Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened?

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. 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. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Should SaaS companies trade at a 24x Enterprise Value (EV) to Next Twelve Month (NTM) Revenue multiple as they did in November 2021? But rest assured valuations get reset.

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

in a funding round, the company said this week. The funding was led by Okapi Venture Capital, and also included Serra Ventures, Cove Fund II, 1855 Capital, and Mooring Ventures LLC. San Diego-based Daasity , a startup working on data analytics for direct-to-consumer retailers, has raised $2.3M

Metrics 113

Metrics San Diego Venture Capital Commerce 113

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 18, 2022

The alternative protein space is hot, hot, hot as evidenced by both the number of companies developing products and the venture capital going into the space. The latest company to attract venture capital is Nowadays , a company founded in San Francisco in 2020 as a Public Benefit Corporation by Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski.

Software Review 187

Software Review Metrics Startup Technical Review 187

socalTECH

DECEMBER 10, 2020

Recover , a company which is producing recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends, says it has received new funding from Los Angeles-based STORY3 Capital. The company says it is recovering industrial and pre- and post-consumer cotton waste, and has a 70-year long history in the textile business as a family owned company.

Funding 113

Funding Metrics Los Angeles Capital 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. The Spark Capital website (it’s one of my favorites). Company grew by more than “400% each year” for past few years [assume growth metric = revenues].

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2013

Encinitas-based ForwardMetrics has just taken $1M in a seed funding round, to help companies better conduct their strategic planning. forwardmetrics forward metrics strategic planning software venture capital' The startup said that the new funding round brings its total raised to $1.75M. READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 252

Seed Funding Funding Metrics Venture Capital 252

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how Of course we can’t.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2009

Los Angeles-based Image Metrics (www.image-metrics.com) recently landed a $6.5M, Series B funding round for the firm's facial animation products. Mike Starkenburg: The company was founded in 2000, and was started in Manchester, UK, by a handful of computer vision specialists. How did a company started in the UK end up here?

Metrics 100

Metrics Startup Sales Newsletter 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

According to one study a decade ago, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. I like the ten steps he outlines, which I characterize here as follows: Seek major capital infusion. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

billion two years ago and is expected to double by 2027, attracting startups, like alternative meat food tech company AKUA , that aim to solidify a prominent place in the up-and-coming industry. million seed round, led by Vibrant Ventures, to give the company $5.4 The global meat substitute market was valued at $4.51

Startup 191

Startup Los Angeles Sample Funding 191

Xconomy

MARCH 30, 2020

San Diego has long been considered a second-tier primary biopharma hub in terms of number of companies and venture capital raised, falling behind the twin behemoths of Boston-Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area on those and other metrics.

San Diego 88

San Diego Metrics Entrepreneur Venture Capital 88

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

I can think of many companies that waited too long to react to change, including Polaroid and Blockbuster , and were never able to recover. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by an initial innovation that has served your company well so far. Define realistic metrics to keep track of progress.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Metrics Resource Software Review 101

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2020

in a funding, and launched a new, mobile fitness app which combines live instruction with real time sensing of motion and metrics. The company says it is backed by such angel investors as Michael Stoppelman (former SVP of Engineering at Yelp) and Tom McInerney (seed investor in Bird, Segment, Notion). READ MORE>>.

Mobile 113

Mobile Artificial Inteligence Metrics Los Angeles 113

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. If this is the case, offer to make a meaningful introduction to a potential customer or partner of one of their portfolio companies. Major League baseball pitchers spend far more time preparing to pitch than they actually do pitching.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Custom 236

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Scott McCorkle has spent most of his professional career thinking about business to business software and how to improve it for a company’s customers. The first offerings will be launching in the beginning of 2019, but the company has dozens of customers already using its pilot, McCorkle said.

Chief Technology Officer 145

Chief Technology Officer SaaS Metrics Custom 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entree for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. In all cases, don’t skip the basic training.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

His work in social media, e-Learning and Performance Support has won awards and has led him into engagements at many Fortune 500 companies including Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan, Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Fidelity Investments, Symbol Technologies and SHL Systemhouse.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Guide CTO Coach Southern California 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Lots of people are trying to help, with new twists on the age-old model of free-market capitalism that has driven businesses for the last 500 years. Explore new forms of company ownership and profit sharing.

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 22, 2016

I had the honor of moderating a panel of three SaaS CEOs who have collectively raised nearly $40 million of venture capital and are on their way to breakout success: Reed Shaffner of Workpop , Jerry Jao of Retention Science and Ara Mahdessian from ServiceTitan. The Most Important Metric. Such metrics will obviously differ.

Custom 100

Custom Customer Cornerstone OnDemand Metrics 100

TechCrunch LA

JULY 26, 2022

Four years and hundreds of long lines later, the truck is still there, but the company is taking on what co-founder Nile Dreiling calls “a stale $40 billion donut industry ” by expanding its presence into brick-and-mortar locations in Los Angeles after raising $9 million in financing. The fun part?

Los Angeles 183

Los Angeles Angel Culver City Startup 183

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

1/ From vantage point of being able to see hundreds of companies, good & bad I have some advice for founders - Get to know and love "gross margin." " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric.

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

It’s one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the country with the 100 largest tech companies in L.A. PledgeLA initiative grew out of a series of problem-solving sessions within the Los Angeles venture capital community. Over the past five years, Los Angeles has emerged as one of the top five destinations in the U.S. The landmark.

Los Angeles 249

Los Angeles Angel Entrepreneur Orange County 249

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should you join a company? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. When should a VC invest?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. I interviewed Eric for an hour for - This Week in Venture Capital. should companies do spreadsheets / plan / have a hypothesis for success? how do you handle internal company morale?

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. In all cases, don’t skip the basic training.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

After many years in business, working in large companies as well as startups, I’m no longer surprised at why mature and successful companies struggle with introducing innovative new ventures as the market and environment changes. Make sure everyone comes with an entrepreneur mindset for real innovation.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Custom 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2022

Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. If one metric changes, it may not be significant, but someone needs to monitor whole categories for fluctuations that may be a weak signal. Taxi or bus companies are often slow to recognize a new popular travel location based on population shifts or resort communities.

eBook 111

eBook Metrics Examples Startup 111

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2012

BAT said the new round was led by Matthew Pritzker Company , and also included existing investors Miramar Venture Partners , Newport Coast Investments , RimLight, LLC, Fulcrum Venture Capital , and ad pepper media International.

Technology 159

Technology Miramar Metrics Venture Capital 159

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. How much goodwill can you and your company command today?

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

socalTECH

AUGUST 12, 2019

The Vinetta Project (www.vinettaproject.com), a group which is focused on helping to accelerate the growth of female-led startups, announced a few weeks ago that it is working with P&G Ventures, the internal "startup studio" of Procter and Gamble on an effort to help female-led companies in Los Angeles. What is The Vinetta Project?

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Metrics Los Angeles Help 124

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product. The real question you should be asking is "When I've built this product and show you the following metrics, would you invest?" What The Heck Does “Traction” Really Mean To A VC?

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

The law of large numbers, platforms that can make your company blow up unexpectedly and the trendy nature of tech markets can be deceiving. But if users don’t come back to your product directly and often I question whether you have a sustainable product / company. Not vanity metrics. Success for many is ephemeral.

Product 150

Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2017

Scott tells us how the company--backed by St. Cloud Capital--has managed to coax those equipment rental yards into the digital age, and how the company has tackled other challenges in focusing its business. Scott Cannon: We are an online marketplace for companies in the rental construction equipment space. Cloud Capital.

Startup 174

Startup Metrics Custom Customer 174

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

Hamet Watt: I''ve known Mark (Suster) for five plus years now, and I like the notion of how they''re taking a different approach to venture capital. Hamet Watt: I am going to be looking at innovation companies, with an obvious focus on technology companies. What''s the biggest lesson you''ve learned from your many companies?

Entrepreneur 191

Entrepreneur Startup Metrics Capital 191

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

Today, Silicon Valley is the consumer and enterprise software capital of the world. Raising capital isn’t the be-all and end-all of startup success. But it is an important metric for firms in pursuit of explosive growth. Raising capital is a necessary step, and survival time without it grows short, or interminably long.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Oracle Software Review Ideas 123