TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. With the new capital, SpotOn has raised $628 million since its inception. 4 key areas SaaS startups must address to scale infrastructure for the enterprise. Image Credits: SpotOn.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Berkonomics

JANUARY 16, 2014

All parties need to perform due diligence to ensure that the assumptions are correct, that neither partner has financial issues which could affect the partnership, and that the opposite partner has the skills to contribute to the partnership. Access to new technologies. Access to capital unavailable to either partner singly.

Technical Review 204

Technical Review Startup Examples Metrics 204

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. But it’s here in the (other) Valley’s southernmost edge that investors have found a startup they consider to be the next potential billion-dollar “unicorn” that will come out of Los Angeles.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. We had to ramp up our team quickly and ramp we did.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Getting face time with VCs or people of influence is an ongoing challenge for startup founders, and it may take layers of introductions to get to the right person. Lisha works tirelessly to build a platform of advocacy around issues such as tech inclusion, diversity, and education. Joanne Chen, Partner at Foundation Capital.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

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. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Custom Customer 286

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. Startups with no exit planned will minimize investor returns. Most entrepreneurs like the startup role, but not the big-company role. Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy.

Startup 150

Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Venture Capital is a game of pattern matching. Given the thousands of startups Venture Capitalists review annually, they must adopt efficient methods of quickly assessing if a person/opportunity is worth further diligence. 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

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Let’s set up a framework. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. One of them is profitability. Internet scale. Operating Costs.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

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. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. Reviewing financial & operational performance. As You Start to Mature.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

Gates’ call is being met by startups and public companies hailing from everywhere from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv, London to Los Angeles, and Berkeley to… um… Chicago. The company aims to have its first product approved by European regulators by 2023 and notching commercial sales by 2025.

Chief Technology Officer 261

Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. It always reduces risk to plan your business first.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. How hard could it be? You set direction.

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Of course you could start your own company. As I talked about in “ Is it Time to Learn or Time to Earn ” – overwhelmingly the best economics go to those that start successful companies. But not everybody has the right skills to build a highly successful and valuable startup from scratch.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

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. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT.

Startup 401

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

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. We caught up with Gabriel to learn more about the company.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Technology Startup Artificial Inteligence 113

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

In most cases, these applicants for equity funding must be rooted in technology to apply to this limited discussion. Email readers, continue here… ] The Angel Capital Association (ACA) lists over four hundred member groups, located throughout the USA. Friends and family investors. How many angel groups are there? Accelerators.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. It always reduces risk to plan your business first.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

I think I’ve read Paul Graham’s post on “ Startup = Growth ” three or four times now. “The growth of a successful startup usually has three phases: There’s an initial period of slow or no growth while the startup tries to figure out what it’s doing. I talked about some of that here.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

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. Starting with a positive. You’d be very wrong.

Custom 341

Custom Customer Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Much has changed in the past four months of the technology startup world and how outsiders value the business. But I would point out that raising money is an existential event and I think in the coming 12-18 months you may see loss ratios (companies going out of business or selling in fire sales) go up. Start early.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Venture Capital Statistics 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. It always reduces risk to plan your business first.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. So if you’re able to raise easily no problem.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2021

The biggest challenge for every entrepreneur and every startup today is to get noticed and remembered in today’s information overload. The number of entrepreneurs worldwide is huge, starting an estimated 50 million new businesses per year, or 137,000 per day. A memorable story needs to start with location specifics to make it real.

Startup 125

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Custom 125

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. On the other hand, if you are into solar technologies, there is probably an advantage to being in Arizona or a similar location. billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Oracle Software Review Ideas 123

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 12, 2013

DriveCam , the San Diego startup developing technology which analyzes and tracks the performance of commercial fleet drivers, reported this morning that it has just reached over $100M in 2012 sales.

Tech Coast Angels 157

Tech Coast Angels Carson Technical Review San Diego 157

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. On the other hand, if you are into solar technologies, there is probably an advantage to being in Arizona or a similar location. billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana.

Startup 97

Startup Technical Review Oracle Software Review 97

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2017

The insurance industry today is one of the last industries to fully jump into adopting technology for offering up their products, says Wayne Slavin , CEO and founder of SURE (www.sureapp.com), and just needs some help in getting there. It's not a disruption being caused by startups, it's a change in the evolution of this market.

Southern California 244

Southern California Technical Review Startup Commerce 244

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. Startups with no exit planned will minimize investor returns. Most entrepreneurs like the startup role, but not the big-company role. Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review Equity Invest Startup 105

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. If you plan to set one up – no problem. Advisory Board Problems : There are several problems that I have encountered myself and in my many discussions with CEO’s who have set up advisory boards. Too much effort.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

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

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. My advice with Elephants was that you need to take them head on in your first VC meeting because the VC is already thinking about the issue whether you bring it up or not. Your CTO and leading technology visionary has just announced he’s quitting.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Examples 311

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

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are looking to the Internet as an opportunity to get rich quick, instead of a place where you can start a business you love, for very little capital and minimal technical expertise. Starting an Internet business is a new lifestyle, so you need to understand the implications.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Case Study Software Review Startup 124

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March The following are the top items based on social signals.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

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. Over the past decade, they saw the differences in relationships as brands began to start more online. Ghost is not alone in developing technology focused on inventory.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191