Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. Subject: Reference for Twilio. As noted in What Does VC Traction Really Mean? ,

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Here’s why. 10 Blogging Tips.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. In reality, crowdfunding has become a major startup funding vehicle, expected to reach $3.62

Startup 100

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur Framework 279

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners).

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Thus crowdfunding is clearly not the panacea for funding and success that many entrepreneurs envision.

Startup 151

Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. So in the past we needed VC to really get a startup going.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

socalTECH

JULY 15, 2011

Los Angeles-based Scopely , the stealth-mode startup which announced a funding round this week, has a unique pitch to potential employees: the firm is offering up $11,000 wrapped in Bacon, an oil painting of the new employee, Cuban cigars, a year's supply of beer, and more prizes to new employees or people who refer friends to work at the startup.

Google 227

Google Advertising Competition Los Angeles 227

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2019

Ethical behavior refers to actions consistent with personal principles and commonly held values in your business community. Build positive psychological capital to sustain your business. Without a store of this psychological capital, your performance and leadership will wane, and your satisfaction will dwindle.

Coach 70

Coach Satisfaction Ideas Entrepreneur 70

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2013

This last round is a significant amount of capital, why the new funding? Kevin Hell: Hardware companies do require more capital. The bottom line is, we''re building an entirely new, wireless platform and technology, and to do that right, it takes quite a bit of capital. For hardware, it''s even more challenging.

Technical Review 213

Technical Review Software Review Networking Technology 213

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. According to Shayne, only 1 out of 1000 business plans might get VC funding. His best advice: take capital where you can get it. VCs (invest other people’s money by raising funds from institutional sources).

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

Ethical behavior refers to actions consistent with personal principles and commonly held values in your business community. Build positive psychological capital to sustain your business. Without a store of this psychological capital, your performance and leadership will wane, and your satisfaction will dwindle.

Coach 59

Coach Satisfaction Ideas Entrepreneur 59

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital. A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. If the large VC doesn’t agree to do your A round then you’re in a bit of trouble. If a VC term sheet comes in they begin their due diligence process.

Seed Funding 283

Seed Funding Venture Capital Funding Software Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. Sustainable competitive advantage. This is the dreaded “due diligence” process.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Startup Writing Competition 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2010

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. Sustainable competitive advantage. This is the dreaded “due diligence” process.

Technical Review 90

Technical Review Writing Competition Tips 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

This term refers to an initial venture-capital investment, often wrongly sought to seed early product development. Super-angel investors (micro-VCs). The new entrepreneurial age is here, but you can’t be competitive if you don’t speak the language. Frothy is good for entrepreneurs. Seed-round investment.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2016

Kobie Fuller, Partner at Upfront Ventures We set out to build a venture capital firm that would not only be a beacon for the rapidly growing LA tech ecosystem but also one that would compete and collaborate nationally with the best firms in the country. But the real question is … can he beat me at ping pong?

Venture Capital 260

Venture Capital Startup SaaS Social Media 260

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Back to Mr. Christensen, “We subsidize their education in fields for which there are no jobs” he said in referring to the fact that many courses at universities are still taught with skills that aren’t relevant to the 21st century needs of the US workforce. He spoke about ROCE (return on capital employed).

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2009

On top of that, we build components that can be included in applications, such as Cometd a messaging service, which we've done reference implementations for, we do AJAX push, to do live events across the Internet, and provides reliable, face communications to large numbers of people across the world. Australia, and Italy. So far so good.

IBM 100

IBM IBM Mission Ventures Venture Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. Of course much of it is conflicting. Executive Summary.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

socalTECH

APRIL 27, 2009

Seed stage, venture capital fund DFJ Frontier (www.dfjfrontier.com) announced this morning that it has raised its second fund, worth $55M. We can tell whether they'll have a competitive advantage before we fund then. Tags: frontier capital venture interview lenet scott. Congrats on the new fund.

Santa Barbara 124

Santa Barbara Entrepreneur Funding Invest 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

When this first ran on TechCrunch I got the greatest comment in the world that I had to repeat here, “VC’s are like martinis: the first is good, the second one great, and the third is a headache.&# I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. In my second company I had only 1 investor. I love that.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Startup Invest Pricing 314

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2008

John Singleton: In reference to contests--one thing about our technology--is we have the only system like this on the web. We are trying to keep it competitive. We've just finished our projections up to 2012, working with a consultant, and we're about to go--in this lovely economic climate--after an angel or venture capital funding.

Writing 209

Writing Hollywood Startup Sites 209

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t close. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A. VC, sales, biz dev, M&A or otherwise. Especially in VC. If they want reference calls be ballsy. Any deal. Things change.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

There is an old management saying, “measure twice, cut once” which refers to the benefit of doing some planning. Many points will seem obvious but since I observe many fund-raising processes as a VC I can tell you that most people get even the basics wrong. The next pass is the “competitive pass”?—?have

Funding 215

Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

with $15 million to Prove It The venture capital world has started firing up a few cylinders again and looking for businesses that it believes will help us all succeed in ways that resonate with new ways of working as we begin to return to work. Bevy is Emerging as a Leader in Software for Building Virtual Communities?—?with

Software 234

Software Startup Tool Platform 234

AeA Los Angeles Council

JULY 7, 2008

Approximately 50 executives from the worlds of technology & venture capital piled into the dining hall on June 30th to listen to Dr. Mark Drapeau speak about "innovation" and its sister topic, "STEM education." While this is not slated to change anytime soon, one possible way to bridge this gap is through federal venture capital.

Education 45

Education Technical Review Research Web 2.0 45

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

So riffing off the famous Andy Grove statement that “only the paranoid survive” and believing that “only the most exceptionally talented startup teams survive” — most get washed out by the constant cycle of change and competition. And of course we welcome Microsoft Ventures. Why Invest? This is the area where Tact has crushed it.

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105