Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. Many of these businesses were what First Round Capital called FNACs (features, not companies – this acronym has always stuck with me).

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

The company is venture backed by Polaris Partners, Toba Capital, Amplify.LA, Wavemaker Partners, and Danmar Capital. It's was really about herding cats and getting everyone on the same page, and making sure you could get the financials out on time. They've solved it at the enterprise paint point, where we are at the mid-market.

Startup 124

Startup Cornerstone OnDemand Software Review Woodland Hills 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Customers today quickly get beyond these, and put a competitive priority on the experience of others, reflected in reviews and social media, and their own total experience with your sales process, delivery, returns, and support on their schedule. These tolerate negative cash flows for growth. Create a team culture for personalized service.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. I have always worked on early stage products. Greathouse: Great products and companies that came out (of) Santa Barbara.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

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. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. Thus is venture capital. My blog was wiped out.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. This post originally appeared on TechCrunch.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

We raised this capital in what has increasingly become a difficult market for fund raising so I’d like to share with you some details on how we get it done. Fragmented markets can be a great target for disruption. And it’s easy to run circles around them as our product differentiation shows. The Early Years.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

Our perspectives on the topic wax and wane with market cycles. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2013

The stock market reached a new all-time high in 2013, and is finally providing some liquidity relief to concerned investors and startups alike. Venture capital investments are returning to startups. Venture capital firms raised $4.1 Venture capital firms raised $4.1 Next comes sales volume by channel.

Startup 86

Startup Tips Venture Capital Demand 86

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Social media is now one of the key marketing tools, but not the only one, so the challenge is to manage the resource tradeoffs effectively by constantly assessing payback versus cost. Add a blog to give yourself a voice, show your expertise, but skip the sales pitch. Manage your expectations, and analyze every marketing channel.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

We spoke with Christopher Webb, the firm's CEO, to hear about how ChowNow's goal is to make mobile, social orders something any restaurant can afford and implement--and how a new $3M funding round from GRP Partners, Double M Capital, Daher Capital, Karlin Ventures, and Velos Partners is helping it to deliver on its mission.

Mobile 197

Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need. Solution product & technology. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit. Time will tell.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2012

Fine Art America handles all of the details of fulfilling sales for images. Once you get that profile page, you can upload your beautiful images to our site. You hit submit, and your images are instantly available for sale as prints on our website. had their first sales, which made us profitable. things of that nature.

Santa Monica 258

Santa Monica Pricing Sites Sales 258

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". Dear Friends, We have no income and no venture capital funding.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need. Solution product & technology. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Yet if you look at some very successful market changes in the last few years it does point to technical prowess in the number 1 seat. Case in point is the return of Larry Page to the role as CEO of Google. Under Rob’s leadership we built out an amazing organization of seasoned enterprise software veterans in the US market.

CTO Hire 309

CTO Hire Organization Google Course 309

InfoChachkie

JUNE 23, 2011

Messenger : Jason Lehmbeck , Co-Founder and CEO of DataPop , former VP of Emerging Ad Products at Overture Services and Yahoo! Value Prop Twitter Style : DataPop simplifies the lives of marketers and gives them the tools they need to build ads that people love to click on. You can watch the video below or on YouTube here: [link].

Yahoo 210

Yahoo Startup Advertising Summary 210

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need. Solution product & technology. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Every plan must start with the problem you are solving, not a description of your company and product. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Industry & market sizing. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

In the VentureHacks post Naval Ravikant argues in “the power of two&# – that you should have two co-founders as in Bill Gates / Paul Allen, Larry / Sergei, Jerry Yang / Larry Page. I think ADD is totally misunderstood – it’s a very PRODUCTIVE condition but it has downsides. For me 3+ is usually a non starter.

Startup 289

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Sales 289

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". Dear Friends, We have no income and no venture capital funding.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

I think NFTs are just a very new misunderstood market, and I feel that it’s really hard to step back and explain it,” said Megan Manzano, a literary agent working with young adult authors who voiced concerns about Realms of Ruin on Twitter. This is different from how sales work in the existing art world.

Writing 196

Writing Outsource Development Technical Review Examples 196

Jason Nazar

MAY 2, 2016

If you are inventing or creating a product, understand patents and register for one at the USPTO. Check Google , Yellow Pages , and local directories to ensure your business name is not taken. Create a sales forecasts and financial projections regularly. Determine a pricing system for your product(s).

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Startup Google Mentor 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Every plan must start with the problem you are solving, not a description of your company and product. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Industry & market sizing. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I took an advanced computer course in high school where I learned to build databases in Ashton Tate’s dBase III+ and to compile my designs using a product called Clipper.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

The promised to follow up with: calls, using your product, talking to customers or “noodle on things.&# Will they? This is not unlike a major biz dev deal you’re trying to sign or a big sales campaign into the VP of a major company. I like to tell entrepreneurs to treat it like a sales campaign.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

.&# I took it to mean, “making decisions with small amounts of money (pennies) that end up making bad sense for affecting larger amounts of money (pounds, as in Great British Pounds).&# I thought of it as people who cut corners on small costs but paid dearly in terms of lost productivity on expensive staff. I Love Scrappy.

Startup 333

Startup Class Conference Product 333

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Last week, Los Angeles-based MOVIECLIPS.COM (www.movieclips.com) announced the firm's Series A funding round, worth $3M, from Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and a number of Silicon Valley angels. What I mean by that, is many times, when marketing departments are releasing a film, they release a few teaser scenes.

Startup 190

Startup Los Angeles Content Hollywood 190

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Every plan must start with the problem you are solving, not a description of your company and product. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Industry & market sizing. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Invest 74

Invest Tips Competition Metrics 74

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2014

One would imagine with so much influence and potential capital flying in the packed room, the atmosphere must have felt thicker than a frenzied shark tank. To learn more about all the companies, be sure to visit 500 Startups’ official demo day page. About $37B worth of lost sales a year, worldwide.

Startup 111

Startup Mobile Commerce Education 111

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

If you are a leader at a startup and you are reading a business book, you are not closing customers, raising capital, improving your product, or spending time with your loved ones. Cover Story – After the index, Guy includes a few pages that describe the “making of” the book’s cover. I was not disapointed. Tricking The Jedi.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

You need to first create a compelling product. Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. You need product / market fit. Product / market fit is everything.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2009

Adam also had a stint at Mission Ventures, and ran worldwide sales for open source middleware at IBM. We give them options and advice on the best course to reach their goals, such as responding quickly and getting to market faster. I don't have a long sales cycle, because I'm talking to people who have already chosen Jetty.

IBM 100

IBM IBM Mission Ventures Venture Capital 100

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

Simply click on the title of the panel you like and you will be taken to their SXSWi panel picker page. Branding / Marketing / Publicity marketing, PR, publicity. . Bootstrapping process, product development, Prototyping. . Jason Cohen, Capital Thought. Bootstrapping enterprise, marketing, Sales. .

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

Facebook just hit 1 billion active users globally and that was great but a new social payment application is set to make Facebook users across the world get more from their connections and even allowing companies to sell or receive payments from their pages. As we know, developers always give their product a code name. What is Zunguz?

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92