TechCrunch LA

JUNE 18, 2022

Get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday by subscribing on TechCrunch’s newsletter page. Crypto lending protocol Celsius isn’t fire burning, but it did freeze all customer withdrawals this past weekend , citing concerns about its own liquidity amid “extreme market conditions.” crash redux. pic.twitter.com/AacdhK3cw4.

Newsletter 278

Newsletter Platform Capital Marketing 278

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Here’s why that is important: when users are on your website you want to convert them to become paying customers. It’s true that the carrier then gets their huge slice for being the billing and payment engine but the idea is that you as a website more than make up for this in terms of customer conversion.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 11, 2020

It’s basically taking a page from the application development playbook where off-the-shelf toolkits can reduce by months the time it takes to get an app into the market, according to Pragma chief executive Eden Chen. The company currently has one customer on its platform and will launch to an exclusive set of beta users in late 2020.

Riot Games 135

Riot Games Develop Development Company 135

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2019

Less than a month after rebranding as Canoo , the startup electric vehicle company formerly known as Evelozcity is on the hunt for $200 million in new capital. Canoo is locking in final contracts with its vendors and is going to be in production with prototypes before the end of the year.

Outsource Development 191

Outsource Development Startup Outsource San Diego 191

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Tealium, a San-Diego startup that provides online advertising tag management and marketing services for enterprise customers, has raised $35 million in a growth financing deal intended to expand its technology and market reach. Georgian Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, the investment firms that anchored Tealium’s $30.7

Custom 40

Custom Customer San Diego JavaScript 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

You need to first create a compelling product. Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. You need product / market fit. Product / market fit is everything. ” True.

Startup 401

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2023

First of all, I will admit that there is some risk involved with talking to any potential investors, even with an agreement, just as there is risk in all the elements of your plan, product and market opportunity. Product details in the public domain can never be patented. Sharing trade secrets. Marty Zwilling

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Patents Ideas Sample 101

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid Hoffman ) and sometimes it’s in a space where I’ve invested (like mobility and city innovation with Bird’s Travis VanderZanden , one of our portfolio founders.) monthly subscription (or $8 ad free) for Quibi? And so it is with video. Quibi = “quick bites”).

Content 244

Content Netflix Platform Mobile 244

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2012

Last week, Los Angeles-based Chill (www.chill.com) made a stab at that, debuting a new front page meant to guide user to the most interesting videos on the web, through an easy-to-use interface. What's the whole new front page all about? What's interesting, however, is that we've found that we have two customers.

Startup 254

Startup Guide Redpoint Content 254

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

The idea actually came to him from the Yellow Pages business. He took out an ad in the Yellow Pages (it was the early 80′s, pre Internet), which cost him $1,000 / month for a half-page ad. So the Yellow Page business was always “pay for placement.&#. If it worked in the Yellow Pages, why not on the Internet?

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

socalTECH

JANUARY 4, 2011

San Diego-based ShowUhow , which develops video-based sales and product information for online retailers and manufacturers, said today that it has added a suite of social media integration features for the firm's offering. ShowUhow is venture backed by Syncom Ventures, and raised a round of capital back in August. READ MORE>>.

Social Media 162

Social Media Media Sites San Diego 162

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. Many of these businesses were what First Round Capital called FNACs (features, not companies – this acronym has always stuck with me).

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Custom 142

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

First of all, I will admit that there is some risk involved with talking to any potential investors, even with an agreement, just as there is risk in all the elements of your plan, product and market opportunity. Product details in the public domain can never be patented. Sharing trade secrets. Marty Zwilling.

Ideas 159

Ideas Tips Technical Review Patents 159

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2017

Robert Blatt: We say to people that we do customer experience for multi-location brands. Our platform enables them to manage the digital representation of their locations, and engage with consumers in paid, social, and search, to improve that customer experience. So what does your customer look like nowadays? ,p>

Google 127

Google Paid Search Mobile Activity 127

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

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. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Our call recovered and we spent the rest of the time talking about the development of their management team and their product. But it got me thinking about how often entrepreneurs overplay their PR so I thought I’d try to offer some advice and how to play PR with VCs (or more broadly with customers or business development partners).

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

On opposite pages were two ads for two very large companies. These two ads showed how disconnected from their customers these once industry leaders have become. Sadly this is just a single example of what is happening to thousand of companies that are not listening to their respective customers. There is no lack of newness.

Custom 72

Custom Customer Blogging Startup 72

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

In most cases, I provide some combination of the following advice: Brevity - Maximum length: two pages. Jeff Carmody, Co-Founder of Agility Capital and a successful institutional investor, provided me with the outline shown below. Capitalization. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Tech.Co

JANUARY 3, 2022

By allowing people to use their own unused capital as loans for the less fortunate, SoLo acts as an intermediary between those who need the money, and those who are willing to lend it. Someone with a financial need can post their request, and someone with the necessary capital can accept the request, setting their own terms.

Startup 200

Startup Invest FAQ Examples 200

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

The company is venture backed by Polaris Partners, Toba Capital, Amplify.LA, Wavemaker Partners, and Danmar Capital. It's was really about herding cats and getting everyone on the same page, and making sure you could get the financials out on time. Mike Whitmire: It's all about product, market, fit.

Startup 124

Startup Cornerstone OnDemand Software Review Woodland Hills 124

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

If you buy into the argument that a strong board can actually help you then this post will lay out how to help you have more productive meetings by preparing properly in advance. There are too many pages. This is part of a broader series on Board Meetings. It passes the weight test.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

Thiel is providing his mentees with capital to make their startups a reality. When you don't accept capital from someone else, you aren't beholden to anyone else's input. But when your only capital is your hard-earned seed money, every penny that goes out will be scrutinized painfully. Customer service is free.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

We spoke with Christopher Webb, the firm's CEO, to hear about how ChowNow's goal is to make mobile, social orders something any restaurant can afford and implement--and how a new $3M funding round from GRP Partners, Double M Capital, Daher Capital, Karlin Ventures, and Velos Partners is helping it to deliver on its mission.

Mobile 197

Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. This post originally appeared on TechCrunch.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

socalTECH

OCTOBER 16, 2008

Los Angeles-based magnify360, a provider of web page optimization tools, has lauched a new product for optimizing Google AdWords advertising, the firm announced today. magnify360 provides software which automatically adapts web pages to individual visitors, to tailor and personalize the web content those users see. READ MORE>>

Advertising 100

Advertising Tool Yahoo Google 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

We raised this capital in what has increasingly become a difficult market for fund raising so I’d like to share with you some details on how we get it done. They are the classic case of the Innovator’s Dilemma because they fundamentally can’t innovate on their product and can’t lower costs or their business craters.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Who are your customers? I then worked at a startup, SocialVibe.com, and basically ran all of their trade marketing and consumer marketing, focusing on consumer growth engagement, insights, and product marketing, and how to shape their product to heighten and capitalize on consumer engagement.

Paramount 187

Paramount Entertainment Hollywood Content 187

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. Customer Care Today. Here’s why.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2010

The store allows in-page transactions, and never redirects them to another site, keeping them captive and leveraging impulse buys. Plus, we provide all of the back end fulfillment--it's soup to nuts--from manufacturing, to fulfillment, to customer service. We have some minimum price points for every product they might want to sell.

Van Nuys 191

Van Nuys Tech Coast Angels Startup Web 191

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Startups should begin by selecting just a few of the vast array of social media offerings out there, and customize based on results. Ask yourself where are the influencers in your market, the majority of your target customers, and what type of interaction will be most productive to your business?

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. Give everybody pages of the deck they’re to cover or parts of the demo for which they are to talk. Competition. Market sizing.

Venture Capital 340

Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

But then your customes start using your products, your competitors come out with new offerings and your business partners decide to launch a similar product rather than working with you. Did you know that their original product wasn’t a video camera? You’re forced to “pivot&# on a regular basis.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Startup Google Yammer 291

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

I can’t change who your board members are so let me offer some thoughts on how to make your interactions with your board more productive. Nothing drives me more bonkers than board members who want to hold dissertations on 409a valuations, product feature minutiae or spend 30 minutes on how many people they know that they can introduce you to.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Tech.Co

AUGUST 1, 2017

Once a novelty act reserved for indie band albums and curious art projects, crowdfunding is starting to play a major role in the world of startups and new products. Your campaign page should clearly highlight your track record, what you’ve already put in place to make your vision a reality, and why you are the one with the skills for the job.

Startup 93

Startup Social Media Tips Ideas 93

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Venture capital investments are returning to startups. Venture capital firms raised $4.1 The continuing rise in the price of fuel, combined with the ongoing evidence of global warming, has highlighted the need for alternative energy sources, and green products. That should be true even if your customer is really a distributor.

Startup 86

Startup Tips Venture Capital Demand 86