InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Jason concludes that: A top founder takes much more risk, at least on paper, but can make a lot more than even the best VC of all time. A pretty good VC probably makes more than a pretty good and successful founder. Jason’s comments caused me to compare my career as an entrepreneur and a VC with Rincon Venture Partners.

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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. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. an investment in your company. these are simply guidelines.

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. VC Financings: 1. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

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Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15

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Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Berkonomics

MARCH 28, 2024

Even venture capitalists who sit on boards where they have significant investments often forget this point. They write in their investment documents that they will occupy a seat on the board for as long as they are invested in the company, thinking of this as a protection for their investment and tool for them to influence growth.

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Class Coach Invest Sales 282

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. Growth before the VC arrived was not a problem. And we were able to secure that investment along with a partner from that firm joining our board. The art of good management.

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Venture Capital Product Marketing Resource 296

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2013

I spent countless hours with VC firms, startups & LPs (the people who invest in VC firms). On my first real day back the first thought I have is that most entrepreneurs don’t manage their VC relationships as well as they could. It’s best to think of your VC partnership as a customer.

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Venture Capital Summary Organization Entrepreneur 309

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “ Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. After the sales meetings I would ask the exec afterward, “how do you think it went?&#

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Venture Capital Sales Slides Startup 275

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. Topics we discussed in the first 45 minutes of the video include: What is VC like in NY? The Spark Capital website (it’s one of my favorites).

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Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2020

San Diego-based AlphaTrAI , a fintech startup which is backed by venture capital investor Analytics Ventures, says it is launching its own, extrenal fund, and is expanding its leadership team. the founder of Hightree Advisors, to its advisory board. the founder of Hightree Advisors, to its advisory board.

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Artificial Inteligence Invest San Diego .Net 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

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Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. Step 2: Get Personal & Give Freely – Once you identify a handful of potential VC partners, stealthily cyber stalk them. Subscribe to their blog.

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Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2018

Venice, California-based venture capital investor Fifth Wall says it has made a $135M investment in San Francisco-based real estate sales startup Opendoor , as part of a combined equity and debt funding. The funding came as part of Opendoor's Series D funding round.

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Invest Venice Equity Venture Capital 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2022

Corona, California-based a href="[link] Coach, which operates a service which helps homebuyers better understand the difference between different kinds of mortgage loans, has received a strategic investment from private equity investor LLR Partners. Financial details of the investment were not announced.

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Coach Invest Equity Sales 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Los Angeles-based venture investor Bonfire Ventures , the venture capital fund led by SoCal VC veterans Jim Andelman and Mark Mullen, has launched a fundraising effort for a new fund, Bonfire Ventures Select I , according to a regulatory filing from the firm this week. READ MORE>>.

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Venture Capital Funding SoCal Southern California 140

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

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Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Many, many companies accepting venture capital lost it all following this instruction. VCs have a goal of creating extraordinary value for their investors. The cost of each exercise was dramatic, far beyond what a founder-entrepreneur would order to be spent when using their capital or reinvesting cash flow from operations.

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Venture Capital Social Media Invest Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2013

I’m a strong believer that investors invest in people, before they invest in a business plan, or an idea. Obviously, a key factor is always the state of the economy and the mood of the venture capital community. Investing is all about people-to-people relationships. No surprises here. Experience does count.

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 95

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5

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Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

TechCrunch LA

JULY 2, 2020

When it comes to venture capital, Los Angeles is a city on the rise. In the past year, it’s seen one of the most profitable venture-backed exits of any tech ecosystem (with the $4 billion sale of Honey to PayPal) and investors are minting billion-dollar companies in the region at a torrid pace.

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socalTECH

JULY 8, 2014

RetailNext , which develops software used by retailers to apply Big Data to the information being generated at physical stores, said Qualcomm led a strategic investment in the company, via both Qualcomm Incorporate and Qualcomm Ventures. Tyco and American Express also made strategic investments in RetailNext. READ MORE>>.

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Invest San Diego Commerce Venture Capital 153

socalTECH

JULY 14, 2021

Los Angeles-based Endgame, a developer of software that links user behavior with sales opportunities, has raised $17M in funding, according to the company. The funding was split between a $12.25M, Series A funding round led by Menlo Ventures, and an earlier $5M Series Seed funding which was led by Upfront Ventures.

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Sales Software Seed Funding Los Angeles 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

I am thrilled to announce that we have added Hamet Watt as a Partner at Upfront Ventures. This is a big news day at Upfront Ventures. But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. The idea immediately resonated.

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Invest Venture Capital Startup News 340

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog was wiped out. And covered we did.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. 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.

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Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Irvine-based automotive information and leads site Autobytel said today that it has made an investment in SaleMove , a provider of online car buying technology. According to Autobytel, it made the investment as part of a deal to become the exclusive provider to the auto industry of SaleMove''s technology. SaleMove is based in New York.

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Invest Guide Venture Capital Sales 138

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to invest. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong.

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Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

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. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. ” I cringed.

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Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

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Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising. billion.

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Venture Capital Marketing Startup Social Network 255

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Los Angeles- and Atlanta-based Mighty Oak Entertainment , which produces sports clips for traditional, digital, and streaming, has received an investment from former MGM Television President John Bryan and entrepreneur and KDOCTV (Los Angeles) owner Bert Ellis, Jr., the company said last week. READ MORE>>.

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Entertainment Invest Los Angeles Content 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

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Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Berkonomics

JANUARY 28, 2021

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up pre-money valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. And here’s the “why.”. Let me tell you two stories that are linked.

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Outsource Development Startup Outsource Venture Capital 156

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. Email readers, continue here…] Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally-generated funds.

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Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

The company said the new funds will go towards expansion of its sales and marketing efforts, as well as for product development. According to the company, it has now raised $23M in total funding. READ MORE>>.

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Seed Funding San Diego Venture Capital Sales 113

socalTECH

MAY 20, 2014

San Diego-based EDF Renewable Energy , the developer of solar power projects, said Monday that TIAA-CREF has made an investment in the firm. Financial terms of the sale were not announced. renewable energy photovoltaic cleantech merger acquisition venture capital project solar utility farm mojave catalina' READ MORE>>.

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Invest San Diego Venture Capital Equity 138

socalTECH

JUNE 19, 2013

But, it looks like being a seed investor has paid off for at least one local investor, Baroda Ventures , the venture capital investment fund owned by GeoCities founder David Bohnett. Fab.com is an online fashion and flash sales site, which has a huge following both here in the U.S. and oversease. READ MORE>>.

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Invest Social Network Commerce Venture Capital 170