socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

The summit is now associated with March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com). What's your role at March Capital? Meredith Finn: I joined March Capital at the beginning of the year. How did you end up joining March Capital? That carried through to March, where the big theme is Artificial Intelligence in the enterprise.

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Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 9, 2021

Even as NFT sales dip below their most speculative highs, startups aiming to tap into their potential are still scoring big funding rounds from investors who believe there’s much more to crypto collectibles than the past few months of hype. The startup has raised a whopping $120 million to date.

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Platform Framework Los Angeles Design 308

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2020

There’s also a relatively modest request (of only $4 billion) for funding devoted to pilot projects, startup companies, and public clean technology investment initiatives (like LACI). “ This will also help dealerships increase sales and bring needed sales tax revenues to local and state governments,” Peterson writes.

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Southern California Los Angeles Rosemead Incubator 261

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. At the time I pointed out: “If I had realized exits almost certainly it would be because I invested in a company that failed.

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Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Chiefly, they thought that robotics and machine learning were going to transform everything from aerospace to industrial manufacturing and retail, and they saw Los Angeles as a unique location from which to deploy capital. But it’s not the capital that sets the firm apart, according to the pitch deck viewed by TechCrunch.

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Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

It also handles the back end as well by automating the posting, sale and shipment of unsold inventory while offering immediate payment to creditworthy sellers. million in new funding for its predictive inventory recommendation platform, joining other similar companies, including Zippedi and Inventa. Last week, Syrup Tech raised $6.3

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Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds. Over the past 2.5

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Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

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Startup Training Services Writing 111

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two?

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. My guess is that we are likely in total agreement.

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Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. The abundance of late-stage capital is good for us all. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins.

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Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

John Lusk, along with his Co-Author Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company''s newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles , a New York Times bestselling book. The company''s newsletter was initially created to share their entrepreneurial journey with their family and friends. Saying, ''Hey, we want to pay you to write a book.’

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Berkonomics

MAY 22, 2014

Bill Payne has been actively involved in angel investing since 1980, funding over 50 companies and mentoring over 100 more. He is the recipient of the coveted “Hans Severiens Award form the Angel Capital Association, its highest honor. . I don’t fund new companies that have prepared PPMs for investment.

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Writing Invest Entrepreneur Equity 199

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

“Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not uttered by base sale of chapmen’s tongues” . However, to a Big Dumb Company (BDC), a startup’s IP is a thing of beauty. Intellectual Property (IP) is an ugly thing at a startup.

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IP Patents Company Companies 256

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

A lot of my time is spent helping early-stage companies get to proof points so that they can raise capital. Because of this, I've always tried to stay up-to-speed on how early-stage investors look at valuation of companies. A few things jumped out at me: - Experience in sales or technology - considered a minor negative?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2021

I’m sure you have all been frustrated at least once by not being able to get the Internet domain name you want for your company. and.me (for Montenegro), as well as allowing companies to set up their own top-level domains. Starting and name a company today is a world-wide decision. Certain extensions such as.tv

Startup 136

Startup Pricing Tips .Net 136

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Then fans would be tasked with writing their own stories, submitting them to the Realms of Ruin universe by minting them as NFTs on the Solana blockchain. If the authors are inviting fans to write fan fiction about a universe they created, who owns the derivative works? Another unabashed proponent of fan fiction is N.K.

Writing 196

Writing Outsource Development Technical Review Examples 196

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. I’ve seen too many companies go off track by a VC hell bent on the team pursuing the VCs strategy which at times is about chasing the next shiny object. Most VCs are book smart. I call them “ VCs Seagulls.”

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Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? Every sales person with a bit of street history will resonate with this question. Do you have any contacts or friends within the target company? So how do you reconcile this? But what power.

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Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. Being profitable certainly makes your company more sustainable in difficult times.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

I consider this trip the anniversary of the company’s starting up, and made the trip 11 years in a row. I’d often say: “I created the company so no one could fire me.” I never took a business course, never wrote a business plan, and never raised any outside capital. I made the sale, and paid my debts.

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. an investment in your company. these are simply guidelines.

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

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). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

One of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs make when they start a company and raise outside capital is figuring out what an acceptable “burn rate” is. That is, how much should your company be willing to lose in cash every month as you make investments in staff and equipment that funds technology, sales, marketing and management.

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Startup Venture Capital .Net Capital 212

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

A company like Moe will help legitimize the industry,” Bernstein tells TechCrunch. “I Bain Capital Ventures' Jamison Hill. We are in phase three of the influencer economy,” Bain Capital Ventures senior principal Jamison Hill, who led the firm’s investment in the influencer shoutout marketplace Cameo , tells TechCrunch.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

John Lusk, along with his Co-Author Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company''s newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles , a New York Times bestselling book. The company''s newsletter was initially created to share their entrepreneurial journey with their family and friends. Saying, ''Hey, we want to pay you to write a book.’

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2019

Minnie Ingersoll: A few things, but most recently I started by own company, in 2013. Why did you decide to move to venture capital? We write checks from $500K to a million dollars, and we like to fund engineers turned entrepreneurs. It's not necessarily to be the sales person, but to be able to sell me on the vision.

Southern California 133

Southern California Startup Layoffs Venture Capital 133

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2018

I have seen this in cases where a fight would take the CEO’s time & attention away from important business dealings or where the cost of not settling is huge (as in, inability to raise more capital until the dispute is resolved). Back when I ran my first company I fought a lot. This also applies to internal company decisions.

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Startup Writing Demand Equity 199

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

Or as I picked up from Bruce Dunlevie at Benchmark Capital (who I’m told took the quote from elsewhere). I plan to write a whole separate blog post about this quote because it’s always stuck with me. 5 years or so later I still revisit that sales campaign and relive many of the steps. That is, until I lost.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

Jason Nazar

MARCH 22, 2011

I recently hosted a panel at the Twiistup Conference about LA tech companies. I have some pretty specific thoughts on the differences between companies in the two cities, as I wrote about in my previous post A Tale of Two Tech Cities. Challenge #1 – Tech Companies are Not Typically Started by Technologists.

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Company Companies Startup Twiistup 111

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

I was fortunate that I could write software and doubly fortunate that my despair at working for ‘the Man’ – and feeling compelled to strike out on my own – coincided with the dawn of the personal computer era. From this point the company grew like wild fire. I became an entrepreneur by default.

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Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

By John Williams Fast Company magazine recently reported that PayPal founder Paul Thiel is giving away $100,000 to twenty-four young men and women to finance startup businesses. Thiel is providing his mentees with capital to make their startups a reality. Your mortgage and grocery bill depend on it. You can keep overhead low.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy’s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. After 4 years of retail she went to “the other side of the business&# working for a clothing brand where she sold apparel to department stores and other companies.

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Startup Sales Venture Capital Entrepreneur 311

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. Act your stage. Other B-round scaling issues?

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. There is an inherent value that any company has. I acknowledged this in the article.

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Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336