Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

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. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

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Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

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

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 15, 2012

One the most frequent questions asked of me by entrepreneurs is, "How can I become a Venture Capitalist?" The inquiry is common because being a VC is (to an entrepreneur, at least) a sexy job. I define a "VC" as, "a professional investor who deploys third-party funds into relatively early-stage companies." Microscopic Industry.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Invest RSS 242

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 22, 2019

FundingPost has hosted 400 sold-out venture events in 22 cities over the past 17 years. At our next event, the panel of Investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing: How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check! Interested in pitching? See [link] (more)

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Los Angeles Venture Capital Angel Conference 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, Oh, the conferences.

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Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

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

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 20, 2019

Tuesday, March 26, 2019 -- San Diego Fundingpost VC and Angel Investor Conference. Interested in meeting and pitching to early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Southern California? FundingPost has hosted 400 sold-out venture events in 22 cities over the past 18 years. Interested in pitching? See [link] (more)

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Conference Angel 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. No prizes for guessing which VCs I didn’t work with (and still won’t).

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 21, 2019

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 -- Orange County Fundingpost VC and Angel Investor Conference. Interested in meeting and pitching to early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Southern California? FundingPost has hosted 400 sold-out venture events in 22 cities over the past 18 years. Interested in pitching?

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Orange County Venture Capital Conference Tech Coast Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m often asked by people, “how do I get into VC?&# Well, I know 3-4 VC jobs that are publicly available. Every time I do recruiting I get somebody who says, “I’m willing to take a step back in my career to work in VC.&# This isn’t likely to appeal to us. Plus, show my you can write!

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Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

Tuesday, June 11, 2019 -- San Diego FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. At this San Diego Event, we will be showcasing some of the newest early-stage venture funds and angel groups in the San Diego area! We're doing it again! See [link] (more)

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San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

TechCrunch LA

JULY 21, 2020

When Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman first met Natalie Portman a few years ago to talk about ways their non-profit organizations All Raise and Time’s Up could collaborate, she never realized they’d eventually be partners on a sports franchise. ” Nortman said.

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Writing Los Angeles Equity Startup 171

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. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. I'm a huge fan of this innovation. and Half.com. Investing Strategy.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. It makes it extraordinarily hard to raise the next round of capital. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. What stage?

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Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

This morning, Moonshots Capital (www.moonshotscapital.com), led by Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings , announced its first formal fund, a $19M seed stage fund. What we would do, is we would round up ten other angel investors, get $25,000 from each of them, and then roll up our sleeves and help that entrepreneur find venture capital.

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Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2020

If you want to follow two great Black executives who work at the intersection of technology and venture capital make sure to click on those links and follow them on Twitter. My greatest criticism of our industry is that women and people of color feel the need to leave larger VCs to create their own firms.

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Funding Venture Capital Entrepreneur Networking 314

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Wil also founded Go Big Network , an online community for entrepreneurs. He recently landed a round of funding, and shares his experience here: Before you start bitching about investors not writing checks in this economy let me just say this  bullshit. Does that mean it's raining cash like a Fat Joe video?

Writing 100

Writing Santa Monica Venture Capital Entrepreneur 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2010

Last week at an angel investor forum I was privileged to meet Stephanie Spong, who is a Principal with EPIC Ventures, an increasingly rare early stage VC firm. Stephanie: I am a venture capitalist currently based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, with EPIC Ventures. Stephanie: I love building companies. Marty Zwilling.

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Venture Capital Capital Entrepreneur Competition 65

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 22, 2018

Founded by Steve Poizner last year to accelerate the growth of a startup entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southern California, The Alliance is building a network of investors, entrepreneurs and universities to provide ballast in the south to the dominance of the Northern California tech industry.

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Southern California Dollar Shave Club SoCal Develop 224

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. 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 just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.

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Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should a VC invest? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. More importantly, start cultivating networks of friends who have a sense of pulse on the frontiers of the economy.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

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). I'm a bit of an anti-VC, as you know. It was really the same business, but with less capital.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

The recent firing of Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason is a cautionary tale of the increased scrutiny and heightened expectations that come from accessing increasingly larger amounts of investment capital. Is outside capital really required? So, whether an entrepreneur raises money or not, they have to have a long-term vision.

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Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” My favorite new VC blogger, Hunter Walk, weighed in with some thoughtful comments about how Syndicates might actually pit, “ angel vs. angel.” Bowery Capital).

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Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. I’d link to it but it’s behind a paywall.

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Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. That network effect is a subtle but has a powerful effect with all this new technology.

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Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2018

For this morning's interview, we sat down with Marlon Nichols , co-founder and Managing Partner of Los Angeles-based Cross Culture Ventures (crossculturevc.com). Marlon Nichols: We are a three year old, early stage venture capital firm. When I joined Intel Capital, it was the largest and most active venture firm in the world.

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Venture Capital Invest Capital Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

I once went to a startup event where a VC told the audience that if a VC doesn’t respond to your email to move on to the next VC – that VC is clearly not interested. Well, for starters you need to be a great networker. You need to know how to write good & action oriented emails.

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Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Our profile this morning is with Network Automation , a Los Angeles company competing in the IT automation market. Southern California--despite the lack of huge, name brand firms-- has a significant number of enterprise software companies, of which Network Automation is just one. The traditional way to handle that is to write code.

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Networking IBM IBM Pacific Palisades 214

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. As noted in What Does VC Traction Really Mean? What’s The Worst Mistake?

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Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

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. 2 weeks later and we may never have raised any more VC.

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Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Email readers, continue here… ] The Angel Capital Association (ACA) lists over four hundred member groups, located throughout the USA. The European Business Angel Network (EBAN), and similar organizations in other countries including Canada, all have web sites with directories of angel groups that are local to you.

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Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Chiefly, they thought that robotics and machine learning were going to transform everything from aerospace to industrial manufacturing and retail, and they saw Los Angeles as a unique location from which to deploy capital. But it’s not the capital that sets the firm apart, according to the pitch deck viewed by TechCrunch.

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Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. Many businesses that pitch to me have White Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. You raised $1.5

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Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

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. Greathouse: Did you decide to bootstrap the business from the start or did you initially plan to take in investor capital? I’ve been there.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

One of the questions we discussed is, “How much capital should a startup raise?” ” Fred & I are both in agreement that there is a tension between capital constraints and creativity. Fred is generous with his time and advice and I hope has shaped a generation of VCs for the better. That always stuck with me.

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Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150