Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

We did know about Snapchat as early as anybody. But that narrative was fresh in my head when I first had the discussion about Snapchat. What I *SHOULD HAVE* considered was that I was in college in a time when there were no digital cameras and I’m very thankful for that or I likely wouldn’t be writing this blog post today.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? Or more directly – they are likely narcissistic resuscitations of your newest features or bragging points that nobody but your marketing team and your mom care about. Think about Luma Partners.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

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. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. I spent time on college campuses.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

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. Stop reading their press releases or hearing their founder talk about he is crushing it. We all know that people who truly are crushing it rarely talk about it. getting too much press before we were ready.

Startup 412

Startup Press Course Entrepreneur 412

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

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. Their competitors took it seriously. There is one carve out.

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). I wrote about how to build relationships with journalists in this post.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

He was about to be featured in a major US news magazine as one of their “hot&# picks. Entrepreneurs get so used to friends and family congratulating them on their press coverage that they forget sometimes that this isn’t real. A positive news story means NOTHING about the core performance of your business.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

Ferris did normal press and also launched on Product Hunt and the latter drove significantly more downloads than press did. What is very unique to me about the Product Hunt community is the positivity they’ve engendered vs. the cesspool of vitriol that one can find on HackerNews or was clearly on Secret.

Product 150

Product Startup Press Social Media 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2023

If you’re producing just one page, one blog post, or one sketch a week, you expect it to be good and final, and you start to worry about quality. By writing just 500 words a day in a blog, I suddenly realized that I had enough for a book in just a few months. Frequency keeps the pressure off. Frequency is a realistic approach.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Blogging Ideas 109

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. Let me be clear about this. Does he blog about venture capital and try to advise entrepreneurs?

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. It means avoiding drinking too much at cocktail parties with other tech people and bragging about your plans.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2017

In any event, I was reflected on Twitter tonight about the disappointing and SHOCKING (to me) stories I read tonight and this about Russell Simmons, Salma Hayeck’s op ed about Harvey Weinstein, potential misconduct by Tavis Smiley that follows Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Louis CK, Shervin Pishevar and so many others that my head is going to explode.

Startup 195

Startup Statistics Press Blogging 195

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Just not the kind you would initially read about on TechCrunch. And that’s what I love about her narrative. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. Here’s what I learned about Tracy: 1.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

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. Take some comfort in Fred Wilson’s blog post about MeetUp and the 20-year-build. And that’s who you read about in the papers. You can see it in the founders’ eyes.

Startup 371

Startup Press Product Blogging 371

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 30, 2013

It’s now in the press that Jody committed suicide. I started out this year writing about how much I hate December. So I wanted to start the year off talking about putting December behind me. So I’m not even talking about that. What can we do about that? How to say it? Mutter those words. I always have.

Blogging 400

Blogging Startup Ideas Press 400

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2020

If you’re producing just one page, one blog post, or one sketch a week, you expect it to be good and final, and you start to worry about quality. By writing just 500 words a day in a blog, I suddenly realized that I had enough for a book in just a few months. Frequency keeps the pressure off. Frequency is a realistic approach.

Startup 173

Startup Writing Blogging Ideas 173

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I remain a huge supporter and am very proud of our accomplishments and hugely optimistic about our future. “Ok, so this guy can write a blog and source deals but can he make any money?” All I could think about this morning was this … featured image from 500px. 5 years ago. The monkey on my back. ” Yup.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

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. You get a lot of traffic — not always results. If you aren’t careful every PR team will measure inches over impact.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

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

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? Silicon Valley (and Alley) has been super excited about the new category of “group text messaging&# and for valid reasons.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Berkonomics

MAY 23, 2019

(See “Manage Your Mantra” two weeks earlier in this blog.) Press releases and PowerPoint presentations with a uniform use of the mantra or phrase will reinforce your effort. There is no one who will ever be as passionate about telling your story as you. Sometimes you reduce your market to increase your positioning.

Mentor 120

Mentor Statistics Press Blogging 120

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

Tim encouraged us to set up a blog and start talking openly about what we were doing as a company and inviting comments. But it seemed strange to me that we would openly talk about stuff rather than waiting for a big announcement to the press. So I started thinking about the “Inside Out&# organization.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

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

JULY 19, 2010

When you read the press you only read the glamorous bits. You read about Mark Zuckerberg or the guys at FourSquare, Twitter or Zynga. But that’s a bit like reading about your state lottery winner and feeling bummed out because you haven’t won despite years of trying. Startups are hard. I have sympathy.

Blogging 407

Blogging Tips Press Startup 407

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. Anybody who follows this blog knows that my mom was the most influential person on my entrepreneurial career.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Netflix announced the changes to its company via a blog post. A blog post! You need to invite the press, talk to them, let them ask questions. You don’t handle major announcements via a blog post and no touch points. Of course the press is going to roast you. Not a freakin’ blog post.

Netflix 287

Netflix Customer Custom Pricing 287

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

So when they spoke about character development, repeatable gaming experiences, bringing games to multiple platforms (in the industry we call this “ Transmedia “) and physical products my ears naturally perked up. So this was definitely an introduction I was going to take.

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

Xconomy

OCTOBER 3, 2019

The layoffs will result in a staff of about 30 people by year’s end, Tocagen (NASDAQ: TOCA ) said in the press release. Following the late-stage failure of its lead program, an experimental gene therapy treatment for the most aggressive form of brain cancer, Tocagen will reduce its workforce by 65 percent, the company said Thursday.

Layoffs 77

Layoffs Press San Diego Company 77

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. I want to talk about that day after the event. I’ll talk about all that in a future post. Don’t drink it.

Startup 310

Startup Venture Capital Press Journal 310

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

Mark is a Partner at GRP Partners and authors one of the most widely read startup blogs, BothSidesOfTheTable. Find A Concept You Are Passionate About. Mark admitted that one of the mistakes he made early in his career was pursuing a business concept about which he was not passionate. Getting press is sales. Start Lean.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Rob jokes about it.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365