Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. This brings our combined funds under management to nearly $2 billion.

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Funding Venture Capital Santa Monica Invest 287

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Venture Capital is a tricky industry. If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea.

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Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2021

On Funding?—?The The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio , which I called “shots on goal.” If you funded 30–40 deals perhaps just 1 or 2 would drive the lion’s shares of returns. This is Venture Capital. Focus a lot on the denominator.

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Funding UCSD Netflix CalTech 301

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

On Funding?—?Shots When you’ve been playing the game a bit longer or when you have responsibilities at the fund level you start thinking more about “portfolio construction.” billion When Ring started, even the folks at Shark Tank wouldn’t fund it. We know this going into a new fund. It sold to Amazon for > $1 billion.

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Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2019

Los Angeles-based eTailPet , a new startup which helps pet store owners create online e-commerce sites, has received a round of seed funding, the company said this week. The seed funding was worth $800K, and led by Moonshots Capital, and also included individual angels from the pet industry. READ MORE>>.

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Seed Funding Funding Template Southern California 222

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 12, 2021

The company closed on an $18 million Series B round of funding, led by Delta-v Capital, with participation from existing investors Accel, Telstra Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Maverick Ventures and Second Avenue Partners. In the past two years, the company released more than 78 products.

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Platform Capital Funding Beachbody 208

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. At Upfront we’re totally fine funding entrepreneurs who have done multiple businesses in the past – in fact we like it. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere. The results?

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Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Leonardo DiCaprio is making a significant commitment to the Los Angeles-based investment firm, Struck Capital , as part of the actor’s commitment to building LA into a tech development powerhouse. In addition to his commitment to the fund, DiCaprio will be making co-investments alongside the Struck Capital team.

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Capital Funding Los Angeles Invest 188

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 25, 2021

The partners at MaC Venture Capital , the Los Angeles-based investment firm that has just closed on $103 million for its inaugural fund, have spent the bulk of their careers breaking barriers. MaC Venture Capital co-founders Marlon Nichols, Michael Palank, Charles King, and Adrian Fenty. Image Credit: MaC Venture Capital.

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Venture Capital Capital Los Angeles Invest 225

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

The Los Angeles ecosystem is $76 million stronger today as Fika Ventures , a seed-stage venture capital firm, announces its sophomore investment fund. Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies.

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Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

L.A. Business Journal

MAY 15, 2019

million in seed funding led by New York-based E&A Venture Capital. Burbank-based Shag Enterprises Inc, an artificial intelligence company that’s created a predictive platform for online ordering, announced on May 15 it raised $1.4

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Seed Funding Artificial Inteligence Platform Burbank 221

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Most of the venture capital firms covered in TechCrunch and other tech publications compete for a spot on the cap table of the hottest Bay Area, New York or Los Angeles companies of the moment. Today, Washington, DC-based Revolution is announcing its latest fund. Few seek out companies in Indianapolis, Milwaukee or Tampa.

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Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Activity 211

socalTECH

JUNE 17, 2021

According to the company, the new program will provide companies that have demonstrated clear market traction and provides targeted introductions to venture funds. The program is being funded by Silicon Valley Bank, with additional program support from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and KPPB, LP.

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Southern California SoCal Venture Capital Capital 192

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

We believe this consistency in leadership and intuition for where the markets were going in the heady days of 2019–2021 helped us to stay sane in a world that momentarily seemed to have lost its mind and since we have new capital to deploy in the years ahead perhaps I can offer some insights into where we think value will be derived.

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Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. You can short-hand this as “engagement.” Why 8–10 and not just 3–4?

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

L.A. Business Journal

AUGUST 23, 2021

is lining up capital to start production on a second electric vehicle in late 2023 after unveiling a debt offering of $625 million. Manhattan Beach-based Fisker Inc.

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Manhattan Beach Startup Funding Capital 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Cincinnati, like many startup communities in the US over the past 5 years, has revitalized important regions in its urban core, created accelerators, built co-working facilities, pooled together angel capital, attracted VCs, involved educational institutions and solicited the help of important corporations in a more cohesive ecosystem.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Raising capital for a female-led startup can be very diffiult--which is what Justine Lassoff and Melinda Moore found out when they started their own company, LovingEco, in Los Angeles. Melinda Moore: One of the things required to create, build, and scale a company is capital. What is TuesdayNights? The third thing, is know your number.

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TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 24, 2019

March Capital Partners , the Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, has raised $300 million for its latest fund. “We have two major areas and a couple of minor areas,” said Sumant Mandal, a managing director with the firm. “We like data-driven business and two-thirds of our portfolio are AI driven.

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Artificial Inteligence Capital Los Angeles Incubator 225

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

A new program, run by the Alliance for Southern California Innovation, is looking to connect startups with Series A funding, according to the group. According to the two, the program recruits and selects top SoCal-based startups that have demonstrated clear market traction and provides introductions to leading venture funds.

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Southern California SoCal Funding Startup 197

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. Fundamentally venture capital is about human capital. In the end I know the only true differentiator in venture capital is the company you keep.

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Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 150

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 16, 2021

Squarespace has raised $300 million in a round of funding that values the company at a staggering $10 billion valuation. New backers include Dragoneer, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Spruce House.

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SEM Commerce Los Angeles Funding 340

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Fund raising. But it’s critical for your business, for you as a leader and people who excel at fund raising have an extreme advantage over those who do not. As a VC I also have to fund raise every three years and these posts 100% apply to VCs raising money, too. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

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Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 16, 2020

UNest , a Los Angeles provider of financial planning and savings tools for parents including college savings plans and other beneficial investment vehicles for various life events, has raised $9 million in a new round of funding, the company said. .

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Services Capital Draper Education 235

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 16, 2020

Milken is taking the plunge into institutional investing, joining Norton as a partner in Watertower Ventures just as the firm prepares to close on a $50 million new fund. With that in mind, the Watertower Ventures group, which launched in 2017 with a small, $5 million fund, is a return to those roots. “I see two things happen.

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Funding Southern California Los Angeles Invest 230

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste. 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.).

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Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

million in capital to build out its operations in 4 cities: New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago and Washington D.C. With our increases in capital we hope to be able to serve you in the near-term future. Just over a year ago I wrote about how MakeSpace had raised $17.5

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Technical Review Funding Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

They started their company in LA but a couple of years after raising capital from Khosla Ventures in the Bay Area they ended up relocating there. A few years later they announced $150 million in a funding round at $1 billion+ valuation and are ramping up jobs to secure their market-leading position. Local capital matters.

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Company Companies Startup Snapchat 369

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2021

Santa Monica-based Revolution Prep, an academic testing and tutoring preparation company, has scored private equity funding from Apax Digital Fund. Size of the funding was not announced. According to Apax Digital, the new funding will go to expand Revolution Prep's offering and to increase access to its online tutoring services.

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Funding Santa Monica Equity Services 200

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2017

I titled this post “We Must Have Zero Tolerance in Venture Capital” but of course I could just say “zero tolerance anywhere” because that’s true. In an industry with only 7% of partners at VC funds being women — it literally must fall on us to speak up. Men must speak up, too. Use this moment to STFU and get out of the way.

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Venture Capital Capital Course Report 254

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

Today the company officially announced its most recent round of capital ?—?having Capital of course drives scale advantages and when you have “winner take most” markets it also has a way of scaring away some investors from investing in the 3–5th “me too” competitors. having raised $300 million?—?less There is nothing viral!

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Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 15, 2020

When it first launched nearly three years ago, Fifth Wall had a vision of leveraging capital limited partners from across the real estate development and construction business to back the technologies the industry needed most. billion in assets under management.

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Funding Demand Los Angeles Invest 240

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. Most provide free resources to startups, including office facilities and consulting, but many provide seed funding as well.

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Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 21, 2021

Welcome Tech , which has built a digital platform aimed at immigrants and their families, has raised $35 million in a Series B funding round co-led by TTV Capital, Owl Ventures and SoftBank Group Corp.’s s SB Opportunity Fund. with a population of 62.8 TomoCredit raises $7M to help the cash rich and credit poor.

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Platform Resource Services Capital 299

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it’s planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year. In addition to the funding, Good Eggs is also announcing that it has hired Vineet Mehra as its chief growth and customer experience officer.

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Southern California Orange County San Diego Commerce 318

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

They don’t realize that according to statistics from Startup.co , almost 60 percent are funded with personal savings and credit, and another 25 percent get their money from friends and family. That leaves only about fifteen percent that actually get their funding from investors, through crowdfunding, banks, angels, and venture capitalists.

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Funding Tips Startup Statistics 173