Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. In fact, if you add the capital flows of the past ten years, there have been just shy of $50 billion in net cash outlays.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? People were building.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

They look at your track record, industry leadership, marketing energy, moral values, and peer relationships. Quality of your technical and business teams. Brand recognition and market influencer support. Proprietary technology with a high barrier to entry. You need to do the same now.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Social Media Entrepreneur Startup 147

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. I pointed out that the storage market in the US alone is ~$30 billion / year and there is no dominant provider — the largest player has < 10% market share. In short — how the hell did we raise $30 million?

Technical Review 268

Technical Review Funding Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

socalTECH

DECEMBER 22, 2020

Every year, we feature the year end reflections of founders, CEOs, investors, and others in Southern California's high tech community. Today, we have Kelly Perdew , Co-founder and General Partner of Moonshots Capital. It's been a tough year for many due to the pandemic; how have you or your company adapted to the business environment?

Capital 124

Capital Technical Review Truecar Southern California 124

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.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

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.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Last year at this time, SpotOn was on the brink of announcing a $60 million Series C funding round at a $625 million valuation. With the new capital, SpotOn has raised $628 million since its inception. SpotOn will now have over 500 employees on its product and technology team, according to co-founder and co-CEO Zach Hyman.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations. I started showing my partners more deals that I found interesting and doing loads of analysis on the future of markets I thought were ripe for disruption. The market had tanked.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

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.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. Every business and brand has unique requirements to fit into their market environment. Stable and friendly work environment.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Every year, we feature the year end reflections of founders, CEOs, investors, and others in Southern California's high tech community. Here, we have Greg Martin, Founder and Managing Partner of Archer Venture Capital (www.archervc.com). What are you most looking forward to in the technology/startup world in 2021?

Venture Capital 124

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Brentwood 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions from Southern California's technology industry. As we close out our contributions for the end of 2018, we have a contribution from investor and investment banker Peter Cowen of Sutton Capital Partners.

Capital 113

Capital Southern California Technical Review SaaS 113

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. And Seriously.

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

The debt market has pretty much shut down for people, though there is some money coming out of the SBAs that have been somewhat helpful. And, the equity markets are certainly a more challenging environment. The venture capitalists we look at to fund our deals are certainly tightening down, there's no question about that.

Tech Coast Angels 231

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. This is critical to build a cohesive venture capital firm. Remember, it’s not easy for anybody.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Read on to find a financing option that suits you, whatever your business's specialism, needs, and financial profile, or jump to a specific funding type below. Grants can be used at the discretion of the business owner – from marketing to onboarding and beyond, but winners need to use the funds as they pledged to in their application.

Technical Review 194

Technical Review Software Review Startup Competition 194

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2022

For example, Bill Gates founded and grew Microsoft, and Michael Dell built a great technology company, both with no outside funding until they went successful enough to go public years later and sell shares to common stockholders. Pivots become a source of pain rather than positive learning.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Satisfaction Venture Capital 107

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions for 2019 from Southern California's technology industry. And, many of the presenting companies received sizable funding commitments and offers of ongoing help.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2022

In these days of global competition via multiple channels, you need continuous marketing to find more customers. Acknowledge every customer feedback and review. Don’t let that one negative stand out as the only review submitted. Produce marketing events to get visibility and attention. They won’t find you.

Technical Review 142

Technical Review Social Media Conference Customer 142

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

Indeed, two of the best funded companies in the lab-grown meat market hail from The Netherlands, where Mosa Meat is being challenged by a newer upstart, Meatable , which just announced $47 million in new financing. Meatable has a long road ahead of it, because, as Gates acknowledged in his interview with MIT Technology Review (ed.

Chief Technology Officer 261

Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2011

William Quigley , a venture capitalist at Clearstone Venture Partners, is making the argument that venture capital returns are set to return superior returns in the coming years, due to the disinterest of institutional investors.

Venture Capital 160

Venture Capital Capital Clearstone Technical Review 160

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. After 9 months it was time to raise seed capital and go test drive our new software and processes. Sam moved back to NY and we announced our seed round of capital, which we led.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 19, 2020

A new initiative from a Los Angeles investor is taking stock of venture firms and their ability to commit capital in an effort to match firms that are still open for business and cutting checks to startups that are fundraising in the age of COVID-19.

Venture Capital 135

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Los Angeles 135

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 18, 2022

The alternative protein space is hot, hot, hot as evidenced by both the number of companies developing products and the venture capital going into the space. The latest company to attract venture capital is Nowadays , a company founded in San Francisco in 2020 as a Public Benefit Corporation by Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski.

Software Review 187

Software Review Metrics Startup Technical Review 187

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. One example is that they introduced a program where their founders can pool together shares from their company and exchange them for a small portfolio of other First Round Capital companies. In 2008 they raised a much larger fund $132.5

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let’s start with the fund. We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). This month we closed our 4th fund of $200 million.

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 21, 2009

Thursday, August 27, 2009 -- TCVN Deal Review. Is your business "starved" for capital? Need to raise funds? Attend the TCVN Deal Review and learn how to put money into your piggy bank.

TCVN 100

TCVN Equity Entrepreneur Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

A critical stage for most first-time entrepreneurs is getting their idea developed into at least a prototype to validate their technology. Acquiring seed-stage funding is admittedly tough, but a source that I find often overlooked is government grant funding, accessible in the U.S. The approval process is long and bureaucratic.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. Many of you have read or at least know the primary thesis of “ Crossing the Chasm &# the seminal book on marketing your products to mainstream consumers by Geoffrey Moore.

Marketing 294

Marketing Customer Custom Technical Review 294

Tech.Co

JULY 13, 2023

Initially pinned as a generative AI startup for Twitter when it first hit the headlines back in April, the xAI website seems to suggest that the new startup will remain separate from the social media platform, as well as Musk's collection of other technology companies.

Artificial Inteligence 117

Artificial Inteligence ChatGPT Generative AI Technical Review 117

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2019

in a funding round. The company said it raised funds from Initialized Capital, Founders Fund, Founder Collective, Peak State Ventures, SV Angel, Liquid 2 Ventures, SaaStr, and The House Fund. The company pointed to LA's growth in the technology and entertainment area for the entry into the market.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Entertainment Los Angeles 100

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

In most cases, these applicants for equity funding must be rooted in technology to apply to this limited discussion. Angel investment groups or funds. First, angel investment groups and organized angel funds come in all sizes from a few organized angels to large groups of four hundred or more. Accelerators.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Fortunately, for those headed to SXSW, Startup Night SXSW 2018 , presented by the Kauffman Foundation and TechCo, will be filled with investors from a multitude of industries who are looking to discover and fund startups building the latest solutions and tech innovations. Joanne Chen, Partner at Foundation Capital.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70