Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

I have written about the deceiving nature of early successes before – in particular in the SaaS or B2B world leading to a phenomenon called “shelfware.” This is why I loved Brad Feld’s recent post about the “ illusion of product / market fit.” ” This, too, is a must read for any entrepreneur.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. But the reality is that “global warming” massively blunted the effects of winter and my prognosis for VC fundings of entrepreneurs in 2017–2018 is now very sunny indeed.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Most venture capitalists who have been in this business for a long time foresaw this correction and have been talking about it privately for the better part of the last year or two.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. This article originally ran on PEHub.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

The second major trend was the rise of the angel that was a function of the boom in Silicon Valley wealth (Google, Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, Salesforce.com, etc) plus the rise of crowd-funding platforms (AngelList) plus the rise of Y Combinator / 500Startups / TechStars. Boom in Number of Startups. Explosion in Seed Funds. VC Infighting.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She hasn’t raised any venture capital. She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. Just not the kind you would initially read about on TechCrunch. And that’s what I love about her narrative. Here’s what I learned about Tracy: 1. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. That may soon change.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. Every entrepreneur starts with an idea that they believe makes sense.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 17, 2016

(www.science-inc.com), the startup �studio� led by former MySpace CEO and technology veteran Mike Jones , just saw its third acquisition out of its portfolio this year�the acquisition of FameBit by Google/Youtube. Mike Jones: (chuckles) I think I get the feeling that Google chooses you, and you don't choose them, in a weird way.

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socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. It's all about the entrepreneur. Big ideas rule the day. The second, is don't back yourself.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Before jumping into the post I wanted to point out one thing about doing TWiVC and posting my notes here on BSOTT. In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

On why you should be an entrepreneur, “A lot of people do what they have to do. We also talked about getting more young African Americans interested in entrepreneurship & technology. It made me confident about what would work. “All the failures that people get so scared of is what I did.

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InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

However, certain questions can be tricky for an entrepreneur to answer. Below are five common questions an entrepreneur will encounter when seeking venture funding. Handled appropriately, these questions provide investors a window into an entrepreneurs’ soul, which minimizes the chances of a future misalignment.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2022

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. We don’t hear about the remaining several million apps that are mostly free, and garnering only trivial revenue through advertising. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier. Be aggressive and alert.

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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. The advantage is that in many of our best deals we now have $50+ million invested so we can really support entrepreneurs as their businesses scale.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

emerge and are there any lessons to be gained about the future? ask microsoft, aol/time warner & google]. Listening to young people talk about social networking as a new phenomenon is a bit like hearing people talk about a remake of a famous song from my youth as though it was the original version.

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InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2015

Fredi''s email is worth reading, as it reinforces how lucky American entrepreneurs truly are. Geographically, the distance between Spain and the US is about 4,715 miles. However, from an entrepreneur''s viewpoint, the philosophical distance can be measured in light years. Fredi''s Plea.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2013

In my view, entrepreneurship has always been the ultimate embodiment of capitalism, and quite synonymous with free enterprise. Yet I find that more and more young entrepreneurs are uncomfortable with the term “capitalism”, somehow thinking that it prioritizes “making money” above all else.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2021

I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. Google - Larry Page and Sergey Brin started working on Google in 1996 – but three years later in 1999, few people had even heard of it yet.

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SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. Tell me a bit about your background. I then worked as a product manager at NetZero/United Online in the VOIP group, and then most recently at Google as a product manager on the Picasa/Photos team based in Santa Monica. It sounds interesting.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also talks about the rate of growth and the need to pick targets, measure and question assumptions when you aren’t achieving your objectives. I talked about some of that here. He talks about making things that people want & going after a big enough market. But I do wonder about a couple of things: 1.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Some people even believe that entrepreneurs must be born with the right genes, and no element of education is relevant. In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

By now you will likely have read Andy Dunn’s scathing post about Venture Capitalists in which he decries the industry’s masses. After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. The second is not.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. We were talking about raising money from LPs.

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Custom Customer Venture Capital Software Review 341

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2022

New entrepreneurs are always looking for a shortcut in getting their venture story and plan across to investors, and closing on the funding they need. Many businesses these days serve both paying and non-paying customers, such as Google and Facebook, who count on millions of non-paying users to attract advertisers, who really pay the bill.

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InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 29, 2012

However, certain questions can be tricky for an entrepreneur to answer. Below are five common questions an entrepreneur will encounter when seeking venture funding. Handled appropriately, these questions provide investors a window into an entrepreneurs’ soul, which minimizes the chances of a future misalignment.

Entrepreneur 145

Entrepreneur Google Invest RSS 145

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

Warren’s plan called for regulators to be appointed to oversee the unwinding of several acquisitions that were critical to the development of the core technology that make Alphabet’s Google and the social media giant Facebook so profitable… and Zappos. In this case the barrier would be reduced access to capital.

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Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2017

We sat down with Steve to chat about what the Alliance is working on, and why he decided to champion the growth of the technology industry here. Tell us what the Alliance is all about? There's a tightness which is squeezing the lifeblood from the entrepreneurs, even as it remains an amazing place.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

On the other hand, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. We can all aspire to grow companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple, which have the aura of fun, while still improving your lifestyle and offering the dream of untold riches. His focus is on entrepreneurs in America, but what he says applies to every other country as well.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2012

I was reading an article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. Google - Larry Page and Sergey Brin started working on Google in 1996 – but three years later in 1999, few people had even heard of it yet. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2022

Neither people nor computers can really help you as a personal assistant unless you are willing to share data about what you like, what you feel, and who and what’s important to you. Google scores high for tools, location, and social media data sharing, but not for biometric data. In his classic book, “ Digital Context 2.0:

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Social Media Tool Google Yahoo 107

InfoChachkie

MAY 5, 2016

Given TimeHop’s failed experiment, I was especially intrigued when I learned that a team of a dozen remote entrepreneurs hack the typical corporate structure and creates a company that generated nearly $100 million in revenue. We have separate channels for work but we also talk about fun things just like any office watercooler.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. Most of what I think about startup communities came from mentorship by Brad Feld through hours of private discussion and debate.

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SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication? First Principles. Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. -

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

There is a common belief in the angel and venture capital community that you put your money on the best team, rather than the best idea. Thus the top priority of every entrepreneur who wants funding should be to build and highlight their “dream team” of co-founders, executives and advisers, to attract the biggest and best investors.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam , led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry , announced a $10 million round of financing. Here I make the case that entrepreneurs must stay focused on the prize, not the doubters. Entrepreneurs. ” **. It can be one of the strongest motivators.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2011

By Dave Lavinsky, President and Co-Founder of Growthink At one point or another, most entrepreneurs find themselves in a place where they could use money. These entrepreneurs often dream about how much they could accomplish if they had millions in the bank. They make sure they are a proper fit for venture capital.

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