Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

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. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. entrepreneur Wil Schroter (I am an angel investor in Affordit). Really!).

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

This is part of my 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 of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk takers.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure.

Entrepreneur 378

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 378

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Back in November I agreed with Nivi over at VentureHacks to do a series on the ten most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is perfectly correlated with what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Technical Review 284

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Funding 284

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. So I agreed to offer my current thinking on the economy and what it portends for the VC industry & fund raising for entrepreneurs. raise money now to weather any storms). VCs get paid to “put money to work.&#.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. I want to fail because I backed an extraordinary entrepreneur with a super-ambitious project and we were just wrong about market timing, customer adoption, competition, regulation or similar.

Venture Capital 336

Venture Capital Capital Startup Invest 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Consistent with the statistics cited in Why Entrepreneurs Hate (Most) MBAs , the large majority of John and Kyle''s classmates accepted positions at investment banks and consulting firms upon graduation. Dear Friends, We have no income and no venture capital funding. Saying, ''Hey, we want to pay you to write a book.’

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. The summit is now associated with March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com). What's your role at March Capital? I think it's a fantastic program.

Capital 163

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 163

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? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. Or “I’m a new entrepreneur, why would I offer advice on how to run a startup?&#. By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). They want to be early.

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Rationale: My idea is so mind-blowingly fantastic that I must immediately spend some of my precious capital to protect it. Your commitments to investors must be significant enough to compel them to write you a check.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. ” Yup.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

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. -

Startup 379

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 379

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Now, I’m pretty on the record that being an entrepreneur is about being great at The Do. Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital? And I get flooded with legal docs, end-of-quarter financial administration, recruiting, whatever.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital. There are just one hell of lot more insanely rich angels where writing a couple of million dollar checks in a follow on round is actually achievable.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 8, 2011

I concluded that it is an effective tool for leveling the playing field between sophisticated investors and emerging entrepreneurs. I have subsequently recommended the book to number of students as well as emerging entrepreneurs, all of whom expressed positive feedback. . Writing a book is very different from writing a blog.

Venture Capital 224

Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur Blogging 224

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

A continuing question I hear from young entrepreneurs is whether a university degree is important to startup success, or just a distraction in achieving their purpose in the world. Both provide entrepreneurial “head start” programs for aspiring entrepreneurs, free legal guidance, and access to experienced staff members.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

I actually like finding entrepreneurs who are more circumspect, less braggadocios and generally more planned about their actions. Where Stealth is Bad – I do meet entrepreneurs who clearly fall on the other side of spectrum and are totally closed. That’s fine if entrepreneurs are your target market. You don’t.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

One of the hardest things for most entrepreneurs to know is how hard to push in situations where people tell you “no.” ” But then again most entrepreneurs fail. I’d say less than 20% of of entrepreneurs fit into that bucket. ’ “ In fact, NO is the one word that no entrepreneur should accept.

Venture Capital 390

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 390

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? There is a difference between a Conference Ho and a successful entrepreneur.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” Bowery Capital). It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. Both are right.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. We talked about how business school historically hasn’t positioned entrepreneurs well for success. I wrote about that before in a post about “ whether MBAs are necessary for entrepreneurs. Venture Capital.

Venture Capital 404

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 404

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

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.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 149

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

This morning, Moonshots Capital (www.moonshotscapital.com), led by Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings , announced its first formal fund, a $19M seed stage fund. What we would do, is we would round up ten other angel investors, get $25,000 from each of them, and then roll up our sleeves and help that entrepreneur find venture capital.

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Most entrepreneurs think first of bank loans as the primary source of money, only to find out that banks are really the least likely benefactors for startups. Crowdfunding.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Capital Startup Funding 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, And there’s conferences.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It I’ve even written about the Top 12 attributes of an entrepreneur here (each number is clickable). The desire to be better than anybody else in one’s field.

Competition 395

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 395

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. Acquire the relevant skills.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 15, 2010

Jason started the Open Angel Forum in response to his frustration that entrepreneurs were being charged by some angel organizations to present at their events. As a former entrepreneur, I’m a big supporter of Jason’s goals. In my next post I will write about one of the five companies. They deserve more credit.

Angel 254

Angel Startup Tech Coast Angels MyShape 254

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

As the authors make clear in the book’s preface, their goal is to create a “definitive guide to venture capital deals” and “demystify the venture capital financing process.” Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC. Things I Loved.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

I interviewed Eric for an hour for - This Week in Venture Capital. 3:35 The real entrepreneurs come out during a down economy. 19:30 A teachable moment for entrepreneurs: HAVE A HYPOTHESIS! 26:44 Too much capital is not good. 36:30 Eric: Social media is great for people with social capital. 00:45 Intro to Eric.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

Although many are entertaining, most fail to provide entrepreneurs with a sufficient return on their time investment. If you are a leader at a startup and you are reading a business book, you are not closing customers, raising capital, improving your product, or spending time with your loved ones. No doubt, he did. Ask For Mentoring.

Technical Review 280

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 280

Berkonomics

MAY 22, 2014

He is the recipient of the coveted “Hans Severiens Award form the Angel Capital Association, its highest honor. . In most cases, those entrepreneurs choosing to raise capital using PPMs retain specialists (many of whom are lawyers) to write their PPMs – a rather expensive undertaking.

Writing 199

Writing Invest Entrepreneur Equity 199

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

Generally speaking in venture capital financings the legal documents will specify that only “major investors” (a threshold set in the agreement – which can be $500,000 investor or more). We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. There is a reason for this.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352