Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. In that context, I offer you my latest collection of popular investor-to-entrepreneur terms and concepts. Frothy is good for entrepreneurs. Seed-round investment.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. Reviewing financial & operational performance. Mentorship.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes. Are you ready to start?

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

We typically do not ask entrepreneurs to visit our offices in Santa Barbara, but Jeff wanted to meet with Kevin, an investor in our Fund who helped us vet opportunities and occasionally invested alongside of us. Tech Diligence - Consider The Source. Subject: Reference for Twilio. Forwarded message -.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes. Are you ready to start?

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Tech.Co

JULY 24, 2017

And if, like us, you spend the first six months of your startup under a rock, your social capital may begin to dry up. Companies such as Microsoft, Facebook and Google have all established employee referral programs that give employees monetary rewards for referring friends who get hired. Because smart people know other smart people.

Networking 82

Networking Startup Software Review Conference 82

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

As we know, developers always give their product a code name. The idea was pioneered by renowned and award winning high impact serial entrepreneurs, Robert Sussman and Lance Fanaroff. ABSA Jewish Entrepreneur of the Year – WINNER (This award was actually presented by Gill Marcus) – (Annex.13). Why the name?

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes. Are you ready to start?

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes. Are you ready to start?

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

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

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds. Understanding the fund vintage – “Vintage&# of a fund refers to when the fund was raised.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2012

It’s a great survival strategy for small companies or entrepreneurs, and a good expansion strategy for even the largest companies. As an example, a few years ago I worked for small software company selling an expensive enterprise workflow product. Up-sell related products after the initial sale. Cross endorsement. Marty Zwilling.

Company 96

Company Companies Startup Examples 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2011

It’s a great survival strategy for small companies or entrepreneurs, and a good expansion strategy for even the largest companies. As an example, a few years ago I worked for small software company selling an expensive enterprise workflow product. Up-sell related products after the initial sale. Cross endorsement. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 90

Startup Examples Customer Custom 90

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As Marketing Guru Guy Gabriel of Idea Engineering points out in Max Brand , viral marketing has made many an entrepreneur terminally ill. Google’s market capitalization is in the stratosphere for a reason – keyword search advertising is highly effective. If you benefit from true word-of-mouth marketing, consider yourself lucky.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I’m a software guy so I’m sure there are cases where building isn’t feasible. In most cases if you can’t get a prototype done you’re probably not an entrepreneur. Surround yourself with great advisors or other entrepreneurs. Product : You should build a product or a prototype. That’s OK.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital. With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. I told entrepreneurs that it was a bit of a Faustian bargain.

Seed Funding 283

Seed Funding Venture Capital Funding Software Review 283

InfoChachkie

APRIL 28, 2011

Many entrepreneurs encounter a similar dilemma. They often identify expeditious ways to make money in the early days of their adVentures, which allow them to reduce the amount of capital they must raise from outside investors. However, in the long run, entrepreneurs always benefit from delivering Maximum Utility for a fair price.

Entrepreneur 225

Entrepreneur SaaS Pricing Cloud Computing 225

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

They come in the form of personal references. My company had raised venture capital in April 2001 but we were told that there may never be any more coming. But in these years I learned how to sell software – necessity is the mother of all invention. So how did I come to work in the world of venture capital?

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

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. Not that I blame you! Here’s why.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217