Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. Too many angel deals just means more to watch and invest in for the ones that do succeed (if the VCs can get in at reasonable prices).

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers. If they want to invest that’s great. ” I cringed.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Venture Capital is a game of pattern matching. Whenever a VC assesses a potential investment opportunity, they attempt to match the entrepreneur(s), their solution, and intended markets with a pattern they have previously encountered. Other patterns VCs look for include: Technical Guru with great ideas, but no management experience.

Technical Review 244

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital RSS 244

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

It also handles the back end as well by automating the posting, sale and shipment of unsold inventory while offering immediate payment to creditworthy sellers. Ghost is not alone in developing technology focused on inventory. Last week, Syrup Tech raised $6.3 Syrup Tech bags $6.3M

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

The answer you give can make or break your ability to get an investment, so you need to have the right answer ready before anyone asks. Here are three important reasons for the question: Good investment paybacks normally require an exit event. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review Equity Invest Startup 105

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

In a bid to prevent the damage from those plumbing failures and also help save water, Los Angeles-based Flo Technologies (www.meetflo.com) has developed a water monitoring device and shutoff valve for your home, which is connected to your smartphone and its own app. Plumbers are not exactly known for their adoption of high tech products.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Technology Startup Artificial Inteligence 113

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. By and large, these workers have not benefitted much from recent technology improvements available to office-based workers—think new email and workplace-collaboration technologies, or advanced sales and HR systems.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

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. These resources often include a cash investment, as well as office space, and consulting. Apply for contests and business grants.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

This is final part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. Well think of it this way – you have your sales process. And with scarce resources it’s your job to decide which door this lead must go through – sales or marketing.

Customer 324

Customer Custom Marketing Newsletter 324

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. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. In the Early Days.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

James (chairman of the Althea Foundation) and appointed Adam Sroka as Senior Vice President of Technology in a move to make business transactions simple and secure. . Jackson , “This financing round, coupled with hiring Adam Sroka as our head of technology, puts CapLinked in a position to further enhance our enterprise product offerings.”.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

The answer you give can make or break your ability to get an investment, so you need to have the right answer ready before anyone asks. Here are three important reasons for the question: Good investment paybacks normally require an exit event. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments.

Startup 150

Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. Things happen, people tire, sometimes tragedies.

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). What's the theme of your investments? That's why we have investments in Heal, Saucey, and FragMob.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2013

People with money to invest have choices. Venture investing is often mentioned as the most sexy form of wealth creation, but it’s also recognized as one of riskiest. The same hold true for venture capital investors. Angels expect at least a working prototype and a hint of market acceptance (traction) before investing.

Invest 107

Invest Startup Venture Capital Ideas 107

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capitalists) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. These resources often include a cash investment, as well as office space, and consulting. Apply for contests and business grants.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 29, 2014

Quite simply, a term sheet is a non-binding agreement drawn up between a potential investor and the founder or founders, which lays out the terms of an investment. Spelling out the conditions of the proposed investment in theory offers both parties a degree of assurance as well as some downside protection. Valuation terms.

Invest 90

Invest Sales Startup Class 90

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Our interview today is with Andrew Schydlowsky , the CEO and founder of Santa Barbara-based TrackStreet (www.trackstreet.com), a startup which is backed by Okapi Capital, The Cove Fund, Early Light Ventures, SaaS Venture Capital, and Stage Venture Partners. We provide analytics on the velocity of sales across their channels.

Artificial Inteligence 140

Artificial Inteligence Startup Commerce Sales 140

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Southern California's technology community--despite all of the recent excitement around Silicon Beach--continues to be underserved in terms of capital, with a lack of venture capital funds (with money), and other private technology investors. Jeb Spencer: We consider ourselves a private equity firm.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

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. These resources often include a cash investment, as well as office space, and consulting. Apply for contests and business grants.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Xconomy

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

View the Slideshow A little more than a year ago, amid a resurgence in San Diego’s software sector, Xconomy identified a baker’s dozen of local tech companies to watch in 2016. The idea was to feature early stage companies in the region that have not attracted much attention or raised a substantial amount of startup capital.

San Diego 40

San Diego Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Startup 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company). Availability of Capital. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. I see many companies these days just race to raise capital. They see capital raising at the success validator. You need product / market fit.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. Our first big round of venture capital (our A round) was a whopping $16.5

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

By 2008 I had gotten more serious about championing companies through our investment process. And just when I thought I had the deal that was worthy of bringing to investment committee the world changed. Let’s review all of our existing investments. Eventually you have to invest. It was September 2008.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A. VC, sales, biz dev, M&A or otherwise. Let’s take the deal on the table and go build a huge business.”

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2013

The firm recently raised a $15M series C funding, and we caught up with Kevin to learn more about why its customers, and investors, are interested in its technology. We have created a wireless technology and solution, end-to-end, that allows you to cost effectively connect devices that can be very, very remote.

Technical Review 213

Technical Review Software Review Networking Technology 213

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

= profitable and companies like Amazon who chose to focus on growth > profitability were not losing money on each book sale (ie they were gross margin positive). The reason one would accept losses is when they are investments in fueling faster growth. It’s funny how scarcity of capital can focus one’s mind. End of story.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.” He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 8, 2011

For those who still might be wondering what Spotlight: LA Tech is all about, It’s a screening room for new technology homegrown in our region. It’s a gathering of friends and tech enthusiasts of all stripes. This Spotlight takes place Thursday, July 14, at The California Institute of Technology (CalTech). RSVP: AGENDA.

CalTech 100

CalTech Technical Review Company Companies 100

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 The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. There’s a guy in Los Angeles that I met at several tech networking events.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414