SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

My 1,000th Post on This Blog - Tim Berry's Blog - Planning Startups Stories , July 21, 2010 HTML5 video markup, compatibility and playback - Niall Kennedy's Weblog , February 8, 2010 Your Product Needs a Soul - ArcticStartup , February 12, 2010 Product Friday: Monetizing Content is a Product Problem - This is going to be BIG.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

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APRIL 18, 2010

I’ve been using Chartbeat for over a month now to track performance of my blog and I find myself looking at Google Analytics much less these days. I’m only writing about the product because I’m passionate about it. The next users after that is reading a blog post that I wrote nearly 9 months ago.

Blogging 287

Blogging Google Screening Mahalo 287

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DECEMBER 14, 2010

They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. This experience made me want to dig into my archives, re-write & publish this piece. I often tell people that raising venture capital is more difficult than getting married. Not so in venture capital.

Venture Capital 298

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Help 298

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OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m often asked by people, “how do I get into VC?&# Well, I know 3-4 VC jobs that are publicly available. Every time I do recruiting I get somebody who says, “I’m willing to take a step back in my career to work in VC.&# This isn’t likely to appeal to us. Plus, show my you can write!

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

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NOVEMBER 18, 2012

I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

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OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. Let me explain.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

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SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. 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 had to laugh a bit reading it.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

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DECEMBER 6, 2017

I titled this post “We Must Have Zero Tolerance in Venture Capital” but of course I could just say “zero tolerance anywhere” because that’s true. As a VC let me specifically just speak out for our industry. I have known Shervin, liked him and respected his big bets as a VC like Uber and Hyperloop. I was wrong.

Venture Capital 254

Venture Capital Capital Course Report 254

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JULY 15, 2010

We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. If you enjoy this blog I think you’ll enjoy watching the first 14 minutes of this video (just click on the image of me below). What advice do you have for people who want to get into venture capital?

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

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MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” “Ok, so this guy can write a blog and source deals but can he make any money?”

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

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MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

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JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I just want to figure out what a fair valuation is.&# I figured all the VC’s talked so we should. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

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OCTOBER 3, 2011

On my blog I’ve been hesitant to take the topic head on. But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? In it she observes that only 3% of the comments on this blog are from women. Please watch this.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

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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 know the VCs so they know what interests them.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

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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. There is a reason for this.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

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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. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. This is true on all of the major tech blogs. Funding is news.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

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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.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

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MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. I’d link to it but it’s behind a paywall.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

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DECEMBER 14, 2009

I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. One of the questions I’m most often asked as a VC is what I’m looking for in an investment. This post covers the first out of 10 that I’ll write about. Excite, Ask Jeeves and Lycos? Yeah, right.

Entrepreneur 338

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 338

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OCTOBER 12, 2014

For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%). A day after I published this Changing Structure of VC article I noticed at least one “Angel Prorata Fund” on AngelList.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

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JUNE 1, 2011

That was back when VCs weren’t so quick to respond to emails. I was thinking about all of this as I looked at the logs from my WordPress blog this evening. People who comment to me privately about how surprised they are by how rapidly I’ve “built a name for myself in VC&# remind me of this fallacy. I did that?

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 8, 2011

I began our discussion by asking Brad what motivated him to co-author Venture Deals , rather than continuing to share venture capitalists’ secrets via his Ask The VC blog. Writing a book is very different from writing a blog. One, I wanted to know what it was like to write a book.

Venture Capital 224

Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur Blogging 224

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JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. And as a result their competitors were able to raise a considerable VC round from well-known firms. In a startup this is a mistake.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

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MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? I am a VC. I hand out money. How differentiated is that?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

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FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Union Square Ventures (USV) has been one of the most successful venture capital firms of the past 10–15 years and continues to be a leader in our industry. Lindel is no stranger to thorny venture capital issues — he was arguably amongst the most successful LPs of his generation. Maybe that’s USV, too.

Venture Capital 161

Venture Capital Funding Capital Startup 161

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AUGUST 3, 2009

People had been steadily blogging for 2-3 years and this crowd seemed to bifurcate. On the one hand were the blogs that “blew up&# and became real businesses like TechCrunch, GigaOm or TalkingPointsMemo. So Twitter was initially billed at a “micro-blogging&# platform. started blogging again outlined here.

Blogging 219

Blogging Venture Capital Startup Social Media 219

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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.

Entrepreneur 310

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Writing Invest 310

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FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I only say that because after years as a VC I can always tell when my peer group invested in something because “it seemed like it would make money” versus when they invested out of passion. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion. I’m a VC. Startup Advice'

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

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MAY 11, 2010

I haven’t written a blog post in a week. And for the last few evenings I decided to get through email rather than blog. I’ve written about the topic before when I wrote the post “ I emailed a VC but never heard back.&# As in, what do you do now that you’ve written them. I live in email hell.

Email 265

Email Startup Writing Blogging 265

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FEBRUARY 27, 2011

In case you missed all the kerfuffle this weekend, I posted this blog post originally on TechCrunch. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. So why I am writing it then? A few reasons. You should read this post.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

Recently I wrote a blog post about how I hated losing, but I embrace it. Fred Wilson wrote on his blog this week about learning from failures here and quoted Obama’s speech from tonight: you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. This is part of my ongoing series, “ Start-up Lessons.&#.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

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NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital? go on, click it ).

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Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

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APRIL 11, 2011

We talked about a lot of great stuff in the video including how to do sales calls and a how a new “culture of writing&# is emerging as a critical skill set in business today. We also talked about why Jon decided to leave Google to become an EIR at a VC firm (Polaris) – minute 33. Good comment community = viral blog.

Buzzfeed 354

Buzzfeed Content Tips Blogging 354

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AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. That prompted Fred Wilson’s blog post appealing to the industry to make these simplified term sheets standard. I have this mentality, too.

Funding 252

Funding Venture Capital Startup Blogging 252

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MARCH 3, 2013

In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. ” But I pointed out a professor at HBS ( Tom Eisenmann ) who teaches a course where blogs are a part of the classroom reading material. Venture Capital. We spoke about the disruption of VC through crowd funding.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

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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. I’m one of them.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

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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.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281