Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. This is true whether your at a sales meeting or at a VC firm. This happens often is sales meetings or VC meetings. Congratulations.

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Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

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. Will Hsu, Mucker Capital.

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Los Angeles Venture Capital Capital Invest 277

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. And so is venture capital. Most VCs are book smart. Connections? Commitment.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

I think that’s the beauty of both capitalism and innovation. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. I didn’t have any grand ambitions other than to write, share ideas and try to build awareness of who I am through my thoughts. Just like a sales person at the end of a quarter. So which is it? Feast or famine?

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

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Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. The opening paragraphs of that first newsletter are indicative of the captivating and accessible writing style, which eventually cultivated a huge audience. I believe January 2002.

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Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 9, 2021

Even as NFT sales dip below their most speculative highs, startups aiming to tap into their potential are still scoring big funding rounds from investors who believe there’s much more to crypto collectibles than the past few months of hype. The startup has raised a whopping $120 million to date.

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Platform Framework Los Angeles Design 308

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

A lot of my time is spent helping early-stage companies get to proof points so that they can raise capital. I should try to come back and write about this more, but the point of this post is that it's important not to only think about this aspect. If you've not had a C-level but have had experience in sales or tech.

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Startup Custom Development Sales Writing 198

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

Or as I picked up from Bruce Dunlevie at Benchmark Capital (who I’m told took the quote from elsewhere). I plan to write a whole separate blog post about this quote because it’s always stuck with me. 5 years or so later I still revisit that sales campaign and relive many of the steps. In fact, ramp up your efforts.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy’s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. This is where she first developed sales skills. She doubled her salary by going into sales. to $12m in sales. “A lot of sales is innate.

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Startup Sales Venture Capital Entrepreneur 311

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. He spoke about ROCE (return on capital employed). The numerator (return) encourages more sales, which is fine. Venture Capital. New company in Boston with a model called “royalty capital.”

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Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 404

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Every time I think to write a post about this I figure the most recent board meeting I’ve attended will think it’s about them so I don’t bother. So I’m going to write a series of board meetings posts unrelated to anybody or maybe an amalgamation of them all. should we charge for our product or be freemium?

Writing 337

Writing Venture Capital Help SaaS 337

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. Acquire the relevant skills.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A The key is channeling what you learn when you drive onto paper for retention purposes so you have to write it down soon afterward. When I write a blog post I often see the words before I write them. These are all creative processes.

Writing 357

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 357

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. Market to Your Target Audience – I’ve seen a lot of startups who like to write blog posts on life as an entrepreneur. You don’t.

Marketing 381

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 381

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” the sale of the company for $1 billion. Early-stage venture capital is about extreme winners. You’re thinking about one bullet at a time. It was ~30 days from bankruptcy.

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Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. I am inspired by the constant innovation in our industry by First Round Capital like the Dorm Room Fund , their expansion to Philadelphia (I hope they also have a secret plot to replace Andy Reid while there), the exchange fund and other initiative. I know, I’m weird.

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Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

The summit is now associated with March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com). What's your role at March Capital? Meredith Finn: I joined March Capital at the beginning of the year. How did you end up joining March Capital? I think there are still barriers to women raising the same amount of capital that men to.

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Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 163

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2020

Popular programs like Opportunity Zones, New Market Tax Credits and Community Development Finance Institutions could be used to boost the government’s commitment with private capital, the plan’s authors argue. “Startups and small businesses are the engine of every local and regional economy,” writes Peterson.

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Southern California Los Angeles Rosemead Incubator 262

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” It was meant both as a call to those writing angel checks into other people’s companies that they ought to think about putting that capital toward themselves either by becoming a startup founder or (and this was my real point) by taking an under-market salary in a company where they can learn the right skills to do it in the future.

Technical Review 335

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 335

Berkonomics

MARCH 28, 2024

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. All other board functions are secondary. Shareholders such as investors are granted few rights by law.

Class 282

Class Coach Invest Sales 282

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 320

Press Startup Writing Training 320

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Our interview today is with Amos Schwartzfarb , the author of Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups , which comes out tomorrow, Wednesday. We caught up with Amos to learn about his new book, and to gain some tips for startup entrepreneurs on how to figure out when you're actually ready to scale your sales team.

Sales 113

Sales Startup Custom Development Framework 113

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

I was fortunate that I could write software and doubly fortunate that my despair at working for ‘the Man’ – and feeling compelled to strike out on my own – coincided with the dawn of the personal computer era. We went from our largest-ever sale of 3 licenses at one time to a thousand.

Customer 222

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 222

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

First Principles. Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. -

Startup 380

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 380

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2011

What that did, is it helped us to expand the service to help publishers do the following: identify what content to write, how to distribute that content to various mediums, and how to monetize that content. Journalists are notorious for not wanting to write based on revenues or commercial intersts, or having anyone tell them what to write.

Marketing 232

Marketing Funding Content Writing 232

Berkonomics

MAY 22, 2014

He is the recipient of the coveted “Hans Severiens Award form the Angel Capital Association, its highest honor. . The sale of equity in private companies is regulated by the Securities Act of 1933, which requires that the company either register with the SEC or meet one of several exemptions (Regulation D).

Writing 199

Writing Invest Entrepreneur Equity 199

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. From there Rob decided to make a small investment.

Guide 294

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 294

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. I was looking for a person to head up my UK sales team. But as a sales person you have to be able to build rapport.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

I never took a business course, never wrote a business plan, and never raised any outside capital. My sales tax payments were due in the next few days, and I didn’t have the money. But I did have an appointment, a sales opportunity the next morning. I made the sale, and paid my debts. But there’s more.

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. In a VC business when you raise additional capital you need to “level up” and act the round you are. Objection Handling training.

Startup 382

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 382

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. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. I stayed up late every night after a day of meetings doing email until 3am so that I didn’t feel out of touch with our product and sales pipelines. We were now set to close at $46 million in new capital.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

Will every customer who feels bombarded with sales requests want to take your call? You need to know how to write good & action oriented emails. Consider this story from the founders of Kayak quoted in this excellent article about the most respected venture capital firm in the business – Sequoia.

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Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#.

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Rationale: My idea is so mind-blowingly fantastic that I must immediately spend some of my precious capital to protect it. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Secure Your Intellectual Property Too Early.

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Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 273