Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. This is a tough one to accomplish, but it has paid off handsomely for the first to win in other categories, such as Amazon Kindle and Netflix. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier. Be aggressive and alert.

Mobile 126

Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 27, 2013

IndieGoGo and other crowdfunding sites have been on the rise on becoming the new medium to gain capital for businesses and projects. Kate Drane, hardware category lead at IndieGoGo joins us and talks about IndieGoGo and crowdfunding. One of the hardest times we had was getting access to capital.

Startup 74

Startup Funding Capital Help 74

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

Thus, in my mentoring of potential technical entrepreneurs who have a real passion for their technology, I often recommend that they find a co-founder who can manage the marketing and execution elements of the new venture. Many smart people I know fall into the category of “idea” people.

Mentor 133

Mentor Startup Custom Customer 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Venture Capital is a tricky industry. When the early teams: angels, lowercase capital & first round capital funded Uber they had no idea it would be one of the most revolutionary ideas of our time. Suffice it to say it will drive much demand including from a very close family member of mine who always travels with an EpiPen.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2015

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. This is a tough one to accomplish, but it has paid off handsomely for the first to win in other categories, such as Amazon Kindle and Netflix. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier. Be aggressive and alert.

Startup 98

Startup Platform Pricing Netflix 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Good entrepreneurs are all about managing change, but too many forget that they have to change themselves as their dream evolves from a startup to a scalable business. You can’t demand total loyalty from all, so you have to learn to accept criticism without being defensive. Not every entrepreneur needs to scale.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Serious entrepreneurs know that, but too many “wannabes” still fall for that elusive get-rich-quick scheme with no risk. As an active angel investor, I still hear entrepreneurs asserting large opportunities with minimal risk and no competition. You can grow organically, or stretch out with big capital investments for volume and reach.

Entrepreneur 68

Entrepreneur Marketing Custom Customer 68

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth. Again, it depends.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

He wanted to work in venture capital and I was new to the industry and in no position to hire anybody. We worked together just shy of a year and during that period of constantly seeing startups Aaron made the decision that he actually wanted to be an entrepreneur more than a VC. I said, “This category is going to be huge.

Venture Capital 344

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review San Diego 344

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2014

Serious entrepreneurs know that, but too many “wannabes” still fall for that elusive dream of a get-rich-quick scheme with no risk. As an active Angel investor, I still hear entrepreneurs asserting large opportunities with minimal risk or no competition. There is no real business opportunity without risk. Find the balance.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Marketing Custom Customer 93

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2016

Those were the three categories, for a long time, that tended to be the domain of the LA ecosystems, just in terms of the number of startups house here, the funding, where you could attract talent, and really sort of where LA gained a reputation. Those areas were reflective of the LA startup economy.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Incubator 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2019

A theme I often hear from the entrepreneurs and startups I advise is that once they see that first surge of traction from customers, they can relax and enjoy life for a change. Treat employees like your most demanding customers. The reality could not be further from the truth.

Ideas 77

Ideas Custom Customer Competition 77

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2019

Richards--a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in a number of technology companies here, including NTI Group (sold to Blackboard), Internships.com, MP3.com, I've learned a lot, and my partner Paul has through our companies, and as a result, a lot of mistakes you make as an entrepreneur, we're not going to make.

Content 193

Content Social Network Coach Help 193

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2018

If you seen the entrepreneurs that disrupt big categories, they came at it from a very different approach, which is not iterative, but is transformative. We had to be ver mindful to prove that, because, instead of a traditional raise of capital as quickly and fiercely as we could, we self funded this fro the first six- to nine-months.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Marketing 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio?

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We caught up with CEO and co-founder Brett Rossman to learn more about the company and how it''s been able to grow, profitably, all without raising a dime of outside capital. We generate thousands of new customers everyday for clients such as Ally Bank, GE Capital, Transunion, and a few other big brands.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He invented the category of sponsored search. At the time when you did a search on Lycos, Alta Vista or similar for a category such as Cars you ended up getting 9 spam results and 1 proper website to meet your needs. Too many entrepreneurs focus on dilution. They would launch quickly and test whether or not there is any demand.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. Have easy access to capital by investors who are committed to building businesses at Interent scale.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2013

com) recently scored a round of funding from such notable investors as Data Collective, Brad Jones of Redpoint Ventures, Horizon Ventures, and TenOneTen Ventures, the new Southern California venture capital firm headed by Gil Elbaz and David Waxman. We already have live, paying customers in several categories. SRCH2 (www.srch2.com)

Technology 216

Technology Google Commerce Southern California 216

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2019

San Diego-based Wheels (www.takewheels.com) was co-founded by Jon and Josh Viner, who were the co-founders of Wag, where they raised nearly $400M in venture capital. How is this different from the many other on-demand, last mile transportation companies out there? Josh Viner: Wheels is live in Los Angeles and San Diego.

San Diego 113

San Diego Startup Study Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. Jody didn’t exactly have an easy time fund raising because he’s not one of the prototypical Silicon Valley funded entrepreneurs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. Marketing with long payback is precisely what requires venture capital. Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. We did the planning work up front.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. So what is driving the new energy in the remaining venture capital firms when we kept hearing how much the whole industry was “against the ropes?&# … 1. There is a lot of pent-up demand.

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Social Network 255

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

If you plan to do it I highly recommend that most of the VCs be smaller funds and ones who are generally not looking to invest much more after your first round of capital. And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking. Yes, I include many micro VCs in this category. Here’s my guide to how to do that.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Startup Invest Pricing 314

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2012

In particular, CallFire has answered unusually strong demand coming from political campaigns, the insurance sector and emergency notification. Company founders, led by Ravishanker, made the strategic choice early on to bypass venture capital. An integral part of CallFire’s success lies in its entrepreneurial roots.

Venture Capital 89

Venture Capital Cloud Computing Class Education 89

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

It's in the automated translation category of the industry. An example might be Demand Media, which as a ton of corporate portals and content sites, and would be an ideal target to target customers in global markets. Tags: idris manley nativetung interview startup entrepreneur demo demofall. What is NativeTung?

Startup 133

Startup Technical Review Social Network Content 133

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

Such ideas require little-to-no capital, usually last for a relatively short duration and are of nominal size. Entrepreneurs create opportunities by creating ripples, and mini-ventures are great ripple creators. the smartass entrepreneur replied, “It’s called business. free weekly Infochachkie articles! From Small to Tall.

Ideas 153

Ideas Startup Pricing Entrepreneur 153

SoCal Delicious

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Tech entrepreneurs and executives from Silicon Valley are moving south and buying up luxury homes in the Los Angeles area. Andrew Frame, a 30-something entrepreneur who founded Internet-telephone company Ooma, bought a contemporary four bedroom in Bel Air for $5.5 WSJs Lauren Schuker Blum shows us around. More Mansion Videos.

Los Angeles 44

Los Angeles Software Review Technical Review Journal 44

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

We all know Friendster was the trailblazer in this category allowing people to create personal pages and connect to other people in a LinkedIn style but without the “business&# and with a little more interactivity (let’s face it, for the longest time most users “friended&# people on LinkedIn but then never really did much else).

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318