Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today. The real challenge is to win massive consumer preference repeatedly. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Custom 142

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. It’s predictable, there is no reason to get mad about it and with a well-designed play book you can overcome this much of the time.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2011

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for due diligence. Not doing due diligence on the funding source.

Software Review 98

Software Review Funding Seed Funding Startup 98

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review ! “ Crypto investment starts 2022 with a roar. Last week, we talked about about the “de-stonkifying” of the market. This week, we’re looking at a wounded Facebook/Meta that finds itself backed into a corner. Meta had a bad week — like history-making rough.

Marketing 246

Marketing Newsletter Technical Review News 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2010

Yesterday I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for due diligence. Not doing due diligence on the funding source.

Software Review 95

Software Review Startup Seed Funding Funding 95

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2019

As we close out our contributions for the end of 2018, we have a contribution from investor and investment banker Peter Cowen of Sutton Capital Partners. One company that we have mentored, invested in and serve on the board of, is in lending and has hit a very exciting tipping point. Reading books continues to be a big focus for me.

Capital 113

Capital Southern California Technical Review SaaS 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Richard recently published a new book, The Soul Of A Deal , talking about his experience with deal making and interviewing such others as J.J.Abrams, Deepak Chopra, Peter Guber, Reid Hoffman, Penn Jillette and many others on their own experiences. We caught up with Richard to learn more about the book and deal making.

Startup 147

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review 147

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

He spent a few months building out the software because just taking stuff from people isn’t that difficult. After 9 months it was time to raise seed capital and go test drive our new software and processes. We both loved the idea and within weeks he was moved to LA and worked out of our office on the concept as an EIR.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). What's the theme of your investments? That's why we have investments in Heal, Saucey, and FragMob.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Jackson added, “FinTech has traditionally lagged behind the innovation that’s happening in other areas of enterprise software. 25 Years of Writing Code. Jackson and Christopher Grey CapLinked is used by companies to raise capital, sell assets, syndicate deals, manage M&A transactions, conduct due diligence, and network.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Naturally I’m excited about this investment or I wouldn’t have done it.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Traditional business intelligence (and data mining) software does a very good job of showing you where you’ve been. According to Eric Siegel in the updated version of his classic book “ Predictive Analytics ,” it’s the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Investment risk management. Movie recommendations.

Startup 99

Startup Social Media Study Guide 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

As a potential investor, I always think of the high rate of failure of disruptive technologies, due to the longer learning curve of customers, infrastructure change consistently required, and higher marketing costs. You as a leader must be transparent about how and why you are investing in one initiative over the other.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Metrics Resource Software Review 101

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Thus I was pleased to see my own insights covered in a new book, “ Why Startups Fail ,” by Tom Eisenmann, a Harvard Business School professor, who has mentored many more entrepreneurs, and authored more than a hundred HBS case studies from real-world startups. Gather your resources before scaling the business.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

It’s true that we also fund more mundane stuff like B2B software aimed at productivity improvements but we want some big bets in every fund where we feel we can contribute to “making our own little dent in the universe” as the saying goes – by backing ambitious entrepreneurs with that same goal. We loved the idea.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Software Review Startup Ideas 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

Are you making the proper investment, and is it paying off? Thus I was pleased to see this subject, and related strategy decisions, covered well in a recent book, “ Brand Vision ,” by Jim Everhart. I assure you of the need to really listen to customer feedback, both proactively in market studies, as well as after-the-sale reviews.

Custom 100

Custom Customer Acquisition Technical Review 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Eric is also author of the book The PayPal Wars: Battles With Ebay, the Media, the Mafia, And the Rest of Planet Earth , where he documented that experience. It connects companies with investors, allows investors to forward on referrals to other investors, and once an investment has been made, allows a company to post updates to the site.

Southern California 243

Southern California Entrepreneur Software Review Yammer 243

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. These days, thanks to code and community, we can productize almost any process done by humans. 5) Rincon Venture Partners recently invested in The Resumator , which we identified via AngelList. AngelList is the productization of that.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

He came to work in our offices at Upfront Ventures as an EIR and immediately began building software to improve how storage was picked up, photographed, scanned and routed to a warehouse. Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Custom Customer 286

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Traditional business intelligence (and data mining) software does a very good job of showing you where you’ve been. According to Eric Siegel in the updated version of his classic book “ Predictive Analytics ,” it’s the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Investment risk management. Movie recommendations.

Social Media 70

Social Media Study Guide Examples 70

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

What existing systems will we leverage, what programming languages, software development methodologies, web application frameworks, revision control systems, etc.? What do we need to do to make sure we can survive technical due diligence by investors and partners? What are the biggest areas of technical risk? Accounting?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I should note that my friend Brad Feld has written a new book on the subject that I would recommend if you want the bible on the topic. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. Mentorship.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0 otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). This is why investors really like SaaS software companies where you have recurring revenue and your largest customer accounts for < 5% of your revenue and your renewals rates are > 90%. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Traditional business intelligence (and data mining) software does a very good job of showing you where you’ve been. According to Eric Siegel in his recent book “ Predictive Analytics ,” it’s the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Investment risk management. New one-time customers may be incented to return.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Social Media Study Guide 103

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. If you want to understand the details of why this is, I covered it in detail in this post, Understanding Changes in the Software Industry.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2013

I worked in both before leaving to work in a software company at 17. I used to ask Deborah to book my travel plans in France and Germany were I went 1-2 times / month. There were online tools to book this stuff but the Internet booking sites were early. She opened 2 businesses – a bakery and then a restaurant.

Sales 416

Sales Class Training Technical Review 416

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished. Is that a lot for them?

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Not too many people are aware of the success and story of Lynda.com (www.lynda.com), started by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin , and how the firm's now grown to a double-digit, multimillion dollar business which is known as THE source for online training on such things as web design, graphics software, animation, video editing, and much more.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

tevye2009 , Q: “can you briefly explain why it’s best to get a small valuation when getting investment.&# Mike Stern (wasn’t sure which one so leave a comment if it’s you): Q: “is it possible to sell your startup without venture investment if the company has big traction and a large user base?&#

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. Five Reasons You Haven’t Launched - Software By Rob , November 10, 2010 Photo by stevendepolo. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews. This Thanksgiving it might seem that there’s a lot less to be thankful for.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

socalTECH

MARCH 20, 2015

What our technology does, is it offers up an exit ad unit, so if a user hasn''t booked on a publisher they have look at, that ad unit will show relevant ads. The only thing we might consider, is a strategic investment to help us expand in Europe. What''s the story behind the company? READ MORE>>.

Advertising 100

Advertising Startup Software Review Platform 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

= profitable and companies like Amazon who chose to focus on growth > profitability were not losing money on each book sale (ie they were gross margin positive). The reason one would accept losses is when they are investments in fueling faster growth. This is how much you spend to get a new customer. That bit is easy.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

Traditional business intelligence (and data mining) software does a very good job of showing you where you’ve been. According to Eric Siegel in his newly updated book “ Predictive Analytics ,” it’s the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Investment risk management. New one-time customers may be incented to return.

Social Media 62

Social Media Study Guide Examples 62

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

How did what was a staid publisher of phone books become a hotbed of online talent? Yelp and Agie''s List has been fantastic in the reviews path. But, going down that review path was not where we wanted to take it, or at least, not where we wanted to start. READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2013

Traditional business intelligence (and data mining) software does a very good job of showing you where you’ve been. According to Eric Siegel in his new book “ Predictive Analytics ,” it’s the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Investment risk management. New one-time customers may be incented to return.

Startup 98

Startup Social Media Study Guide 98