentor Statistics Press Blogging 120

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 16, 2013

Article after article points out that Los Angeles is on its way to becoming one of the most robust startup communities in the United States. It is meant to bring everyone together so that they can learn, network and leave with the sense that they now belong to a family of entrepreneurs, all trying to make LA a startup hub.

Rustic Canyon 74

Rustic Canyon Startup Los Angeles Class 74

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. In my post “ Measure twice, cut once ” I’ve outlined how to plan before you start raising. Should You Start with Your “Safety Schools?”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. The world has changed much since I started my first company in 1999. Tim started to change our processes. Tim encouraged us to set up a blog and start talking openly about what we were doing as a company and inviting comments.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 1, 2012

It might seem like a stretch to draw a connection between an Olympic swimmer and life at a startup, but bear with me. Being the most successful Olympic athlete in history (and arguably the most successful single athlete) requires a freakish amount of natural talent, backed up by consistent hard work. Sounds like a startup, right?

Startup 184

Startup RSS SaaS Press 184

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Southern California has had its share of new startup accelerators launch in the last few months, however, few people here have actually experienced an accelerator firsthand. Alex Benzer: I'm actually building two startups. SocialEngine is four years old, and that's the startup we applied to TechStars with.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

He’s done several startups and is a board member of the Technology Council of Southern California (which is where I met him originally). A typical day starts with email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Yammer checks/updates. A typical day starts with email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Yammer checks/updates.

Acquisition 170

Acquisition Customer Custom Ideas 170

socalTECH

MAY 24, 2011

Southern California--and particularly, Los Angeles--has always been a center of the music business, which makes it unsurprising that there are many, music-focused startups which end up starting here. I then was recruited into a Silicon Valley startup, backed by Kleiner Perkins. Vic Caretti: It's rather diverse.

Social Media 241

Social Media Startup Sites Advertising 241

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

A year ago I invested, along with Dana Settle at Greycroft Partners , in a startup company called Maker Studios. And anybody who follows this blog knows that I believe television disruption has already begun and it is more likely to resemble Internet content than streaming long-form content to our living rooms. Sound familiar?

Carson 291

Carson Content Los Angeles Press 291

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

Serial entrepreneur, venture investor and startup accelerator pioneer Brad Feld has notoriously mocked traditional marketing throughout his career. For a long time, I had a line which was, ‘Whenever I hear the word marketing, it makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.’”. We have never done a press release.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2011

I always start my annual trip on my own with a bit of an East Coast tour to do business meetings with other investors and startups and meet my family at BWI on a Saturday. This year was no exception so leading up to my vacation I spent time meeting people in Philadelphia. My son is addicted to Mario Bros. So we postponed.

Startup 299

Startup Training Course Email 299

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2017

Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Now, even the earliest stage startup can rise to visibility or be forever lost by their first media spotlight, so it behooves us all to know the rules early. Handling different media formats. Marty Zwilling.

Media 55

Media Social Media Startup Training 55

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 12, 2009

This past week has had an interesting confluence of events that's led me to conclude that I want to start doing a lot of visible networking among the tech / web crowd here in Los Angeles. I really enjoy his blog and I can't wait to mix it up with him some more on the value of Hollywood money / connections.

Networking 150

Networking Blogging Social Media VentureNet 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Every so often I find myself caught up in a really hectic 3-4 week schedule where it seems like I float endlessly betweens meetings. I get sucked up in “Do” mode. Startups Are for Doers. But getting caught up in the doing can often leave you directionless. Do you find yourself too much in email mode?

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

The first-ever Silicon Beach Fest attracted more than 2,000 attendees from LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, New York, Toronto, and London to celebrate LA startups and entertainment with panels, parties, pitch fests, hackathon, and beach games: volleyball, basketball and surfing lessons in Santa Monica and Venice on June 21-23, 2012.

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

Jason Nazar

AUGUST 15, 2013

“If You Build It…They Will Come”, may work for historical baseball ghosts, but it’s not a strategy you can rely on when starting an internet company.Driving traffic to your website is a formula that can be reverse engineered. Other than paying for traffic with advertising, there are only so many ways to get people to show up at your door.

Web 61

Web Social Media Content Sites 61

socalTECH

DECEMBER 6, 2011

I remember one day, looking up, and everyone was on their phone. They were talking on their phone, checking Facebook or their email. I'm not the guy to just walk up and talk to someone, saying hey--I'm Josh, I'm into videogames and scotch--so I thought, there must be another way, from a technology standpoint, to solve that problem.

Electronic Arts 236

Electronic Arts Startup Mobile West Los Angeles 236

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. Mostly I’m Blogging for the Hell of It, Not Blogging to Stay Relevant.

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Email Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2015

I wanted to spend the rest of the blog post telling you why we decided to fund the company, how we settled on the final product design and our unique way of launching the app. As a starting point, when we create videos (concerts, weddings, tech events, sports, kids) they often stay stranded on our devices and at best make it to iCloud.

Invest 150

Invest Tool Product Startup 150

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Does the world really need more servers in more datacenters gobbling up more power to send more tweets and Facebook pages around the world? That’s what we’ve started to tackle and the mission RightScale is on. 9) The story of how you started RightScale is classic. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

Jason Nazar

JANUARY 14, 2009

“If You Build It…They Will Come” may work for historical baseball ghosts, but it’s not a strategy you can rely on when starting an internet company. Other than paying for traffic with advertising, there are only so many ways to get people to show up at your door. Referring Traffic / Press. The Viral Loop / User Email.

Web 62

Web Social Media Content Sites 62

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

One way to accelerate your research is to speak with other startup CEOs who recently closed fundraising rounds. Subscribe to their blog. Judiciously comment on articles they post to LinkedIn, retweet their tweets, vote up one of their Quora posts and establish a Google Alert on them and their firm. The keyword here is authentic.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2012

Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Now, even the earliest stage startup can rise to visibility or be forever lost by their first media spotlight, so it behooves us all to know the rules early. Handling different media formats. Marty Zwilling.

Training 93

Training Media Entrepreneur Social Media 93

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 3, 2014

The way to look at crowdfunding is to think of it like creating a campaign that opens up a world of opportunity and experience for viewers to tap into and be a part of. People ended up buying multiple watches because they didn’t want to pick just one cause. Blogs are a huge part of marketing. Blogs are a huge part of marketing.

Startup 109

Startup Examples Social Media Media 109

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But Mark, many of the great firms are $500 million and up! When it went to raise its fund 10 years ago the rumor was that many LPs were disappointed with recent returns and did not re-up. Some of the most bizarre sounding deals end up being huge winners. The best entrepreneurs don’t get too worked up about this.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

It’s a fantastic startup that has had a amazing impact on society. 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. They were a little too fierce in their competitive practices against Lyft to sign up drivers. Is Uber evil? That’s silly.

Press 418

Press Journal Startup Competition 418

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 24, 2012

TechZulu had a chance to catch up with Levi and ask him some questions. The Digital Detox is a tech-free personal wellness retreat where attendees give up their smart-phones and gadgets in exchange for serenity and bliss. How did The Digital Detox get started? What is The Digital Detox? When is the next Detox?

Pricing 86

Pricing Coach Email Startup 86

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. It got me thinking, which for me is always the sign of a good blog post. Too many startup execs place too much emphasis on the big stage launch. I’ve heard many startup CEO’s (and VCs!)

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2013

Last year I wrote a blog post on entrepreneurs with a chip on their shoulders. My friend Seth Levine covered this well in his blog post on “ Handling Rejection ” which you should also read. But even if a VC is nasty a rant email back isn’t the right way to channel your frustration. ” Chips.

Startup 371

Startup Press Blogging Entrepreneur 371