Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. As I’m generally a believer in ‘pricing rounds’ I initially didn’t agree with the premise of the post. Photo credit: D. rings true to me.

Venture Capital 286

Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review Startup 286

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

My partnership was pretty bearish and scratched our heads a bit at price tags. The following is a 2-week graph of the end-of-week price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in Autumn 2008. Let’s review all of our existing investments. It was a great learning time for me. Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

Boards are not appointed to be founder-friendly lapdogs for the 1–3 founders who start companies and usually own the largest equity positions in the company. The rise of crowd funding saw the first wave of founders gleeful that they could raise capital without having to deal with terrible VCs. Those seldom get reported.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. After all, most people don’t understand that “venture capital is a get rich slowly&# scheme. VC will shrink.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Andrew Erskine has developed his legal career along with the rise of the tech startup scene in Los Angeles. On LA’s startup scene: “Andrew provides the same level of effort, expertise and professionalism when I was a pre-seed company with no capital as he did when we had raised $100 million.” Hey, are there skeletons in the closet?

Technical Review 141

Technical Review Startup Los Angeles Santa Monica 141

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” Let me check my plan.” Yes, I see plans this pedestrian. This is a red flag for VCs.

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value. Rational people can disagree and some may argue that today’s prices are rational and under-pinned by economic drivers. All of that might be true, but the 2006 price might still be over-valued. That’s fine.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies. Join a startup incubator.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity. I’m doing due diligence on a company of another entrepreneur in LA whose company was apparently doing very well. I know, I know … technically they can be structured as mergers. Want to cut prices and go for market share?

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Yet talk with people at Twitter these days and many seem to feel like they are part of a movement – and that doesn’t just come due to product success. Equity for the future?

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. We spent our future since the equity was artificial. Consumer spending is where I’m dubious.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Now the price is closer to $100, if you are willing to do the work yourself.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. The positives are that you give up no equity, and these apply to the early startup stages, but they do take time and much effort to win.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally. The ingredients are all here.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company). Availability of Capital. So money spent should add equity value or create IP that eventually will.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. The positives are that you give up no equity, and these apply to the early startup stages, but they do take time and much effort to win.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

They are usually offered around 0.25% of the companies equity in exchange for their role and I’ve seen many companies hand out a total of 2% to advisers. My main advice to you if you’re considering it is don’t waste much equity on it. The week before your meeting 2 people need to cancel due to travel conflicts.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies. Join a startup incubator.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 20, 2014

Leave it to me to spend 14 hours in Dallas on the very day that three of my favorite industries crush capital… * Social marketing, with $14M through Bessemer Venture Partners and Harrison Metal Capital to Main Street Hub. WordPress, by way of $15M via North Bridge Growth Equity in WPEngine. Texas and eTail.

Technical Review 71

Technical Review Commerce Yahoo Web 71

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). AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. They will have to negotiate price and terms.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub.

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 9, 2014

Perhaps it’s time to raise a round of Venture Capital funding and want a pitch presentation a bit more composed than the dusty Keynote you put together last year for your friends and family round. Due Diligence. Raj was the business guy, but my background was in tech and startups. Marketing & Branding.

Outsource Development 105

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review Outsource 105

socalTECH

OCTOBER 29, 2015

The easiest way to look at it, from the tech perspective, is that we are very similar to LendingClub. Brett and I sat down, and said, how can we take a tech approach and create a positive impact on the existing real estate industry, particularly in the mortgage and real estate finance industry. So, what is PeerStreet?

Southern California 100

Southern California Google Technical Review Manhattan Beach 100

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Short answer – yes. The deal was done in late 2007.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews. One out of ten of Americans are out of work.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175